Check out my very first instructional video on how to make rye starter from two malts.

There are three most used types of scalds used in rye baking: simple, malted and self saccharinified. This post will guide you step by step through the process of creating a malted scald. This post only describes the technology behind the process, the exact ingredients and their ratios and weights will depend on a specific bread recipe.

If you want to know more about scalding, different types of scalds and why they’re used in baking, check out Scalding - what is it?.

Baker’s percentages are universally used by both professional and home bakers across the world. It is a very simple notation of writing down recipes in a scalable way so that the same formula can be used to bake a single loaf or a whole factory batch to feed the nation.

Even though it is a very simple and effective tool I’ve noticed that many home bakers struggle to understand how to use it. And then there are some bloggers who interpret baker’s percentages in a wrong way which only leads to more confusion.

Let’s take a look at what baker’s percentages really are and how to use them to bake existing recipes, adapt them and change them to your liking. I believe that once this tool is properly understood one can not only follow instructions, but also start creating their own breads.

Scald. Choux. Tangzhong. Mashing. Gelatinised starch. There are many strange words followed by many different process recipes. What are they? Why do we need them to bake a loaf? And why so many techniques? I will try to answer these questions in this post.

I believe English speaking baking communities got introduced to flour scalding through Japanese Hokkaido milk bread, but gelatinisation of different kinds is used all over the world: most of Latvian rye breads are scalded, French chefs are making choux pastry and the whole beer brewing process starts with mashing everywhere in the world. It is a very common process in grain preparation and cooking.

Let’s start with a chemical process common to all methods. This process is called starch gelatinisation.

Oh, and by the way, this post is HUGE!

There are many different methods to create all kinds of starters for all your bread baking needs. But most of them take a lot of time to develop - a week or even more is what you’ll usually see. That can be quite intimidating for someone who wants to try their skills out at this wonderful hobby and many people just never take this step.

I’ve spent some time reading studies, learning all about existing methods and came up with a method which yields a healthy starter in just 48 hours. And this is the method I’ll share with you today.

As the name suggest, sourdough is nothing more than a dough which is sour. But why is it sour if two basic ingredients inside are only flour of some kind and water? And why is it bubbly and has a funky smell? Neither flour not water is sour, bubbly or have funky smell and mixing two together doesn’t result in any chemical reaction.

The answer is both very simple and very complex at the same time. Flour, like everything else in this world, contains many microorganisms which are hibernating on the surface of flour particles. Once one adds some water to flour, these microorganisms wake up and start eating, multiplying and, well, simply living their life. Let’s take a look at who they are and what exactly are they doing inside our sourdough.