pastrygirl

Yes, commercial yeast. Devlin, if I can refresh the biga once, why can't I just keep refreshing it? Because the yeast would eventually exhaust itself after it got too diluted? The old dough method sounds easiest, I used to do that with my pizza dough, I was considering that too. Will it work for pumpernickel? I have a recipe from the previous PC that everybody loves that I need to keep. I generally avoid commitment, maybe that is why I'm apprehensive about sourdough and impatient with bread in general...nurturing it, getting to know it ...takes too much time, I just want to get something in the oven!

I'm a pastry chef more into plated desserts, but my new job requires baking lots of different breads and developing recipes for multiple locations. I have a couple of recipes that use a biga starter that are successful, but I'm concerned about consistency using the biga day 1 vs. day 3. I've been trying to get a sourdough starter going, but this morning I decided it wasn't happening and threw it away. My question is, can I just use the biga as a jumping-off point for sourdough and feed it? Can/should I add old biga to the fresh batch to enhance the flavor, or should I stick with making a fresh biga every 3 days? Making it fresh seems to work fine, I'm just looking for ways to make better bread. I do add yeast to the breads also, and although I would like to do a slow rise, space and educating my staff are issues, so I'm depending on the pre-fermented starter to add complexity. If I do get a sourdough starter going, is there any point in keeping both sourdough and biga starters, or is one enough? I'm inclined to just use one, unless there's a compelling reason to keep two cambros of fermenting goo in my reach-in. Thanks! Andrea