FAQs → Baking and Donation Support → Bread → Which Formula To Choose
Answers to the most commonly asked questions can be found below. Still Stumped? Contact Us!
Which Formula To Choose (3)
Just getting started, here’s some info on our different formula options! We’re an equal leavening opportunity organization. Whether you’d like to use yeast, sourdough starter, or a combination of both, we’ve got just the right bread formula for you. Below is a quick description of the three available options. Click on any of the titles go directly to the page for downloading the formula.
The Modern – Yeast Only
The Modern Formula is the best formula for new bakers. Even experienced bakers find this formula’s predictability and overall loaf performance a winner. The Modern uses instant yeast for leavening, typically more active than a natural levain starter (sourdough). Short on time, although good bread is always a time investment, of the three, this is the quickest of them all.
The Classic – Hybrid
The Classic Formula uses a combination of natural sourdough starter for flavor and instant yeast for reliable performance. Use this formula if you have an existing active sourdough starter but want to add a pixie dust of instant yeast as leavening “insurance”. This formula gives you both great flavor and beautiful loft.
The Purist – Sourdough
The Purist Formula uses a natural sourdough starter for leavening. This formula is best for our most experienced bakers. It has been optimized to reduce any sour notes, but your own sweet efforts may still contribute some natural sourness.
I’m just curious about the new classic formula recipe and how it’s been received? I’m comfortable and have good results with the original formula and feel reluctant to change. Less sticky dough sounds good but my loaves already weigh more more than it says, more flour sounds like even more weight. Thoughts?
Leave a Reply
Shoot, your schedule suddenly opened up and you could have baked bread! You still can!
All our loaves begin with a pre-ferment. Typically, an 8-10 hour pre-game element brings delicious flavor to our loaves. But, if you didn’t plan to bake bread, is there a way to complete a one-day process? Yes, our modern formula uses a poolish, vs. a levain (sourdough). A poolish is simply a preferment made with flour, water, and conventional yeast. And, if you are in a pinch for time, as in you want to do a same-day bake, you can simply double the yeast in the pre-ferment.
Come Again: Simply follow the instructions on the formula/recipe for the poolish but double the yeast. That’s it. The same day, pre-ferment will be ready to go in 4 hours.
Fresh whole grain bread, start to finish, in a day!
Leave a Reply
The Modern – 3.0 Trial – Easier To Handle
Available for you to try immediately our new Modern formula in a less sticky, easier-to-manage recipe. When you open this formula you’ll see that there is a little more flour used and a little less porridge. Please, as always, weigh all ingredients to the exact proportions. This is an excel format and you can scale the recipe to as many loaves as you normally produce.
We’re calling this a “trial”. And your feedback is valuable. After we’ve collected and made any additional tweaks we’ll make similar modifications to the Classic and the Purist.
If you choose to try it out, please let us know how it goes via this feedback form.
Great question, the new classic formula has received mixed reviews and part of this has to do with some formulas that needed additional tweaking. Thanks to your inquiry and the feedback I re-tested with revised numbers yesterday. The test was very successful, but it is not yet published. Later this week we will get a new “trial” posted to the website and I’ll make sure to alert all. Many of our bakers love the current Classic, and I anticipate that it will remain an option into the future. You can use that with confidence.