Have you heard people talk about sourdough bread baking and felt completely left out?

This guide is for you.

Sourdough Glossary

Batard

An oval shaped loaf

Banneton

A French-style basket, similar to the German brotform, designed to hold and shape a rising loaf. When the loaf is fully risen, it’s turned out of the banneton onto a pan or hot stone to bake.

Boule

A round, ball shaped loaf

Crumb

The appearance and texture of the inner part of a loaf of bread — often described as being either “open crumb” (lots of irregular holes) or “closed crumb” (fine-textured). I saw an open crumb be the most desirable, but I personally love a less open crumb for catching butter 😉

Dutch Oven

An iron pot with a lid to create steam ideal for Sourdough baking. Dutch ovens are use by many home bakers.

Discard

The portion of starter disposed of when feeding a starter. Note: Depending on your choice of starter maintenance, you may not have discard. You will see discard starter in pancakes, muffins, and other recipes. I don’t make these very often, but we do use discard in our Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Feeding

Adding flour and water to your starter to promote growth and get ready to use for baking.

Gluten

The protein found in wheat, when combined with water, gives structure to baked goods. Kneading your dough helps develop gluten.

Lame

A tool to score(see list) the bread. In the picture below, the lame is the holder of the razor blade.

Levain

A French term for sourdough bread. Often times I hear this used as sourdough when the recipe calls for building on to a starter.

Naturally leavened

A term for sourdough bread that uses no commercial yeast.

Oven Spring/Bloom

This is the goal when you bake – scoring(see list) your loaf of sourdough helps it to burst up and out in the oven and give you that gorgeous puffiness. 

Oven spring can only occur if the yeast in your dough still have a bit of energy left. This is where you will hear people trouble shooting the most. You will hear the terms over-proofed/under-proofed here. It’s really a satisfying feeling watching your skill develop in your oven spring! Note: Keep going!

Proof

The final rise of dough before baking. Often times while the loaf is in a Banneton.

Retard (pronounced ruh-tard)

Slowing the fermentation process to increase flavor, usually by reducing the temperature.

Score/Scoring

Functionally: Making cuts on the surface of a proofed loaf prior to baking to control where and how the loaf expands. Scoring helps improved oven spring, good internal crumb structure, and appearance. Fun: A chance to be creative, marking your loafs with pretty designs or your signature mark.