Walked into a bakery in Portland and noticed their scrap dough system

I was at Tabor Bread in Portland last week watching the baker work and he had a bin just for leftover dough scraps from shaping. He told me he mixes them into the next batch of sourdough at 10% to add more flavor depth. Has anyone else tried saving their dough scraps like this for a later bake?

2 comments

2 Comments

dianagreen11d ago

I read about this technique on a baking forum a few months back, actually. A professional baker from San Francisco said they call it "pâte fermentée" and it's a common trick for adding complexity to bread without extra work. He said the scraps bring in a slight tanginess from the longer fermentation time, kind of like a natural flavor booster. I tried it with my own weekly sourdough starter discard, saving about 20% of the leftover dough from shaping and throwing it into the next batch. The crumb came out noticeably softer and the crust had a deeper, almost nutty taste. Really simple way to upgrade your bread without buying anything new.

michaeljones10d ago

Read Chad Robertson's book on tartine, he explains this exact method.