Soft pan loaf on old dough
Wheat · pan · enriched
A soft sandwich pan loaf built on pâte fermentée (old dough): a fermented preferment that adds wheat depth and structure without sourdough acidity.
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Recipe
Current recipe
For baking now: the final working formula, ingredients, steps, and baking worksheet.
Taste & texture
The crumb is soft and slightly pillowy with a fine, even cell structure from the enriched dough; a touch of oil keeps it moist and sliceable for days. The crust is thin and yielding rather than crackly. Flavor is mild and gently wheaty, with a quiet depth — malty roundness and a faint aromatic complexity from the overnight cold fermentation of the old dough — without any sharp acidity. The 5% sugar adds a barely perceptible sweetness that rounds the savory note. Keeping quality is notably better than a straight-dough loaf of the same formula.
As described by: ChainBaker: Improve the Basic Sandwich Loaf by Using a Preferment , Wordloaf: On Prefermented Flour
Baking worksheet
Good to know
Why does S2-C14 sit in this place in the course?
After the boiling-water yudane it is logical to test a fermented component without sourdough acidity.
Can several parameters be changed at once?
No. The lesson is built around one variable; other changes belong in a separate version.
What counts as the main result?
Compare the aromatic profile with the S2-A1 baseline: record whether depth and a slight maturity appeared in the flavor. Check that the final dough is not oversalted (the old dough already contains 2 g of salt). If flavor did not deepen, raise the old dough share to 200 g or extend its refrigerator hold to 18 hours.
A soft sandwich pan loaf where the flavor does the heavy lifting: a quarter of the flour is pre-fermented overnight as pâte fermentée — old dough — then mixed into a lightly enriched dough with a little sugar and oil. The reward is a deeper, maltier wheat flavor and a touch more structure, without the acidity of a sourdough and without a tough crust.
How baked around the world and why
Old dough — pâte fermentée in French, literally “fermented dough” — is the oldest preferment there is, because it predates the very idea of a preferment. Before commercial yeast, every bakery kept back a piece of yesterday’s risen dough and built today’s batch on it: the French called this carry-over the chef or levain de chef, the Italians a vecchia pasta, and the same habit survives wherever bakers refresh a “mother.” When pressed yeast arrived in the 19th century, professionals kept the trick on purpose — a measured scrap of fully made dough (flour, water, salt, yeast), matured cold, folded into the next mix.
Why it spread so widely: a mature piece of old dough is full of organic acids, alcohols, and enzyme-broken sugars that no fresh mix can have, so it hands the new loaf flavor and aroma that otherwise take many hours to develop. Crucially, pâte fermentée is the only classic preferment that carries salt. A poolish (wet, French) and a biga (stiff, Italian) are unsalted and ferment fast; the salt in old dough reins the yeast in, so it matures slowly and stays mellow rather than turning to vinegar overnight. In French bakeries this is the everyday backbone of the baguette de tradition and of soft pain de mie; American formulas borrow it for sandwich loaves precisely to get bakery depth from a home schedule. The same idea scaled to its limit is the Italian pasta madre and the German Anstellgut — a piece of one bake seeding the next, forever.
Theory
Old dough already contains flour, water, salt, and yeast, so it cannot be added on top of the formula — it has to be counted inside it, or the salt, water, and fermentation all shift. Here 25% of the total flour (100 g) and its water (65 g) live in the preferment; the final mix takes only the remaining 300 g flour and 205 g water. The salt is the trap: the old dough holds 2 g, so the final mix gets 6 g, not 8 g.
| Mechanism | Practical takeaway | | --- | --- | | Salt in the preferment | slows the yeast and tightens gluten, so old dough matures mellow, not sour | | Cold maturation | 12–24 h at 4–6 °C builds complex aroma; past ~48 h acidity and yeast loss set in | | Dispersion | warm the old dough and tear it into 5–6 pieces, or it won’t blend in | | Fermentation | the preferment speeds the rise — judge by state (1.5–1.8× and lively), not the clock |
Formula
Flour, water, salt, and yeast in the table are counted for the whole recipe, including the old dough. Working addition to the final mix: 167.2 g old dough + 300 g flour + 205 g water + 6 g salt + 6 g yeast + sugar and oil.
| Ingredient | Grams | % to flour | | --- | ---: | ---: | | Strong white bread flour | 400 g | 100 | | Water | 270 g | 67.5 | | Old dough | 167.2 g | 41.8 | | Sugar | 20 g | 5 | | Vegetable oil | 20 g | 5 | | Salt | 8 g | 2 | | Fresh yeast | 6.2 g | 1.55 |
The real hydration is 67.5%: count the water once, across both the old dough and the final mix.
If something goes wrong
- Oversalted → the old dough already holds 2 g salt, so the final mix should be 6 g, not 8 g; count it once.
- Sharp vinegar flavor → the old dough overshot; keep it to a maximum of about 24 h in cold storage (48 h is the edge of acidity), then use or discard.
- Old dough won’t disperse → it went in cold or in one lump; take it out 30–60 min before mixing and tear it into 5–6 pieces.
- Flat loaf → the yeast in the old dough died from too long in the fridge; hold it 48 h at most, then start fresh.
- No deeper flavor → the old dough is too young; give it at least 12 h from setting to use.
- Dry crumb → too much water lost in the bake; drop the oven 5 °C and bake a few minutes longer.
Sources
- Modernist Bread: are biga, poolish, and sponge interchangeable? — how the classic preferments differ, and why old dough (with salt) behaves unlike a poolish or biga.
- King Arthur Baking: our favorite sandwich bread — practical frame for a soft, lightly enriched pan loaf.
- King Arthur Baking: yeast bread primer — fundamentals of mixing, fermentation, and doneness for yeasted breads.
Ingredients
Change any amount — the rest rescale by the bread’s formula.
| Component | Grams | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|
| Strong white bread flour | g | 100% |
| Water | g | 67.5% |
| Sugar | g | 5% |
| Vegetable oil | g | 5% |
| Salt | g | 2% |
| Fresh yeast | g | 1.55% |
Ingredient details
Strong white bread flour
- Split
- 100 g into the old dough, 300 g into the final mix
- Brand the author uses
- MukaMuka 13.5% protein (mukamuka.ru)
- Alternatives
- Aleyna Vivapol 12-13%, King Arthur Bread Flour 12.7%
Water
- Split
- 65 g into the old dough, 205 g into the final mix
- Brand the author uses
- Tap water through Barrier Iron x2 filter
- Alternatives
- any filtered or bottled drinking water
Sugar
- Brand the author uses
- White sugar, no specific brand
- Alternatives
- any white sugar; for brown — Mistral demerara
Salt
- Split
- 2 g into the old dough, 6 g into the final mix
- Brand the author uses
- Pink Himalayan salt
- Alternatives
- sea or table salt (avoid iodized)
Fresh yeast
- Split
- 0.2 g into the old dough, 6 g into the final mix
- Brand the author uses
- Lux (Voronezh) fresh or Ayrek (homemade)
- Alternatives
- any fresh yeast in 100 g pack
Conditions and equipment
Conditions
- Dough type
- soft, lightly enriched sandwich dough (sugar 5%, oil 5%) built on 25% pre-fermented flour as pâte fermentée
- Shaping
- a log shaped to fit the pan; aim for an even, closed seam, not a tight skin that tears the soft crumb
- Doneness
- baked through to 94–96 °C internal, with a deep wheaty aroma and no sharp acidity from the old dough
Equipment
- Pan
- Emile Henry Petit Moule Cake 1.1 L (ceramic, 22×9.5×6.5 cm) or a similar-volume metal 9×5 inch pan
- Mixing
- planetary mixer with a hook, or hand mixing with recorded time and temperature
- Bake
- home oven, probe thermometer, cooling rack
Nutrition: how to eat this bread
Bread nutrition facts
Per 100 g of bread
264 kcal
protein 7.7 g · fat 4.1 g · carbs 48.2 g
Per slice (50 g)
132 kcal
protein 3.9 g · fat 2.1 g · carbs 24.1 g
Automatic calculation from USDA + Skurikhin database for the baked loaf after evaporation. Numbers are approximate: 1) the database covers ingredients, not finished dough; 2) bake water loss is assumed at 10% — actual loss depends on crust, time, and pan. Add 5–10% in calorie trackers if needed.
Bread is a source of starch and energy. Its nutrition depends on flour, fermentation, salt, enrichment, serving size, and the rest of the plate.
- Digestion
- More whole grain, fibre, and fermentation usually mean longer satiety. White flour eaten alone is generally digested faster.
- Helpful or harmful
- Bread is not poison or medicine by itself. Overall diet matters; current guidance prioritizes whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and pulses.
- Amount
- For most learning tastings, 1–2 slices, about 30–80 g, is enough depending on loaf density.
- Best pairings
- Pair with protein, vegetables, and moderate fat; avoid making it a large standalone portion with sweet drinks or sweet spreads.
How to eat
- Taste the bread plain for learning, then eat it as part of a balanced plate.
- Slice dense rye thinner; with soft white bread, make sure softness does not automatically increase the serving.
Limits
- Wheat and rye breads contain gluten.
- For medical conditions, adjust bread type and serving size with a clinician or dietitian.
Instructions
-
Old dough
Mix old dough: flour, water, salt, and a small share of yeast.
-
Maturation
Hold the old dough in the refrigerator until the next day.
-
Mix
Combine the preferment with the final ingredients and mix to a soft dough.
-
Bulk fermentation
Carry on until noticeable rise, gas, and a lively surface.
-
Shape
Shape a log and place in the pan.
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Final proof
Proof to puffiness and slow finger-poke return; check height and surface stability.
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Bake
Bake by the working-sheet regime to the target internal temperature.
-
Cool and assess
Cool completely, then slice and assess softness, wheat depth, and that the crumb is not oversalted.
Version history
- v1.0May 24, 2026in development
- Problem
- S2 needs a lesson on old dough as a soft pan component.
- Change
- Created the S2-C14 lesson: soft pan loaf on old dough.