Starters and fermented dough are proving to be the baker’s best friend. The artisan feel and taste is popular with consumers. The formula is easy to make clean label. And there’s plenty of room to make your brand stand out.

Like with the Masa Madre Ferment

For hundreds of years, Masa Madre has been an essential ingredient in wheat and rye bread in Spain and Latin American countries. Passed down for generations, this starter adds flavor, aroma and texture in artisan breads. Starting with wheat or rye flour, water and other minor ingredients are added and allowed to ferment. However, bacterial cultures are used instead of yeast.

Things to control during the fermentation:

• pH of preferment: should be medium between 4.2 and 3.5
• Hydration: similar to sourdough preferment, the flour/water mixture for Masa Madre can be liquid or have the consistency of a dough depending on the water absorption.
• Total titratable acidity (TTA): usually higher than 6 mL of 0.1 M NaOH
• Content of lactic and acetic acids
• Microbial parameters: number and species of LAB and yeast
• pH of finished product: Masa Madre bread usually has a pH lower than 4.8

Feeding Masa Madre Ferment

Feeding of the Masa Madre culture can be done by using flour and water exclusively. It must be properly fed to:

• Aerate the medium: provide oxygen for optimum biomass growth
• Provide more food, like starch and simple sugars, for the microorganisms present in the medium
• Re-balance the acidity of medium through water bath