without salt, most include it, and not just for a
balanced taste. At 1.5–2% of the flour weight,
salt tightens the gluten network and improves
the volume of the finished loaf. (The
tightening is especially evident in the autolyse
mixing method, below.) Unrefined sea salts
that contain calcium and magnesium
impurities may produce the additional gluten
strengthening that mineral-rich hard water
does. In sourdoughs, salt also helps limit the
protein-digesting activity of the souring
bacteria, which can otherwise damage the
gluten.
Yeast The baker can incorporate yeast in very
different forms and proportions. For a simple
dough to be fully leavened and baked in a few
hours, the standard proportion for cake yeast
is 0.5–4% of the flour weight, or 2.5–20 gm
per pound/500 gm flour; for dried yeast,
approximately half these numbers. If the
dough is to be fermented slowly overnight,