click here for a basic levain (starter) recipe I also refer to my starter as a levain because most people equate sourdough with the infamous San Francisco-style sourdough breads.
Makes: 1 batch of Levain natural yeast bread starter. Combine the all-purpose and wheat flours with the water in a bowl (DON’T add the starter and salt). After 4 hours, or no more than 6 hours, the levain should have doubled and be ready to use at the proper hydration and amount for the recipe - no waste. Then Ken Forkish employs what he calls the “pincer” method to make sure all the ingredients are fully incorporated. This is the Ken Forkish method from Flour, Water Salt, Yeast. It is not the only way, merely one that I … In Flour Water Salt Yeast, Portland baker Ken Forkish takes the by-now-familiar template of no-knead breads baked in a Dutch oven and runs away with it. The 3rd feeding 4 hours later would be 48 g of flour and 57 g of water for 240 g total of 100% hydration levain - half each of flour and water at 120 g each. Combine the dough using a wet hand and folding the dough over from the bottom to top.
Today I baked another bread from Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast - this time Double-Fed Sweet Levain Bread. This is a lesson in building a basic sourdough starter, also called Levain. San Francisco sourdough is a very particular type of bread from a specific region, and I do not find it applicable to the kind of bread I make, nor is it applicable to levain-raised breads around the world. Day 1 … So to make the levain you need 10 g of starter plus 78.33 g of flour and 61.67 g of water to make exactly 150 g or 80% hydration starter.
Before refreshing your mother starter, set aside 40 grams to feed for the levain... Day 1, autolyse. It’d be …
The purpose of double-feeding is to build a fairly young levain that does not produce so much sourness. It will be fine in the fridge for several days and you get to practice making the bread you you are trying to master. Instructions Day 1 (around midday), feed the levain. Both Tartine basic country bread (Tartine) and Forkish country blonde (Forkish) are excellent. There’s nothing like seeing a picture of a perfectly crusty, gorgeously browned, flour-speckled artisan loaf to make you crave the real thing. Day 1 (morning): Add the soaked and drained raisins and kosher salt to the mixture in the bowl. Time: minutes a day for 5 days. This recipe calls for an unusual method using two-staged levains, each of which is supposed to be fed in a rather short (3-4 hours) interval. I say make more bread with the left overs.