The role of the leaven.

To make a sourdough bread, the sourdough leaven is mixed with more flour, water and salt to make a dough, which will ferment and rise, and is then baked. The leaven simply replaces the addition of yeast; the sourdough will rise more slowly but the process is essentially the same, although the result is very different.

This recipe aims to produce a 500g sourdough leaven for use in home baking. You may wish to adjust the quantities to make more or less to suit your needs, but if you stick to the relative proportions used here, there should be no problems.

I don’t claim this to be the only way to initiate a leaven as there are other ways, but this is what I have always done and it works.

Ingredients:

• 125g organic or biodynamic, stoneground wholemeal wheat flour.

• 190g slightly warm water.

Use a bowl for the mixing and the initiation. Later, when the leaven becomes active, transfer to a suitable permanent home. I always used a glass jar until it was dropped one day. Since then my leaven has happily lived in a plastic tub, once containing honey.

Initiation. 

Day 1 

Mix the ingredients well and cover with a cotton tea-towel and place in a draught-free, “not cold” spot. Leave undisturbed overnight or for about 12 hours.

Day 2 

Give the mix a good stir and replace the tea-towel.

Choose a time which is convenient and try to attend to the leaven at a similar time each day if possible. This is initially important, but will be less demanding as the leaven becomes established.

Days 3-6 

Check the leaven and stir it each day, and when there are little bubbles, things are moving. The arcane reference is that “the angels of air” have entered the culture. As the activity progresses, more bubbles, and a pleasant sourish, yeasty, grassy aroma is evident. The leaven is on the way and time to move to the next stage, which is growth.

If your leaven is not on the way, stir and walk away until the next day. Activity is more likely to be evident in summer, but in cold climates, be patient. If no activity has happened by day 5, it is a concern, persevere for another day but you may have to start again.

Growth.

Day 1.

The leaven should now be clearly active, hopefully frothing and bubbling. Celebrate the arrival of your new life partner!.

Add to the newly active culture, the original ingredients: 

125g wholemeal flour and  190g water. 

Stir these in to make a smooth thick batter.

Days 2 - 4.

Pour off half of the leaven, and refresh the remnant half with the original quantities of flour and water and stir once again to make a smooth batter.

Continue this refreshment each day for 3 days until the leaven is well established.

The discarded portion can be mixed with flour and water/milk to make crackers or pancakes for your first taste (refer to “Bread of the Rings” in the recipes section), or compost it. 

After 3 days the leaven should be clearly active, frothing and bubbling, rising in the container with a pleasant sourish aroma and ready for bread-making.

The leaven will rise up and be active for hours after feeding. Once it has peaked, it will settle and remain dormant for some time until “fed” again. It should be used at the peak.

Storing and refreshing the leaven.

Each time the leaven is used to make bread, be sure to reserve at least 2 tablespoons in order to seed the next batch. Add the same amount of flour (125g) and water (190g)  (or those ratios if making larger quantities) to the reserved seed leaven and stir in well. It should be ready for baking in about 8 hours.

If you aren’t baking with it daily, you can refrigerate it. An active starter can be refrigerated for quite some time, but to remain functional, it needs to be refreshed weekly. After a week of refrigeration, remove from the fridge and allow it to return to room temperature. It can then be refreshed by pouring off half and adding the original amount of flour and water, and returning it to the fridge.

Preparation for Breadmaking.

If you want to make bread from the refrigerated leaven, simply add the original amount of flour and water and leave it out of the fridge to re-activate, usually 8 hours. It is then ready for bread-making. A shortcut is to simply stir a few tablespoons of flour into the leaven when it is just out of the fridge to form a very thick batter, which will activate it more quickly.

As a commercial baker and fanatic, I never refrigerate the leaven. This ensures a rapid response and ensures that it is highly active. If you bake regularly I recommend not refrigerating it, but refreshing daily, always discarding half, which can be composted or used for ring breads. Refreshing every second, even third day is fine in cool weather. Otherwise, refrigerate. It will work well but may be slightly sleepy and a little slower.

Trick of the trade.

When the leaven peaks, rising up in the container and is strongly active, stir it well using a wooden spoon. This reduces its volume, but the fermentation is stimulated and re-activates quickly, becoming more liquid and rising again.

Bakers call this “knocking back” and its function is to potentiate the ferment. It should be peaking again after 3 hours and must be used then or the leaven lapses and becomes dormant. This is not an essential step, but definitely primes the leaven and makes better bread.

Consistency.

The newly-made leaven should have the consistency of a very thick batter. This will thin down as it ferments, and be more liquid by the time it is ready to use. Starting with a too-thin leaven will lead to increased sourness and less rising power.

Water.

It is ideal to use spring water, but costly. Even more ideal is to use rainwater. It is true that a poor ferment can be caused by unsuitable water, or killed outright. This process works with tap water and I always use tap water. Trouble-shooting must include different water if the process is not working.

Flour.

The regular leaven needs to be made from organic, or bio-dynamic, stoneground wholemeal wheat flour. Using this flour will ensure success. Maintaining a white-flour leaven is not as satisfactory in flavour or activity. The microbiome in a wholegrain matrix is far more complex and the organisms are more robust. This regular wholemeal leaven is called the “stock” or “seed” leaven.

The wholemeal leaven makes a really good “white” bread when used with white flour, but for a whiter loaf, make a white leaven from the stock. Make the original leaven quantities with white flour and stir in 2 tablespoons of the wholemeal stock. A white leaven takes longer to ripen than a wholemeal, an hour or two extra, so make sure to give it time. This will also need to be stirred well when it peaks and allowed to re-activate for a few hours before use.

Using sifted wholemeal, “light” flour makes the most outstanding leaven for white bread. The loaf is very lightly coloured but the flavour from the brown leaven is exceptional and the crust is well-coloured and well developed. To make the brown leaven, simply use the original leaven quantities using sifted wholemeal and stir in 2 tablespoons of the wholemeal stock.

New leavens can be created in this way. For example cacao powder used instead of flour and seeded with the stock makes a powerful and exotic leaven to be used in a very special bread. Bread containing cacao was common once. Similarly rye or brown rice flour or sorghum flour can be used for a leaven instead of wheat flour to make gluten-free products. These can be seeded with the wheat leaven stock initially and then once established, regularly refreshed with gluten-free grain flour.

If you aren’t having success initiating a leaven from scratch, begin troubleshooting by trying different flour. In my experience, stone-ground wholemeal wheat flour makes the best leaven, but this does not mean it cannot be done with other flour. Sometimes, using rye or spelt flour will initiate the leaven more easily and is well worth trying if you aren’t having success. Simply follow the leaven-making instructions using wholemeal rye or spelt flour.

Temperature.

Ambient “room” temperature of course varies with climate. In Australia at 40oC, the leaven will go “off” in 12 hours, which means it sours rapidly, so the refreshment schedule needs to be adjusted if you do not refrigerate the leaven. A friend in Spain told me he refreshes 2-3 times a day in 40 degree weather - perhaps a case for refrigeration! During an English winter a warmish spot is needed or something like an electric blanket. The ideal temperature is about 25 degrees. Be vigilant and observe the cycle of your starter, act accordingly, and this attention initiates good bread.

Smells.

If you have tried and have a really unpleasant smell after a few days, throw it away and start again. Believe me it is not worth persevering with a smelly leaven, although some do. Next time, perhaps clean the receptacle with boiling water, wash everything and make sure all the implements are very clean. If the leaven spot is too warm/hot a bad fermentation can easily result.

Leaven.

What you have made is variously called “the starter”, “the culture” or “the leaven”. Leaven is certainly the time-honoured term, known as “le levain” (m) in French. Technically and grammatically, it is not a “mother”.

Leaven: Ultimatum.

The leaven is absolutely important to all, so if you have not been successful in your attempts to make a leaven as directed, beg, borrow or steal one. Find someone who has a good leaven and hopefully they will give you some. Alternatively, marry somebody who has one, which in the before time, was considered a good reason. Leavens are available online, dried and fresh, and in this way, get some, prove your love and the leaven will be yours as long as the love is there.