Pain au Levain (Sourdough Bread)
Aug 2nd, 2008 by SteveB
When it comes to pain au levain, I have to admit that I am a bit of a snob. Why else would I call it pain au levain rather than sourdough bread, as most people do? I’ve never much cared for the name “sourdough”. Once something carries that moniker, all sorts of lip-puckering, eye-watering attributes are expected. Instead, I believe that a good pain au levain should have a complex, subtley sweet and nutty flavor. Yes, there are acidic notes present but, in my opinion, they should only serve in background to help enhance the natural flavor of the grain.
The pain au levain formula shown here is a slightly modified version of the Vermont Sourdough formula described in Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman. The modifications are due to differences in starter culture hydration (mine is 100% hydration, Hamelman’s is 125%) and ambient temperature.
Final Dough
- 680 g King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
- 90 g Medium Rye Flour
- 455 g Water
- 15 g Salt
- 300 g Levain (mature sourdough culture, 100% hydration)
Add all the final dough ingredients, except the salt, to a mixing bowl. Mix with a dough whisk just until all the ingredients are incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for an autolysis period of 30 minutes. Remove the contents of the bowl to a work surface and mix by hand (Musings on Mixing…) for a few minutes, just until the dough starts to come together. Sprinkle the salt on the dough and continue hand mixing until the dough reaches medium development. Place the dough in a lightly oiled container, cover and let ferment for two hours, folding the dough once, one hour into this first fermentation.
After the two hour first fermentation, the dough is divided into two, 1 1/2 lb. pieces and each piece is lightly rounded. After resting under a plastic sheet for 15 minutes, the pieces are shaped into boulots, placed in rice flour-coated brotformen, covered with Saran Quick Covers and allowed a second fermentation of 2 1/2 hours.
After the second fermentation, the boulot is inverted onto a peel, scored, loaded into the oven and then baked at 425°F for 40 minutes with steam applied for the first 15 minutes (scoring and steaming video can be found here).
I’ve done this recipe as well and compared to my version of a light rye, which essentially is this same type of dough but more hydrated and an overnight retardation, I find it a bit bland. I’ve found that the American “pain au levain” recipes based on a pâte fermentée to be sort of boring. Hamelman says that he doesn’t find this sort of bread benefits from the overnight retardation. Have you tried and what do you think about it? Maybe it’s just a question of taste (or flour).
But, regardless of my taste your bread is beautiful!
Jane
Jane, I had exactly the same question about dough retardation as applied to this formula which was why I retarded the second boulot at 42°F for 12 hours before baking it. In a side-by-side taste testing of the two loaves, the best I could say is that there IS a difference in flavor although the difference, to my palate, is so small that I would have a difficult time explaining it. There was no large increase in perceived acidity which, for me, is a good thing. But there were subtle changes in the flavor profile. Either method made a flavorful bread (for my American taste
).
Thanks for your response. I hope to work with some American flour one day because I am still convinced that it is working with apples and pears, similar but not the same. I find such a huge difference in taste and crumb between the two breads and often wonder if it is the flour. If I ever get the answer, I’ll let you know!
Jane
Beautiful loaf! I see that you used King Arthur All Purpose flour. I was wondering about your opinion on it. I’ve used it for a long time and really like it, but I also noticed that it has a much higher protein content than many other all purpose flours and that my crumb is much tighter when I use it. I’m not sure if that is a factor of underproofing or the flour. Your crumb is beautiful though. Have you tried this recipe with other flours and noticed any differences?
Jane, I’ve heard that French T55 flour typically has a lower protein content than American all purpose flour but that the protein in T55 is of higher quality, i.e., the gluten tends to form in longer strands. I’d love to try baking with some French T55 one day. Perhaps we could figure out how to start an international flour exchange program!
Claire, I appreciate the compliment. I use KA All Purpose flour more out of habit than strong preference. I have tried Gold Medal Harvest King flour in the past and that worked fine for me too. With the higher protein content all purpose flours, you may need to increase the amount of water a bit from the lower protein content flours to obtain the desired dough consistency. That may address the issue of your tighter crumb. Sometime soon, I plan on getting my hands on some Heartland Mill All Purpose organic flour and comparing that to the other flours I’ve used.
Hi Steve,
I noticed you dust your benneton with rice flour instead of wheat flour. Any reason?
Chris
Chris, the dough tends to stick far less to the rice flour, and thus to the brotform, than to conventional all-purpose flour.
Steve,
What a great site. You’re providing a great public service here – and your double hydration ciabatta gave me the best loaf I’ve ever baked – yet. I have a question about your levain method. You say to use 300g of starter culture. And yet your method for developing a starter only leaves me with a max of 200g of starter. The obvious thing to do of course is to make more — but before I do, I just want to make sure I’m not missing a step between the starter and the pain au levain dough. Any advice much appreciated…
Matt, thanks for your comments. I’m glad that you’ve had success baking ciabatta using the double hydration technique.
You’re not missing anything. If you need more starter than what you have, just increase the quantities of flour, water and starter for your next feeding cycle. Just make sure to maintain the same ratio of ingredients.
Dear Steve,
After all the questions I troubled you with on starting a starter, I felt I just had to give you an update. In one word: amazing!
My starter is healthy and bubbly, smells like a mix of yeast, alcohol and yogurt (depending on the time of day) and greedily gobbles up whatever I feed it.
And in spite of my total lack of scientific discipline (I fiddled a lot with the feeding ratios to see how the smell profile would change; I don’t have an oven so I had to use my bread machine to bake; I ended up using my bread machine to knead too because, well, it was easier; but I respected the quantity of ingredients and somewhat increased the fermentation times), the bread turned out wonderful! It seemed to rise awfully slowly in the fermentation phases (about 3 hours each, at around 74-77F), compared to my usual yeast breads, and I have to admit I was a wee bit worried. But when I put it to bake, whoa! I thought it would blow the machine’s lid off! The texture is soft, springy and well aerated with lots of small and medium-sized bubbles. The complex flavor profile is a treat (nutty, wheaty, sweet and sour notes towards the end). Thank you so much for your posts! I’m still a long way from producing the beauties that come out of your oven, but your blog is an invaluable teaching source for me, and a great encouragement to become a serious home baker. Thanks again!
Aisha, congratulations! It sounds like everything is working out just fine for you. You did exactly the right thing… ‘fiddling’ with feeding ratios to get the right one for the activity of your particular starter. One person’s ‘fiddling’ is another person’s ‘experimentation’!
Is it possible to use 100% organic rye insead of medium rye. Should I add less rye and more white flour.
Thanks
Anom, using 100% organic rye should be fine. As always, be sure to adjust the amount of water added by whatever amount necessary to give the desired dough consistency
This makes for a wonderful loaf, thank you for sharing your recipe and very helpful videos.
Jason, I’m very glad that you’re finding the posts here at Bread cetera to be helpful to you in your bread making.
Hei
Jeg var nettopp i Marseille,og erfarte bruken fransk hvetemel
T-55. Jeg skulle gjerne ha tak i denne typen, og /eller si meg om italiensk mel av typen Typo oo eller o1 er like bra?
Har noen erfaringer med dette?
Jørgen
Hi Jørgen,
I don’t speak Norwegian, so I’ll have to answer in English.
I have used French T55 and T65 flours. My experience with these flours is described here.
I have not used Italian tipo 00 flour for bread baking. My understanding is that it has too low a protein content for that purpose.
Hi Steven B
I`m sorry I forgot this is an international web site, however the Typo 00 is recommended for pizza, at least in Norway. I have found the Italian type here but so far I have not spotted the French one. What were your experiences with T55?
Jørgen
Jørgen, no problem. I wish I spoke more languages, Norwegian included!
Italian tipo 00 is excellent for producing neopolitan pizza, where the lower protein content of the flour and the high baking temperatures will give the crisp crust and tender crumb characteristic of this pizza style.
My experience with French T55 flour is briefly mentioned further down on the same thread mentioned above, seen here.
مرحبا
الخبز المخمر رائع ولذيذ
سؤال/ هل يحمل نفس الكالوري في الخبز بدون تخمير؟
اعتقد ان البكتريا تتغذا على السكريات الموجوده في العجين فيصبح اقل كالوري
اذن هو مناسب جدا للرجيم الدايت
شكرا
hapy 33, unfortunately I do not speak Arabic. However, using the Google translator, I was able to obtain a rough translation of your question into English and think I understand what you are asking.
Yes, the yeast and bacteria in sourdough feed on the sugars present in the dough. However, breads raised with baker’s yeast make use of these sugars as well. Additionally, dough contains a much greater proportion of starch than sugar, and starch has its own caloric content. I would therefore hesitate to say that sourdough bread is any better for people on a calorie-restricted diet than non-sourdough bread.
I need help. Everyone here is way more advanced than me. I use a bread machine but have begun using the dough cycle and baking in the oven in a heavy gauge aluminum pan.
I made a sponge in my bread machine using starter made with organic rye. I let it sit for 3 hours and then added my other ingredients to make the dough for my Pain Au Levain and according to my book the dough appeared to be just right.
The book said it was going to be stick but I was not prepared for removing it from the bread pan and shaping it. What a fiasco. I almost threw it out but had too much time invested…so I tried shaping into 2 baguettes. I let them rise for 1 hour and then baked them. Surprisingly……for my first attempt the crust was great and the crumb soft….but not quite a “hole-ey” as I would have liked.
Help me with handling the dough and shaping this sticky stuff.
Thanks.
Hi Jim. Before I can attempt to provide you with any useful suggestions, I would need to see the exact recipe that you are using. Please feel free to forward the relevant information to me through the “Contact Me” tab at the top of this page.
Dear Steve,
your recipe for rye sourdough was my first that work out! It was just perfect! my 4th attempt to make sourdough:-)) Thank you for it!
I wonder if you have a recipe for whole wheat sourdoguth (doesn’t have to be 100%). I am not a big fan of white flour and although your bread was yummy, I could tell the difference immediately the next day.. My guts dont like it as much
Would you have some recipe handy?
Marcela
Marcela, I hope to have a post on a 100% whole wheat sourdough bread sometime in the near future.
I can hardly contain my smiles after this recipe. Wonderful – despite my mixing up whole wheat pastry for rye flour (labels!). All the more reason to repeat it with the recommended rye.
A question about your hand mixing technique – I’m a fan, it’s only ever yielded good results. In your video it seems that the dough stretches by sticking to the work counter as you pull back on it. My dough started out very sticky (didn’t add extra flour) and it tamed out eventually. However I wasn’t able to stretch it out each fold nearly as much as your video showed and compromised by stretching the dough out between two hands each round. Do I just need more practice or am I missing the technique? I ended up hand mixing for almost 30 mins.
many thanks.
a2, It sounds to me as if you perhaps could have used a bit more water in your dough. This might be a result of your having used whole wheat pastry flour instead of rye flour. A dough’s water content should always be adjusted to obtain the desired dough consistency.
Dear Steve,
What do you mean by “medium development”? What does dough look/feel like when it has got there?
Many thanks for a great site.
PatchofPeace,
Take a small, walnut-sized piece of dough, flatten it out and then stretch it out with your fingers. If the dough can form a thin window with strands of gluten visible within the window, and not tear, then the dough has reached a medium stage of development.
Hi Steve,
I actually halved the flour – 340 g white and 340 g whole wheat. It worked! So surprised… Im sure that someone who is a proffesional baker would have comments but the bread works and tastes good!
Hi Marcela,
Congratulations on your success! Keep on striving to bake the best bread you possibly can and soon those professional bakers will have nothing to say but praise.
I’d love some advice, bread people…
I’m very excited to bake my first successful levain, as I am far more attracted by the subtle lactic sourness of levain than the acute acetic sourness of traditional sourdough. I have been trying to achieve success using Peter Reinhart’s mild starter recipe from “Crust and Crumb”, with repeated failure. The recipe describes a 4 day process, using a %61 hydration dough of water (low hydration to bias towards lactobacter and away from acetobacter) and whole wheat on day 1 (to introduce the saccharomyces Exiguus) with daily refreshing. Recipe calls for mixing the dough on day 1 and letting it sit for 24 hours, and that the baker should not expect to see rising. Check. Day two, refresh with bread flour, same recipe, and discard half, and let rise until doubled. I do this, and the recipe rises correctly. Day three, repeat refreshment and discard as on day two (with bread flour), let rise until tripled. This is where my wagon goes off the rails every time. The dough doubles, and then stalls. After sufficient time, the acidificaiton has progressed enough to put the yeast into dormancy and dissolve gluten, making a gummy dough. While the flavor is wonderful, there is little or no leavening power when using this as a starter. I have found that by continuing to use whole wheat on day two, the rising is brisker (not a surprised, since we’re adding more yeast). I would love suggestions…
Charles,
I can’t comment directly on Reinhart’s procedure in Crust and Crumb because I don’t own the book. If you are looking to bake a pain au levain with a subtle sourness, why not try the recipe shown here. The procedure for beginning an active, stable sourdough starter can be found here.
Steve –
I just discovered this site this week and am delighted. But also very much the novice – so I fear I may be asking a very remedial question…
I’ve just put this dough in for its first fermentation. I had set out with great determination to use the slap and fold technique you demonstrate in the video, but found that the dough was so sticky at the outset that it was very difficult to handle. But since you don’t suggest any flour on the work surface or the dough or my hands, I didn’t add any and just soldiered through with sticky hands and the help of a dough scraper. Once it was all coming together, and I washed my hands and added the salt, all went very well. Perhaps I was just being obstinately literal in my reading, and ignoring a wiser instinct (to flour the work surface)…?
Hi Jay,
You were wise to ignore your wiser instinct!
During the early stages of mixing, the dough is quite sticky and intractable. One needs to fight the urge to flour the work surface or add more flour to the dough. Just continue with the hand mixing, occasionally using your bench scraper to gather the dough together when bits of it stick to your bench or hands. As mixing of the dough continues, the gluten begins to develop and the dough becomes more cohesive and elastic. By the end of the mixing, the dough will have lost most of its stickiness but should still feel a bit tacky.
To remove dough that has stuck to your hands, instead of washing with water, try rubbing some flour between your hands. The dough should come right off.