Pain Au Levain . 天然酵母の食パ

                                    This bottle is full of 'Live' which gives us the healthy loaves.

Making my very own bread leavening for the first time, following the books that I have, I managed to make a few of them to experience the whole working process from that magical liquid made from just organic raisins and purified water. Although the bread are mostly the European choices. But I managed to use the same leaving dough to make our usual white loaf. However, it didn't turn out to be as soft as the those I often made using dried yeast. But, if we can have the loaf on the same day as it's baked, it doesn't make that much difference if you are going for something that has more flavour and texture. 

The only down side of making these bread, would be the time needed for the whole process. It's took up much much time that I could imagine. Due to our wet and cool weather for the recent weeks, it took longer than what the book instructed. I even threw away one of the dough that was over proved, as I thought the proving hours could take longer than it should be. So, there are actually a lot of attention paid to just make a simple loaf. Hubby wonder is it worth the time and effort..... I am supposed, after a few more rounds of trial and practice, I should get better and better( I hope).  I will soon share the recipe and making of the starter dough when I finish up the current batch. Hope many of you would give it a try, if you are crazy enough like me!! 

Ingredients:

 Bread floour   300g

Salt  7g

Sugar  9g

Fermented dough / starter dough  21g

Bread flour / wholemeal flour  42g

Water  42g

Malt syrup/ honey  1g

Water  177g

Butter   9g

Method:

1. Have all ingredients mix together. Knead till the dough is springy and smooth on the surface. 

2. Cover the dough with cling film in a bowl. Let the dough rise for 2 hours at the temperature of 35'C. 

3. Press out the air in the dough, and have a second rising for 60 minutes. 

4. Again, press out the air in the dough, and divide them into two equal portions, shape the dough and place them in a bread tin and let it have the last proofing. This should take about 90-180 minutes till the dough reach as high as the bread tin. Spray some water on the dough before baking in pre heated oven  200'c for 35-40 minutes.