MINI RECIPE BOOK
LET’S START WITH TRADITIONAL LEAVEN
If you decide to make your own leaven for the first time, you will need a lot of patience. We put ca 100 g
of rye flour into a jar and add ca 80 ml of water – approx. 27 °C. After stirring it for a while we should get
pulp consistency. Next, we put a cover onto the jar but not a threaded one (leaven must “breathe”). Then
we put the covered glass into the bread maker, start the function “fermenting”, set the temperature at
27 °C (+/- 2 °C) and leave the covered jar in the bread maker for about 6 hours. Then we take away a
part of the dough, mix it with the same amount of fresh water and flour and let it ferment again under the
same conditions. This is called “leaven feeding” and it is necessary to do it every couple of hours for 3
days. In the end, the leaven produces within 2 – 4 hours enough bubbles and its volume multiplies. This
is the right time to use it for preparing bread dough or into other bakery products!
If – at any moment of the process – the leaven produces an unpleasant smell, stop everything and start
again. Finished leaven (so called “established leaven”) should be of pleasant, slightly sour smell and of
medium dense consistence. When making dough, you should always leave ca ¼ of it in the jar for future
baking. In theory, it is possible to use the basic leaven every 2 – 4 hours to make new dough, forever.
Storing of traditional leaven
Be careful about leaven storage! It was already
explained that it is impossible to store leaven and
industrial yeast in one refrigerator. In fact, we do not
need to have any yeast at home as it is possible to
use home-made leaven instead of unnatural
lightening agent in all kinds of dough. The leaven
must not be too thin. It should be of pleasant,
slightly sour smell and must not be frozen or dried!
Next “leaven feeding” is necessary after about
5days.
By Ota a Petra Reiss
smartbreadmaker.com
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