Beginner step-by-step guide to bake artisan levain bread at home

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As many of us home bakers, you will be baking once a week only, maybe even once every two weeks only. To make the sourdough feeding process easily manageable, you can keep your sourdough starter in the fridge most of the time, feeding it only once or twice a week. To revitalize your starter, give it the required strength to leaven (elevate) your loaf, and get rid of the higher amount of acidity which will build up while the starter is in the fridge, you should start with 2 daily feedings about every 12 hours, 2 days before your baking day.

So assuming you want to bake Saturday morning, you should remove your started from the fridge, and do a feedings Thursday morning, Thursday evening, and Friday morning, and then build your Levain Friday evening.

For the feedings, you can use 10g of the starter, 40g of unchlorinated water (bottled spring water), and 40 g of your starter flour mixture, consisting of 75% wheat flour (with lower protein, about 11-12%), and 25% dark rye flour.

[Link to Starter maintenance details, moved into different blog].

For the feedings, you can try to keep the quantity which you use of the starter small, to avoid discarding larger amounts of flour with each feeding. I am using only 10g of the starter, and place it into a fresh small 8oz mason Jar placed on a scale. Then I add 40g of water (your should best use a small bottle of unclorinated water - bottled spring water, for the starter feedings, which you can store in a cabinet with your scale, feeder flour mixture, a flour scoop, and a few of your small mason jars to make feedings really easy, having everything in one place), and stir with a small fork to dissolve. Then I add 40 g of my feeder flour mixture, stored in a 5-cup food canister, consisting of 75% wheat flour (with lower protein, about 11%), and 25% of dark rye flour. The rye flour generates more active fermentation so it helps making the starter maintenance easier, then when working with wheat flour only. You can use this starter for all different breads you make with different flours, which will make things much easier for you, than dealing with different starters for different types of bread.

(Table: Starter Structure).

After adding the starter flour mixture, stir rigorously with the fork, until all dry flour has been mixed with the flour, about 30 seconds. You could do the stirring above the sink, to avoid flour spilling over the small mason jar on the floor, while discarding the old starter by running hot water from the tap into the old mason jar. This way you can discard the old starter with very little effort. You can also place the teaspoon used earlier, as well as the small fork, once you have completed the stirring, into the old mason jar under the running sink, to get both of them cleaned quickly and easily.

Then, put a cover on top of the mason jar, but don’t lock it with the lid - you can use for example a small plastic bowl cover, or a basket coffee filter, which you put on top of the mason jar, and attach it with a rubber band. This will help

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