Pain au Levain

This is good plain bread, country style. You will run the Dough cycle several times; to make the chef, or French-style starter, which sits overnight to ferment, and then to make the levain sponge, which sits for a few hours before mixing the final dough. My chef starter is nontraditional, but the buttermilk makes for a quick, aromatic starter, flecked with golden specks of butter, that would normally take a week to develop. This loaf utilizes a levain-levure, a starter that is