Name: Pain au Levain (French-Style Sourdough Bread)
Yield: Makes 1 large boute-shaped loaf
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 150 g room-temperature tap water, about 24°C; All the levain; 1½ teaspoons fine sea salt; 300 g strong white bread flour; ½ teaspoon fine granulated active dried yeast or instant yeast, optional; 100 g sourdough starter, fed twice in the previous 24 hours; 100 g strong white bread flour; 100 g room-temperature tap water, about 24°C

Preparation info

Makes
1
large boute-shaped loaf

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Nick Malgieri's Bread

By Nick Malgieri

Published 2012

About

Preparing an adaptation of French pain au levain requires some advance planning. Beginning with a starter that you’ve already maintained for a while, it needs to go through at least two preliminary stages of fermentation. Depending on the temperature of the room, it can take up to 24 hours from the first feeding of the active starter to the baked bread. Most of the time is concentrated in the mixing, shaping, proofing and baking of the final dough. The final proofing time of the form