Leaven for Tasty Bread

Preparation info
    • Difficulty

      Easy

Appears in
Savoie: The Land, People, and Food of the French Alps

By Madeleine Kamman

Published 1989

  • About

When you prepare a leaven, you use a minimum amount of commercial yeast, introduce it into a flour and water paste to allow it to multiply, and thus grow your own fresh yeast. At the same time, you develop a lot of flavor in the leaven since the yeast produces alcohol, carbon dioxide, and a few other more complicated acids that give the leaven its very particular taste. Some of the yeast cells die every day and the potency of the leaven diminishes; this is why every day you feed the new yea