The stages of preparing our bread are chef (3 day sour starter), levain (8 hours pre-final loaf) and pain au levain. I have just finished my "levain" stage and am pounding it with great determination to have my first bread today. The remaining chef has been fed and is sitting in the fridge to be brought out next Friday when I'll resume feeding it for another yummy bread. Wildtomato says my bread should taste better as my starter ages since the pinch of commercial yeast will slowly get replaced by wild yeast. Hurrah for local fungi :)
Part 2 of this post is here, with pictures of the final product. Too bad I couldn't capture the flavor in my camera!
Pictures from last evening's levain. It rose to epic proportions when I brutally stabbed it with a wooden spoon and relished its gasping, exhaling sounds. Then I added the required flour and water to make it into a plump little ball. I stuck the ball in my fridge overnight to slow down its rising, and took it out this morning. Now it is ready for another pounding & rising before I get to bake it.
Levain in the bottle: MrM asks me to explicitly state that these are pictures of bread dough. He thinks they can be easily mistaken for an embryo and gross people out. I say, nobody puts baby in the corner, least of all in a bottle. And hey, we don't have any embryos hanging around anyway.
Part 2 of this post is here, with pictures of the final product. Too bad I couldn't capture the flavor in my camera!
1 comment:
An embryo? I would have *never* thought of that by looking at your levain picture. And even now, with that embryonic thought planted in my brain, I cannot see it. He's too funny!
Looks good! I'm so glad to hear that your bread tasted good, too. You're the first to cross the finish line!
I can't wait to see pics of the loaf.
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