Travel Stories

Passport & Plate - Pain au Levain

France | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos

**Ingredients**
1kg whole wheat flour
1.5 kg white bread flour
water
Sea salt


**How to prepare this recipe**
-In a bowl mix together 2 tbsp each of wholewheat flour, white flour and 4 tbsp of water to form a thick paste. Every day, for the next 7 days, discard 80% of this and replenish 2 tbsp of whole wheat flour, 2 tbsp of white flour and 4 tbsp of water. At the end of 7 days, this starter is ready to be used to bake a sourdough bread.
-The night before you want to bake, mix together 1 tbsp of the starter with 200g water, 100g whole wheat flour and 100g white bread flour. This is the levain.
-The next morning, in a bowl of 700g of water add 200g of the levain. It should float on the water - this means it’s fermented well and is ready to knead into a dough. Disperse the levain in the water.
-Add 900g white bread flour and 100g whole wheat flour. Mix. Rest for 40 minutes.
-Add 20g of salt and 50g of warm water. Incorporate the water into the dough.
-Let this rest for 3-4 hours. Turn the dough over itself every 30 minutes or so.
-At the end of 3 hours, it should be a smooth, aerated dough.
-Transfer to a work surface to shape. Flour the surface. Shape into rounds. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
-Transfer to a proofing basket, and let it rise for another 3-4 hours.
-Preheat oven to 250C, simultaneously heating a cast iron cooking pot in it.
-Once hot, thansfer the shaped loaf into the pot, cover with lid and let it bake for 20 minutes at 220C.
-After 20 minutes, remove the lid and let the bread brown well for another 25 minutes.
-Remove the bread from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Let it cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing into it.



**The story behind this recipe**
As I was about to say goodbye to Paris after almost three years, preparing for my move to London, something struck me. Where would I find that absolutely fantastic bread in London, readily available as it is in every corner of Paris? How would I find that network of protein, all intertwined into one in my loaf? I would have to make special trips to artisanal bakeries! I just wanted to have a baguette with some cheese and oil for lunch or a slice of ‘Pain d'Amis’ from ‘Du Pain et des Idées’ to soak into my soup.

Then it struck me. Why don't I bake my own bread?

And thus I started by reading about sourdough online and in several books. I realised that bacteria and yeast are the most important elements in the growth of a starter, as are the environmental conditions (air, water, temperature, etc), which is why I began the process using Parisian environmental conditions, to compare with conditions in London. The process of managing the sourdough culture was rigorous, involving regular care and feeding of the 'starter'. My wife and I finally committed to having our own French loaf, and I documented the process with multiple daily posts and photos on our live blog - theperfectloaf.tumblr.com.

After at least three weeks of daily nurturing, we were ready to bake. We placed the levain into a Le Creuset dutch oven that we popped into our tiny toaster oven in hope of achieving the perfect crust and the perfect crumb. While I waited, I was already content. It didn't matters how the bread turned out - the process was more enjoyable than the best bread could ever taste. The smell of the warm loaf baking in our home exceeded all we could have hoped for with the bread. Even when we moved to London and baked in our oven, that smell lingered on, reminding us of our morning walks by the Parisian boulangeries.

The sourdough culture we started in Paris is still going strong, almost three months after we first began. And the taste? C’est incroyable!