The Perfect Loaf

I tried a million and one single- or two-feed starter builds for the mix using my refrigerated levain as the seed, and either the rise wasn’t up to a par and it needed added yeast or the flavor was too sour. It’s not enough to simply make the bread rise well. It should taste good too.

Your freshly mixed levain weighs 450 grams. Each recipe in this book uses either 50 grams / ¼ cup or 100 grams / ½ cup of this culture. When it’s time to refresh the culture, use the same container as its permanent home. Don’t wash out the container; just remove all but 50 grams / ¼ cup of what is left in there, add more flour and water, and mix by

We’re looking for that just-ripe point where it has the leavening power to ferment the dough. It’s also going to impart a balanced complexity of fermented flavors without being too sour. The sour would come if there was an excess of fermentation in the levain itself, like if we were to wait longer to mix dough from it.

The beauty of sourdough is that once you have made your initial ferment, you can use some to make your bread, and then keep back a portion of it to use later – provided you keep refreshing it every few days. The reason you have to keep nourishing your ferment is to keep it alive; if you leave it alone, it will have nothing to feed on and start feed

I know many people feel uncomfortable about discarding surplus starter each time they refresh, but it’s a process that is often misunderstood. In my experience, keeping slightly more starter in your jar (about 200g) cultivates a more active starter. However, the conundrum is that this means you will have surplus, and you will need to discard some s