pain au levain

Baking levain bread is a very slow process but it yields delicious bread! I followed the Ken Forkish's levain bread recipes from his book: the Overnight Country Brown rested for about 13 hours before shaping and tripled in size. The second recipe was his Feild Blend #1 that has whole wheat and rye flour and was shaped last night, rest in the fridge overnight and was baked today in the morning. I keep 2 wild yeast starters, a whole wheat flour (which I used for all these breads) and a white wheat flour starter that I use to make Pão Alentejano. I loved the flavor that comes from long fermentation and wild yeasts: it's slightly acid, with a delicious crust and soft interior.

whole wheat starter

This is how the Overnight Country Brown looked like after 13 hours of bulk fermentation.

Proofing in a basket

Lots of bread!!