Leaven recipe

This is the starter you need to make sourdough, and takes around 7 days to make. I have adapted this from Dan Lepard's book The Handmade Loaf.

• Day 1: Mix 50g water at 20 degrees C and two tablespoons of white bread flour, in a 500ml jar. Cover and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.
• Day 2: Stir 50g water at 20 degrees C and two tablespoons of white bread flour into the leaven, cover and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.
• Day 3: Throw away half of the mixture, and add two tablespoons of white bread flour and 50 g water. Shake the jar, cover and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.
• Day 4: Throw away about half of the mixture and repeat Day 3.
• Day 5: As day 4. Fermentation will be obvious now, and it will start to smell acidic.
• Day 6 onwards: Take the lid off the jar and you will see the mixture bubbling. Whenever you remove some leaven, replace with an equivalent amount of flour and water. The aroma of the leaven will become sharper and more acidic. If it smells like beer, you know you have done it right.

In his recipe, Dan recommends adding raisins and yoghurt to the leaven on day 1, but as someone said to me, why introduce yeasts from those foods, when I want to be using yeasts found in the air and in the flour.

I leave the leaven in the fridge, and take it out a couple of hours before I need to use it. I only ever use half of it, which is about 100g. I then replace what I used with equal amounts of flour and water, and leave the jar out for a couple of hours or more, before putting it back in the fridge.

I use a jar with a plastic lid that doesn't fit very well. This is good because it allows some air to escape (and sometimes leaven, which is why it is always on a plate when at room temperature.