September 22, 2022 - 8:06am
Levain Ratio
Hi! My name is Fausto, I have made bread at home using Levain for a few years, always in a very homemade way, I stopped for a period and I'm coming back again with the breads and Levains, but I'm studying more, reviewing some recipes, proportions, procedures, etc.
I always used the 1:2:2 ratio in preparing the dough, of course, it always gets sourer.
I have doubts about some proportions that I have found in some books, but I cannot find the explanation of why.
1:2:2, 1:1:2, 1:2:3 to 1:4:4 or greater.
What are the characteristics of fermentation and flavor of bread when the proportion of flour and water in the preparation of Levain is increased?
Can you help me?
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You’re asking several questions, so I‘ll take a whack at ratios. The way I use ratios is to extend or shorten my levain build. I usually plan a 3-generation levain build over 36 hours. If my starter is really lively (which it has been lately), I will use 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 in order to get peak activity in 10-12 hours. So first generation will get 5 g starter, 10 g water and 10 g flour, gen 2 will add at least 50 g each water and flour, final generation will depend on where I want to land, which is usually at 300-350 g of levain.
If I need to speed up a generation I would maybe go 1:1:1 or even 1:.5:.5. Is this making sense?
Other people might use ratios to manage other properties of bread but for me it’s all about how much levain I want for my dough. For a 2 kg batch of dough, I generally will supplement 350 g of levain with 250-300 g of poolish or biga, so I’ll approach 1/3 pre-fermented flour in most recipes. Many people use a stricter adherence to formulas but I choose to avoid the discard problem by using all the levain I make. Works for me. People like my bread.
Hope this helps,
Phil