Skibum's blog

I have been maintaining two active levains. One white at a 1:1:1 feeding ratio and one Forkish style, 1:1:4:5 levain, ww flour, strong bread flour and unlike KF I like to go 100% hydration as it lends more to the sweet lactic acid side of the flavour spectrum. I like Ken's discussion on tailoring the flavour profile of your levains.

The first week or so with my new levains I fed daily. Then they both lived on the counter for 24 hours after feeding, then into the fridge for two days. I think my Forkish style levain is ready. I feed at 4 - 5 pm and in the morning this is what I had:

Well with a couple of fresh levains to bake with and feed, I thought I would try and use some of the natural starter discard in a traditional naan recipe. I LOVED the results!!! The recipe is super easy and with a little baking powder, you can enjoy the results fairly fast.

Formula:

1/2 cup whole milk, scalded and cooled to 90F

1 tsp sugar

30g sweet levain, 100% hydration

285g AP flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 Tbs canola oil

31/2 Tbs full fat plain Greek yogurt

25g beaten egg

I am SO glad to have an active yeast water! The leavening properties of YW are pretty amazing. I have updated my recipe for this loaf after discovering a few errors in an older YW Pulla post, now deleted.

Here is the proofed loaf on the peel, ready to bake:

After baking for 29 minutes, steam for the first 12:

Levain:

50g yeast water

50g strong bread flour

I'm really not sure how, but sometime over the winter my venerable Henckels bread knife went missing. I bought this cheap orange knife, hoping the other would turn up, but no luck. 

Freshloafers, please do yourselves a favour and NEVER buy a knife like the cheap orange one. When I began baking Forkish style boules in the cast DO the knife would barely cut through the crust.

Well this old skibum is a very happy baker, having both a natural levain and now a working yeast water culture. I used 50g of sweet levain and 50g of YW levain, both at 100% hydration in a mix with about 450g total flour.

I am AMAZED by the oven spring the YW adds to the bake. I bake pulla often, but have been stuck baking the commercial yeasted versions. The natural leavening simply produces superior crust, crumb and flavour!

With all of this fresh starter, I am back to baking something every day and my neighbours and I are loving the results!

Wow is it ever grat to have a strong active sweet levain again! I have been feeding daily to help develop character and depth and also baking daily. I built a 1:1:1 levain with bread flour and 95F water as per Forkish and it doubled in three hours. for this bake, I used my sweet levain pulla dough and the chololate filling from ITJB and slivered almonds. YUMMM!!!

I gifted some of this and this morning's boule to my neighbours as a Mother's day treat. I have some happy neighbours!

This bake was Ken Forkish's double fed sweet levain and I kept to his schedule as much as I could. I had to refrigerate the first build for a few hours and the second build overnight, so the flavour profile will be somewhat different, but this formula sure makes a nice loaf of bread. Great shreddy crumb and a nice crust.

I really enjoy how the loaf blooms open organically by proffing seam side down and baking seam side up.

WOW! Boy was it EVER nice to bite into a naturally leavened loaf again!!!!! The crust, crumb, chew and flavour are so much better!

Very nice to have an active levain started! My YW  starter is sparkling along on day four, so I am back in business. Now that I have a nice active levain and ski season is done, I am getting into the rhythm of baking bread again and lovng it again!

I killed off both my sweet levain and YW starters after lengthy travel last fall. I thought it would be easy to replicate -- NOT. Two fails with both Deb Wink's pineapple juice solution and dabrownman's YW. I gave up and didn't bake another loaf all winter. Just cookies, buns and muffins.

Well I now have a most active, young levain. There are two things I did to ensure success this time. Okay three if you count the time that I have to tend to things these days.

Hi friends, this old ski bum had a busy winter baking mostly cookies and muffins and logging 100 ski days for the season in a difficult snow year. YAHOO!

I was going to bake baguettes, got lazy and decided to do a Forkish style proof and bake. Funny, I ate little bread over the winter and suddenly had a hankering for a fresh loaf. Mission accomplished! I also started a pineapple juice solution to get a levain going and in day 5, it looks like I have a successful starter!!!!! I Am also day two on a YW starter that is progressing well according to dabrownman's instructions.