Éric Kayser explains how to make homemade sourdough

Levain is one of the six pillars of bread-making: flour, water, salt, fresh baker’s yeast, levain, and… passion.
After my video on liquid levain ( • Make your own natural levain… ), it’s time to introduce you to stiff levain.

You will need to experiment, practice, and even make mistakes—like any good baker, improvement comes with experience.
Put on your aprons and let yourself be guided, step by step, day by day.

Day 1
Mix the flour and water by hand until there are no more lumps.
You can substitute rye flour with stone-ground flour or einkorn flour, preferably darker (meaning it contains more of the grain’s outer layers).

Scrape down the sides of your bowl and gather all the dough in the center.
Then, let your mixture rest at room temperature for 24 hours, covered with a cloth.
Do not refrigerate it.

Day 2
Mix the water, flour, and the Day 1 mixture by hand until fully incorporated.
For added flavor and better fermentation, you may optionally dissolve a little honey into your water.

You can substitute stone-ground flour with rye, buckwheat, or whole wheat flour.
You are the master of your levain—it’s up to you to balance the flavors as you prefer.

Scrape down the sides of your bowl and gather the dough in the center.
Let it rest at room temperature for 24 hours, covered with a cloth.
Do not refrigerate it.

Day 3
Mix the water, flour, and the Day 2 mixture by hand.
Unlike the previous days, today the water should weigh half as much as the flour.
You can choose the amount of flour you wish to use—just divide its weight by two to determine the necessary amount of water.

Knead thoroughly until the mixture is smooth and completely free of lumps.

After kneading, keep 2/3 of the levain for your bread recipe and reserve 1/3 in the refrigerator for future use (after refreshing it).

Now, let your levain rest and ferment for 2 to 3 hours at room temperature before using it on Day 3.
For the portion you saved, it must also ferment for 2 to 3 hours at room temperature before use on baking day.

Now it’s your turn to try!
Let me know how it goes.

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