Pain au Levain Naturel
Difficulty 4/5 Ingredients 7 Steps 16
This is a simplified recipe for pain au levain, a white crusty French sourdough bread.
Ingredients
Starter culture
- 150 g (½ cup) flour
- Water, warmed
First rise
- 500 g (1 pound) flour
- 300 g (1 cup) water
Final assembly
- About 1.6 kg (10 cups) flour
- 800 g (3¼ cups) water
- 20 g (2 tsp) coarse salt (or 1½ tsp table salt)
Steps
Starter culture
- Mix flour with a little warm water into a dough neither too wet nor too dry.
- Transfer to a covered glass or earthenware container. Rest above 20°C (68°F).
- Stand 3–4 days, stirring daily with a wooden spoon and adding a little warm water and flour each time.
First rise
- Add flour and water to the yeast culture.
- Work dough 5–10 minutes with a wooden spatula.
- Cover with a clean cloth. Stand overnight at about 25°C (77°F).
Final assembly
- If dough has not risen sufficiently, stand another 12 hours. When ready, refrigerate about 3 tablespoons of dough as starter for next time.
- Mix flour, water and salt into the dough. Reserve some flour for kneading.
- When dough is difficult to handle in the bowl, work it on a flat surface, adding a little flour as needed. Knead about 20 minutes by pulling and folding, without pressing down.
- Cover with a clean cloth. Proof 1 hour at around 25°C (77°F).
- Divide dough into 3 balls.
- Oil three baking pans. Shape balls to pan size and insert. Or bake without a pan on a baking sheet.
- Cover with a clean cloth. Rise 2 hours or more at around 25°C (77°F) until loaves reach 1½ to 2 times original size.
- Cut diagonal incisions along the length of the loaves with a razor blade.
- Preheat oven. Bake at 260°C (500°F), ½ hour. Lower to 200°C (400°F) and bake another ¼–½ hour. Two thirds through baking, sprinkle loaves with cold water for a shiny surface, and continue baking.
- Remove from oven. Cool.
Notes from the original
- Suitable flour types include complete 110 (high-gluten bread flour) or half-complete type 80 (all-purpose flour).
- It's best to use chlorine-free water, as the chlorine is bad for the yeast.
- In an oven with uneven heat distribution it may be necessary to move the loaves around halfway through baking.
- The bread will keep for one week.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Pain au Levain Naturel” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-06-08, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Mother-culture.png by Ibán Yarza, Public domain, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.