Homemade Bread Leaven (Sourdough Starter)
A traditional bread leaven made with flour, sugar, and hops to create a natural yeast starter for bread baking. This starter will ferment over three days and can leaven 25 pounds of bread dough.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Semolina flour or all-purpose flour (Soojee refers to semolina; all-purpose flour works as well)
- 0.25 pound Brown sugar (About 1/2 cup; feeds the fermentation)
- 0.5 drachm Dried hops, powdered (About 1/8 teaspoon; helps preserve the starter and adds wild yeast)
- 0 as needed Water (Just enough to form a stiff dough)
More recipes using Flour
British
Homemade Yeast (Liquid Starter)
A traditional liquid yeast starter made from flour, sugar, and water. This homemade yeast culture can be used for bread baking and will produce approximately 18 pounds of bread from one pint of starter.
British
Homemade Yeast (Alternative Method)
An alternative method for making homemade yeast starter using flour, sugar, and water. This recipe produces a liquid yeast suitable for bread making, with one pint capable of leavening eighteen pounds of bread.
Instructions
- 1Dry the hops in the sun until completely dried. Pound them in a mortar and pestle until reduced to a fine powder.
- 2In a large bowl, combine the flour and powdered hops. Mix thoroughly to distribute the hops evenly throughout the flour.
- 3Add water gradually to the flour mixture, just enough to form a stiff dough. Mix until the dough comes together but remains quite firm and dry.
- 4Add the brown sugar to the dough and knead vigorously until the sugar is fully incorporated and the dough is smooth and uniform. This should take about 10 minutes of kneading.
- 5Roll the dough into a ball. Wrap it lightly in a clean cloth, then wrap the cloth-covered ball in a blanket to keep it warm.
- 6Place the wrapped leaven in a warm spot and let it ferment for 3 days. For best results, unwrap and knead the leaven once daily during these 3 days to ensure more perfect fermentation, then rewrap it. After 3 days, the leaven will be ready to use for bread making.
