It has Risen

Alright. I just took the pure levain breads out of the oven and they're beyond gorgeous. The recipe, of course, came from Flour Salt Water Yeast by Ken Forkish; Overnight Country Blonde. Not a drop of yeast and only 2 months of working at it, but I finally have perfected this bread.

What it really took was a familiarity and a trust.  Many bread makers talk about stickiness and tackiness. In Hawaii, where the humidity is so high and it is so warm, I really found that the recipes were too wet and the breads would fall. Once I understood this, and relied more on the feeling in my hands and getting a texture that I knew, the bread began to turn out wonderfully.

I would like to experiment more with the tangy taste that is common to levains. Perhaps I'll do that soon. Right now, I'm looking for the next bread book. Any suggestions?

What happened to the bread?

You must be wondering if I got lost in the loaf, burned in the oven or just flattened out right? Well, all of those things are true. You see, I decided to go through the whole book-Flour Water Salt Yeast. And at the levain section something went terribly wrong and I didn't want to tell you. My loaves were bricks of nothing. Nothing. They were so hard, I couldn't even cut through them. What had happened?

At night, I would review. I had tried to hard to follow Ken's Forkish's very precise directions and do it exactly as he said. But what had happened? This is what came to me.

Baking bread is a primal art. It's been practiced since time began (almost) and I believe the art of bread making connects us to each other, to the earth  and yes, to God. I've been baking bread since I was in my early 20's. I've sold my own bread.  To feed my children. That's right, bread helped us to survive through the hard times. So, what was happening with THIS bread?

I was disconnected from myself. There is a certain touch to bread that you only know about through practice and experience. I don't know exactly how to describe it other than it's when the ingredients have combined perfectly and are in union. The bread quits sticking to your hands and begins to develop it's own identity. That feeling is embedded in my soul. And, because I was trying so hard to do it like Ken, I got lost from my own identity.

I decided to come back to myself and to believe in myself again. I began to knead the bread as I always had and to wait for that magic moment when the dough was just right. Since that decision, my bread has come out beautiful each time. And the reason is because I'm coming from my center, from my heart and from my strength.

I'm now ready to move further into the levain process. Right now, people are asking for my bread and I'm so pleased. And we are enjoying it again, which is why I started the whole process in the first place.

The first loaves

I didn't mean to get you excited. There is no first loaf. That's becasue you have to create your levain. This is only a five day process. Oh yes, and after you create your levain, you have to feed it. It really makes me wonder what I've done. What have I done? I've created an entity that needs constant feeding, takes up space in my refrigerator, needs special tools and stuff and oh yeah, it is so worth it. Did I mention that?

Needless to say we had never done this. I was a wreck. And of course, I had jumped in without knowing anything about the tools that I would need. And being headstrong and stubborn, I forged ahead.

Day One

 I measured out the flour- 500 grams whole wheat and 500 grams of water which had to be a 90 degrees.

I mixed with my hands and made this into a slurry as directed. then I let it sit uncovered for 1-2 hours at which time I covered it with press and seal. Since we live in Hawaii where the normal day time temperature is around 85, I didn't have to worry about keeping th kitchen at the recommended 75 degrees. It was highly unlikely that it would even drop below that in the night. 

Day Two

At this point you throw away 3/4 of the initial mix. We thought that was rather wasteful but did it anyway. Then you "feed the levain". You add 500 grams of whole wheat flour and then  again 500 grams of water (90 degrees), mis by hand until just mixed and cover for a few hours, then cover and let it rest. The levain mixture does actually expand to about 3 times its original size.

Are you starting to see how I could get nervous? What if I put in all this work and then had to start over?

Day Three

The levain has now risen and has a very good smell, one that you need to become familiar with. It smells slightly of alcohol and the bottom notes of yeast. So, again you throw out abotu 3/4 of the mix and feed it again. 500 grams of whole wheat and 500 grams of water. Leave it uncovered for a few hours then cover and let it sit out overnight.

Day Four

On day four you throw everything away except 200 grams of the mixture. To that you add the 500 grams of whole wheat and the 500 grams of water. Same as before uncovered and covered.

Day Five

The culture is now ready. Throw all away except for 150 grams of it. To this add 400 grams  of white flour, 100 grams of whole wheat and 400 grams of 85 degree water. Mix by hand. That afternoon, your levain is ready to use.

This process seemed so strange to me. It was nerve racking as I said and I was terrified that I would do something wrong. Mind you, I've been baking bread since I was twenty and this was brand new. 

My husband and I decided to start with the yeasted breads first. It was a bit later that I realized that I wanted to blog about it decided to go through the book recipe by recipe.

The first bread we made was the 75% Whole Wheat Levain Bread. There are several steps and you don't actually get to bake the bread on the first day like you would with a normal yeast bread. First you have to go through the whole "feeding process". That is one thing that really bothers both of us. You throw so much away. I wish I could find another way. None the less, after the feeding, you begin the autolyse process 6 to 8 hours later. This is where you again add the whole wheat, white and water to the levain. The amounts are much larger and you let it rest for a half hour.

The next step is when you mix the final dough incorporating the levain. Five hours after this, you divide the dough and shape it. It will proof in the refrigerator overnight for 12 to 13 hours.

It truly is very time consuming and you have to make sure you can keep the schedule. You also have to make sure about when you can bake the bread. Sam and I have worked it out over several weeks. 

The bread gets baked in a dutch oven with the cover on for part of the baking and then off. It truly does come out wonderful.

The beginning of the loaf has nothing to do with the bread

The Beginning of The Loaf Has Nothing to do With The Bread

It was a gorgeous Saturday in Waimea, Hawaii. Clouds clung to the hills as a slight mist fell interspersed with sunshine. Sam and I pulled into the Parker School parking lot and found a spot. I'd been here before and knew just where I wanted to go. First, the vegetable stand and then to the bread stand.


 I loved getting a loaf of levain bread and a few sweets for Sunday morning. I tell you, these people had it down. Everything they made was heavenly. I chose a gorgeous loaf of walnut bread and several chocolate croissants and some cinnamon rolls. So delicious, I could hardly wait to serve them to Sam the next morning. When the young man rang me up and told me my bill was $20.00, I gasped.

"No way. How much is the bread?" I asked him.
 "$8.00." 
"Wow, that's a lot for a loaf of bread."

 Of course, in Hawaii, horrible bread at the grocery is sometimes more than that, but what the heck. I wouldn't eat any of that trash if I didn't have to. I dutifully paid my money.

As I drove the 30 miles back home, I had plenty of time to think about things. I could make that bread. I knew I could. Right then, I decided to give it a go. 

When I got home, I put everything away, still thinking about the bread. I fixed  some lunch and then went to my computer. I typed in the first 4 letters-amaz-. My computer knew this name by heart and went directly to amazon.com. I started looking at bread books and had actually had my eye on one for a while. I think it was close to mother's day or something like that, so I asked Sam if he would give me the book as a present. In a week, I was the proud owner of FLOUR,WATER,SALT,YEAST,THE FUNDAMENTALS OF ARTISAN BREAD AND PIZZA BY Ken Forkish. (Is that not the greatest name for a cook?)

The insanity began

I read the book like it was Fifty Shades of Grey. (Actually I never could finish that book. It was too distracting with the girl licking her lips every other sentence) None the less, let's just say, I loved my bread book. It was beautiful, well written, inspiring and I wanted what he had. I wanted it bad. I wanted the hard bread with the spiral on top and the flour dusting. I wanted the holes in my loaf and the tangy sour taste. I was a goner.

Needless to say, it never dawned on me to read the first chapters carefully. No, I rushed to the recipes right away. Right? 

So, when I got to the recipes, I didn't realize that I would need, are you ready? Here goes.

1. Dough tub
2. Another dough tub
3. 2 Dutch ovens
4. Digital kitchen scale, whew, I had that.
5. Instant read probe thermometer, had that too.
6. Silicon oven mitts, the welders gloves didn't work.
7. And I quote, "because the quantities of yeast called for in these recipes are typically quite small, its difficult to measure them accurately with a scale. In a few cases you'll get  the most accurate results if you have a 1/16 teaspoon, oh and by the way, available online at Amazon.
8. Tea towels as well as non-perforated plastic bags (do you know what those are?)
9. If you're going to make pizza, then pizza equipment. I won't even bore you with those details although I am going to make pizza and I'll tell you all about when I do.
10. Ingredients such as King Arthur Flour which if you don't live in Hawaii, you wouldn't understand. You can't order it because the shipping costs more than your youngest child's college tuition and most store don't carry it. Oh yeah, Target was carrying it, but the week I went in to get it they weren't I had to search the town for it. 
11. Proofing baskets, yup available at amazon.com.
12. And last but not least-THE BOOK!!!!!


Okay, let's review. Dough tubs- 30.00. with one click of course.
dutch oven- 50.00 also with one click.
Silicon oven mitts- 30.00 Proofing Baskets (they make the cute little spiral)- 25.00 and they took a month to get here. Tea Towels-they can run up to over 100.00. I am just using old cotton ones. pizza stuff, I had it already and my friend gave me an extra stone. 1/16 teaspoon, don't know haven't gotten it.Flour-about 6.00 for a 5 lb.bag and I have to drive 40 miles. THE BOOK- Flour Water Salt Yeast-25.00.

Are you ready for the grand total here. You think I was shocked at the 20.00 for bread, well, my total, and I'm sure that I'm not completely done, is 204.00. Can you see why I think I'm crazy. Oh, and believe me, I've gotten my husband involved. More about that later. But the bread is heavenly, oh so heavenly.