Leaven

The leaven is consisted a symbiotic culture of Levure and Lactobacille developing in a mixture of flour and water. It is used for manufacture of the Leavened bread, on which it confers its specific taste compared to the bread assembled on Levure. The particular acidity of the leavened bread, indeed, due to the Lactic acid and the acetic Acid is produced by the lactic bacteria.

The leaven was for a long time the only manner of making raise the Pain. It is very difficult to date the discovery from the leaven, the first representations of this one date from the Egyptian Ancient Empire. According to the versions the leaven would have been discovered by the Babylonian or the Hebrew . But the origin most frequently quoted is that of Egypt, a person would have forgotten her paste of Céréale without cooking it, and this one, under the effect of the Fermentation would have started to inflate, thus creating the first raised bread.

The Parabole of the leaven is an account of New Testament.

Receipt

Ingredients

  • Flour (rye, wheat, malt…)

  • Spring water (or mineral)
  • Possibly of honey, sugar, the fruit juice or jam

Preparation

  • In a bottle (or a larger container with the need) preferably scalded as a preliminary (it should not be hot any more at the time of the mixture), pour the same volume of spring water (this one must be tepid, not chlorinated and without pesticide) that of flour, you can with the choice add a sugar pinch, or a spoon with coffee of honey or jam (without piece).

  • It is advised not to start with a too great quantity.
  • To cover the container either of a cloth, or of a plate or a lid. Attention, the leaven must be able to breathe, one never should close hermetically. (To maintain the cloth wet will avoid with the leaven drying on the surface, and will maintain it with the shelter too strong drafts.)
  • Placez leaven in a place where the room temperature is rather high: 25°C minimum. It should not however not be placed close to a direct source of heat, with the shelter of the sun rays.
  • the following day evening, make double your leaven by always adding the same quantity of water to him that of flour, one should not forget to mix well. (A Little apple, fruit juice for example, but especially not orange, can be also used to feed the glucid leaven.)
  • It may be that a crust is formed or that liquid is put on surface; it is enough to mix the leaven when it is the case.
  • Two days later, to again refresh the leaven by making it double, always with the same quantity of water as of flour. A few hours later, you will be able to note that bubbles are formed and that surface becomes sparkling, it is that your leaven was born.
  • Consequently, it is ready to serve for the design as the Leavened bread.
  • It is necessary to continue to refresh the leaven regularly (more or less often according to the number of batches per weeks, but at least once every two days) so that it does not die.
  • do not forget each time you made bread preserve a piece of paste which will be used as a basis for the preparation of the leaven for the following batches: this piece constitutes the “chief”.
  • It is normal that the leaven releases a strong odor of lactic acid; it can also happen that the leaven dies, the only solution is then to start again the operation since the beginning.
  • the leaven can be frozen or dried, and preserved thus several months.

Note: It is difficult to make a success of its leaven as of the first time; by gaining experiment each one finds the method which is most suitable for him…

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages and disadvantages of the leaven compared to the Yeast baker.

Disadvantages

  • compact and dense Texture, more " élastique"
  • panification is longer
  • the Pain less quickly raises two to three times
  • Risques of failures

Advantages

The Cereal S as well as the Légumineuses contain Phytic acid located in the whole of the grain but more mainly in their envelope (pericarp). This acid joins some mineral present in the intestine to form insoluble Phytate S. It prevents the assimilation of minerals in our organization (one speaks about demineralization). Fortunately, under the action of the phytase (an enzyme produced in the leaven), the phytic acid is destroyed. The higher the rate of extraction of a flour is, plus its phytic acid content is important.

Conclusion

A leavened bread (it does not matter the type of leaven: poolish, liquid leaven, leaven of paste) are nutritionnellement more interesting than a bread only carried out with the yeast baker.

The taste of the leavened bread is different, more acid and aromatic.

The leavened bread is preserved a few weeks, that is to say much longer than the bread raised to the Levure (which is good only a few hours), because the acidity brought by the leaven slows down the retrogradation of the starch (phenomenon natural and irresistible which carries out the starch to take again its initial structure, consequently supporting the exchanges of water between the bread and the external medium).

Retrogradation is mainly responsible for the Rassissement. All the art of the baker consists in employing techniques making it possible to slow down this natural mechanism.

External bonds

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