Levain, leaven, sourdough starter. They can be the same thing, but not always.

Levain is a noun in the French language. By definition a ‘sourdough culture’.

Leaven is an English word. It can be a noun meaning the same as above. It can also be used as a verb defining the action of fermentation. ‘I named my leaven Flint’; ‘I use Flint to leaven my bread dough’.

What is the difference between a starter and a leaven?

A starter and a leaven essentially do the same thing. You add them to a bread dough, and they make it ferment and rise. You can just keep a starter, feed it regularly or refrigerate and refresh it occasionally, and build it before you want to use it in a recipe.

The starter is fed, left to become active and bubbly and then added to a bread dough. A little bit is left behind for perpetuating the culture. I know quite a few bakers who do it this way.

Other bakers including myself like to keep a starter which they feed regularly or refrigerate and refresh it occasionally, but when they want to make bread, they take some of the starter and mix it in a separate container with fresh water and flour to build a leaven. Unlike the other method all the leaven is used in the recipe. There is no need to leave any behind since the starter is in a separate container.

In both cases the starter must be continuously fed and kept in good condition.

So why waste time and build a leaven separately?

It is more work to build a leaven separately and you got double the washing up to do afterwards. But there are a couple of good reasons to do it this way.

To have a happy starter that is always active and predictable it should be kept in the same condition because that is what it is used to.

Different bread formulas require preferments with different hydration levels and different kinds of flour. If you are making several different breads in a row, then your starter could go through many changes during a short time.

I keep my starter at a hydration of 100% and I only feed it with white bread flour. If I start changing the flour and water percentage, then it will ferment differently every time.

If for example you would make a rye bread, then you would need to convert your starter to a rye starter. And then if the next day you wanted to make cinnamon buns, then they would contain rye flour.

Perhaps that is why I sometimes hear that people keep several starters at the same time. Is it that they use the starter as a leaven like I described above and because they like to bake different breads, they must have a separate starter for each kind of bread?

Let me know if you have more than one starter and tell me why because I am curious now. So far, I have only ever needed one from which I can make a leaven to fit any recipe and it has always worked.

Using a soaker is the prefect method for incorporating heathy and tasty seeds and grains into the bread that you are making.

Adding such a method to naturally leavened bread is even better. A long slow fermentation brings out the best of the flour and makes the bread more digestible. It improves the taste and combined with a soaker it results in a delicious and nutritious bread for every day.

You can use any seeds and grains that you like in the soaker.

There are hot and cold soakers. Hot water is used for hard grains and cold is used for seeds and softer grains. Millet is quite hard, so the soaker in this recipe is hot. You must leave it to cool down to room temperature before proceeding to make the dough.

This loaf is for the people who like their sourdough bread to taste nice and sour. Its flavour is quite intense because of the long slow fermentation at room temperature. Only a small amount of starter is used to begin with, but the dough is left to bulk ferment for around 12 hours at room temperature.

It is one of those set it and forget it recipes. Kneading only takes about 4 minutes. Mostly to distribute the ingredients evenly throughout the dough. The loaf is proofed and baked in a tin, so that makes life easier too.

This time I did not make a leaven out of my starter. I simply used the starter when it was nice and active. It was late in the evening, and I would not have had time to make a leaven anyway. Normally I keep a small amount of starter and that is why I usually must build a leaven since there may not be enough for a particular recipe. Here I only needed 25g (0.9oz).

This recipe makes one standard 900g (2lb) loaf.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

For the soaker –

60g (2.1oz) millet

20g (0.7oz) oats

30g (1oz) cornmeal

5g (0.17oz) ground fennel seeds

120g (4.2oz) boiling water

For the dough –

200g (7oz) white bread flour

200g (7oz) whole wheat flour

10g (0.35oz) salt

230g (8oz) water

25g (0.9oz) active sourdough starter

To learn more about dough temperature control click here.

The four I use has a protein content of 13%. If your flour is weaker, then you may need to lower the hydration.

Method

1. Make the soaker. In a large bowl combine the millet, oats, cornmeal, and ground fennel seeds. Pour in the boiling water and stir well. Cover and leave to sit for 1 hour.
2. Make the dough. Add the water, salt, and starter to the soaker. Mix well to dissolve the salt. Add both the white and whole wheat flours. Use the scraper to mix to a dough.
3. Tip the dough out on the table and knead using the slap & fold method for 4 minutes. It will be sticky. To make life slightly easier you can leave the dough to sit for 20 minutes before kneading it. *Desired dough temperature 25C – 26C (77F – 79F). If your dough is warmer, then it will ferment more rapidly. If it is cooler, then it will take longer.
4. Place into a bowl and leave to ferment for 10 – 12 hours. I made it in the evening, and it was ready the next morning.
5. Pre-shape the dough. Use a generous dusting of flour as the dough may be quite sticky.
6. Leave to rest for 20 minutes.
7. Final shaping. Place in a loaf tin.
8. Cover and proof for 2 – 3 hours or until it just starts peeking above the rim of the tin. *During the final hour of fermentation preheat your oven to 210C (410F) fan off.
9. Bake the loaf for 40 minutes.

Leave to cool down and enjoy!

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.

Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.

These may just be the ultimate doughnuts! Naturally leavened for great taste and filled with dulce de leche. Soft and fluffy but also hearty.

I love a doughnut just as much as the next person. And I have made videos about different doughnuts in the past. One being a brioche doughnut filled with jam and the other a regular doughnut with a delicious lemon crème filling.

But sourdough doughnuts have always been my favourite. I feel like they should not exist like some forbidden fruit. Not sure why. Perhaps I’m just used to using my starter for non-sweet bakes most of the time.

It is the natural leavening that sets them apart and makes them unique. You could fill a doughnut with whatever you like and make it taste like the filling. But a sourdough doughnut has more flavour brought forward from the dough itself.

Along with the taste also comes texture. These doughnuts are soft and springy, but they also have a bit of a bite to them.

A doughnut is a great canvas for creativity. You can use your favourite filling and coat them with various flavoured sugars or even glazes. The customizability has no limits.

I chose a simple yet tasty filling of dulce the leche. It is sweetened condensed milk that is cooked in the tin for several hours until it turns into a tick caramel-like substance. It is extremely easy to make and if you love caramel, then this is the way to go.

To coat the doughnuts, I used cinnamon sugar. It goes well with the caramel.

The recipe makes 12 small doughnuts, but they are quite filling. You can double the amounts of ingredients to make more.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

For the preferment –

70g (2.5oz) white bread flour

70g (2.5oz) water

70g (2.5oz) sourdough starter

I used room temperature ingredients at about 24C (75F). To learn more about dough temperature control click here.

For the main dough –

230g (8.1oz) white bread flour

30g (1oz) sugar

2g (0.07oz) salt

1 egg yolk

30g (1oz) softened butter

5g (0.17oz) vanilla paste or syrup

55g (1.95oz) cool water

To learn more about dough temperature when using a preferment click here.

The four I use has a protein content of 13%. If your flour is weaker, then you may need to lower the hydration.

If you are curious about why the dough contains butter, egg, and sugar, click the links to learn more about the effects those ingredients have on bread dough.

For the filling –

1 tin, 400g (14oz) sweetened condensed milk. I cooked two tins in the video, but one is more than enough.

For the cinnamon sugar –

100g (3.5oz) caster sugar

2g (0.07oz) ground cinnamon

Oil for frying

Method

1. Make the preferment (poolish). In a bowl combine the water, starter, and flour. Mix well until there is no dry flour left and there are no lumps. The ratio and fermentation time of the preferment is up to you. If you make it at 1:10:10, then you could leave it to rise overnight to be ready the next day. Mine took 4 hours to rise.
2. Right before I made my dough, I started cooking the filling. Take the labels off the tins and place them in a pot filled with water. Make sure the water covers the tins fully. Place a lid on the pot to prevent the water from evaporating. Simmer the tins for 3 hours. After three hours place the pot in your sink and run cold water over it until the tins cool down. DO NOT OPEN THE TINS UNTIL THEY ARE COMPLETELY COOL.
3. Make the dough. In a large bowl combine the water, egg yolk, salt, sugar, and vanilla paste. Mix well to dissolve the salt and sugar. Add the poolish, butter, and remaining flour. Mix to a dough.
4. Tip the dough out on the table and knead it for 5 minutes. *Desired dough temperature 26C – 27C (79F – 80F). If your dough is warmer, then it will ferment more rapidly. If it is cooler, then it will take longer. Adjust proofing time accordingly.
5. Cover and ferment for 2 hours.
6. Fold.
7. Ferment for 2 more hours.
8. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and pre-shape.
9. Rest for 20 minutes.
10. Final shape into round balls. Place them on an oiled tray and cover them.
11. Final proof 2 – 3 hours or until doubled in volume. During this time open the tins of filling and scoop into a bowl. Mix well until it is nice and smooth and then transfer to a piping bag. Keep at room temperature.
12. Heat up the frying oil to 160C (320F).
13. Carefully place the doughnuts in the oil and cook them for 2.5 minutes per side. If they look a bit pale, then give them 30 more seconds per side.
14. Drain on a rack. After a couple minutes of draining, roll them in the sugar.
15. Leave to cool down for at least 30 minutes.
16. Poke a hole in each doughnut and fill with the dulce de leche.

Enjoy!

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.

I realized that the ratio of yeast dough to sourdough recipes on my channel is quite unfair, so in this video we will learn how to convert any recipe to a naturally leavened one.

The calculations are similar to my straight dough to yeast preferment conversion. But I have added some extra info here. It is worth watching both videos however because I go into more detail about the types of preferments when it comes to hydration levels.

Also, check out the preferment guide for even more in-depth information.

Baker’s percentage and hydration are two more concepts that you must know in order to be comfortable with converting recipes.

In this video we will concentrate more on the calculations. I take it that if you already have a starter. If not, then check out my starter guide in the Sourdough Bread playlist.

How I convert a recipe.

Let’s say you have a straight dough recipe with commercial yeast, and you want to convert it. It has 345g white bread flour, 55g whole wheat flour, 8g salt, 260g water, 1g instant yeast.

In baker’s maths that would be: 100% flour, 2% salt, 65% water, 1% yeast. All ingredients are calculated as a percentage in relation to the total amount of flour in the recipe.

The 100% flour is made up of all the flour in the recipe, so the whole 400g.

We will get rid of the dry yeast because we will not be using it.

A standard leaven would be made up of 10% – 20% of the total flour in the recipe. You can choose to ferment any amount of flour that you like. I rarely go less than 10%, but it can easily be way more than 20%. For this example, I chose 15%.

To calculate the amount of flour for the leaven we must find out what 15% of 400g is.

• 400g x 0,15 = 60g

Next, we decide what hydration the leaven should be. I decided to stick to the same hydration as the dough (65%). Baker’s math works the same way with the bulk of the dough as well as the leaven. So, next up we must calculate the amount of water in grams for the leaven.

• 60g x 0,65 = 39g, but we will round this up to 40g just to make things neater, so that the leaven makes up a neat 100g.

Finally, we decide the ratio of the leaven. I know that my starter is active enough to make a leaven rise in 10 hours at a 1:6:4 ratio. That is 1 part sourdough starter, 6 parts flour, 4 parts water.

To calculate each ingredient in grams first add up the leaven ratio values. Then divide the total amount of leaven by that number to find out how much one part of the leaven should weigh.

• 1 + 6 + 4 = 11
• 100 : 11 = 9g (rounded)

Now just multiply the leaven ratio values by 9g.

• 1 x 9 = 9g starter
• 6 x 9 = 54g flour. I will round this to 55g, so that I can use all the wholewheat flour
• 4 x 9 = 36g water
• 9g + 55g + 36g = 100g starter

Note that by now the hydration of the leaven has changed to about 69% because my starter is 100% hydration meaning that it contains 4.5g flour and 4.5g water. But that is not so important. The ratio is the most important part here.

You must however calculate the main dough with these numbers in mind.

Now just subtract the leaven ingredients from the main dough to split the recipe up in its two parts – the preferment and the main dough. This way the hydration of the total formula will still be correct.

Another way to do it.

Let’s say you have a recipe that is made with a yeast preferment, a poolish.

It contains 100g flour and 100g water, and 0,1g yeast. The hydration makes it a poolish. It has equal parts flour and water making it 100% hydration. For calculation purposes it has only two ingredients, the flour and water. The yeast makes up an insignificant amount.

So, the ratio of this preferment is 1:1.

If we want to turn it into a sourdough poolish we must add the ingredients and then divide by 3 because a leaven will be made up of equal parts starter, flour, and water. 1:1:1

• 200g : 3 = 66g (or thereabout); 66g starter; 66g flour; 66g water.

How to change the ratio of the leaven.

A poolish is simple because it has the same amounts of ingredients, but other preferments have different ratios and hydration levels.

Let’s say we want to turn this poolish from 1:1:1 to 1:6:4.

All we must do is add up those numbers and then divide the total amount of poolish by that number to find out how much one part of it weighs.

• 1 + 6 + 4 = 11 ; 200g : 11 = 18.18g, but we will round it down to 18g.

One part of this ratio weighs 18g. Now we can multiply each ingredient to find out how many grams it should be.

• 1 x 18 = 18g starter
• 6 x 18 = 108g flour
• 4 x 18 = 72g water

This makes for a total of 198g which is close enough.

The ratio can be changed to whatever, but the calculations will always work the same way.

When I do calculations for my recipes it seems very simple to me, but when I must type them out here is becomes quite complex. I hope all this made sense.

Perhaps the easiest way to do it.

My method of calculating relies on deciding the percentage of flour in the preferment first. This adds a couple of steps to the whole formula.

Other people like to decide on a percentage of preferment. So, for the previous example they would say that it is 25% preferment.

• 400 x 0.25 = 100

This gets us to the 100g total right away. From here we use the same calculations with the ratios to get our individual ingredients. It makes life simpler, but I just have got used to thinking of it as percentage of total flour in the preferment and it just makes sense to me even though it does add more steps to the calculations.

If you have kept a sourdough starter for a long time, then you know all too well how often it must be fed and what temperature, flour, and water it likes and performs best with.

You would have had the need to store it somehow when you went on vacation. Most of us just feed it and pop it in the fridge. The cold temperatures slow down the activity and the fresh flour added is enough food for the slow starter to keep it going for a long time.

Some bakers like to keep their starter in the freezer. Some brush a thin layer of it on baking paper, let it dry out and then turn it into a powder that then can be mixed with fresh flour and water and brought back to life.

I have never worried too much about it. There have been times that my starter was kept in the fridge for several months, and it still came back every time. I even left a piece of it in the fridge for a whole year just to see what would happen and it still came back with a couple of feedings.

Starters are indestructible.

It is safe to say that a starter is hard to kill. I would even go as far as saying that a starter is impossible to kill accidentally. You could kill it if you tried to, but that would just be pointless.

So, this video is for the many bakers who have told me that at one time or another they have killed their starter. No, you did not kill your starter. You just did not feed it correctly to make it active again or you did not persist and gave up too soon.

Saying that, I do appreciate that young starters are more susceptible to be overtaken by unwanted bacteria that could mess them up. But if refreshed over several feedings even those could come back to life and the yeast and lactobacilli would prevail.

If it is kept in the fridge and it has no mould on it, then it will come back to life guaranteed.

What is a starter really made of?

Flour and water, right! It’s not that simple though. At first it is just a mix of flour and water, but after a couple of days or even just one day a culture starts developing.

Now, the origin of the wild yeast is up for debate. Some say that it is absolutely everywhere including the air we breathe. Some say that it mostly comes from the flour. I am not a scientist, but I would lean towards it being in the flour since it is the yeast that ferments flour.

Some people love to treat it as this mythical thing that must be captured somehow and raised like a baby to grow big and strong. They often add ingredients like honey, grapes, apples, even pineapple, etc. While it is true that fruits and vegetables are covered with yeast, it may not be the yeast that we want to populate our starter. Those ingredients can be used as additional nutrition for the starter, but they are by no means necessary for its development or survival.

How does it develop into an active thriving culture?

All that is need is flour, water, time, and consistency. If the flour that you use is fresh (as in not old or gone off), then it should be full of yeast cells and not populated by harmful bacteria or mould. This is important since at the first stages of development the starter is susceptible to all kinds of nasties occupying it.

It must be fed and refreshed regularly so that it can stay acidic and keep the baddies out. The way that it prevails and becomes successful is that it multiplies and dominates the space preventing anything else from living in it.

Use clean utensils and practice good personal hygiene to avoid contamination.

Acidity is the key for its survival. The two main inhabitants of the starter are wild yeasts and lactobacilli. The bacteria are important in that they produce acids like lactic acid and acetic acid which lower the pH of the starter. The low pH is what gives sourdough its sour flavour.

An acidic environment eliminates pathogens like enterobacteria or staphylococcus. It is the same principle that gave us techniques of preservation for foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, and pickles.

The acidity of the starter acidifies the bread itself and it stays mould free for far longer than yeasted bread because of it. I have never had a sourdough bread go mouldy in my home. It just becomes stale as it ages.

Yeast produces alcohol (ethanol) which the lactobacilli tolerate. The lactobacilli produce acids which the wild yeasts tolerate. And to tie it all together wild yeasts produce enzymes as they reproduce which convert the starch in the flour to simple sugars that the yeast as well as the lactobacilli feed on. It’s symbiosis.

Lactobacilli outnumber the yeasts by as much as 100 to 1 in your starter.

Why does my starter look and smell weird?

If a starter is left unfed for a long time, then the yeasts and bacteria will consume all the food that is in it. There is only so much starch than can be converted to edible sugar. As it starts starving it produces hooch. It is a liquid often brown and sometimes even black in colour which settles on top of the starter.

The only reason for it appearing is that the starter is not fed enough or not fed regularly. The higher the hydration of the starter the more likely it will produce hooch. Along with looking strange, it can also smell weird. Old unfed starters do become quite acidic and cheesy.

My starter always gets a layer of hooch when I keep it in the fridge for a long time. There is nothing wrong with it though. The hooch can be stirred back into the starter and the feeding process can resume.

This layer of acidic and mildly alcoholic liquid protects the exposed starter from bacterial growth. When you see it in the fridge do not worry and leave it undisturbed if you are planning to leave the starter in the fridge for longer.

How can I tell if my starter is mouldy?

Mould is easy to spot. It is fuzzy and can be black, grey, green, or even pink. It will smell musty and stale kind of like old socks. I know some people love to refer to the smell of a starter as being like old socks. Don’t confuse sweaty feet with old socks is what I say.

If you suspect that your starter is mouldy, then it is best not to take any chances and just discard it and start over. It takes very little time to make a new one and the sentimental value is not worth getting sick over.

Why did I abuse my starter so badly?

I wanted to show you that a starter is very resilient and hard to kill. So, I left mine at room temperature for more than three weeks while I was on vacation.

When I came back, I discovered it covered in a semi-dry white layer of something. It was kind of rough and veiny and there were bubbles all over the surface. To be fair, I had never seen this, and I did not know what it was. But it definitely did not look or smell like mould.

Some research led me to the answer. It is a type of aerobic yeast that forms when sugar is completely used up and the pH of the starter drops because of lactic acid formation. It is just another form of the wild yeasts in the starter. When nutrients are depleted the yeasts swich to this filamentous form.

So, I just mixed it back into the starter and made a leaven. The first rise took 24 hours. On the second feeding it rose in just 10 hours and was ready to be added to a bread dough. The bread came out awesome!

If you want the recipe, it is here. I skipped the autolyse this time. It’s not really necessary here. And I had to ferment it for longer probably because my starter had not recovered from the abuse.

Don’t abuse your starter, please.

This sourdough pumpkin bread looks like a real pumpkin, and it is made with pumpkin puree, so it tastes like one too. I will show you how to make a perfect pumpkin loaf for Halloween.

Using cooked pumpkin instead of water in the main dough gives it an orangey-brown colour and a subtle pumpkin flavour. Pumpkin is 90% water, so the total hydration of this loaf comes to about 67%. This is the sweet spot as you get a soft loaf with a moist crumb which is still easy enough to work with and handle.

You can modify the recipe and bake the bread on the same day if you wish or you can cold proof it for up to 24 hours, which is what I did.

Making the bread look like a pumpkin takes only a few pieces of butcher’s string. But although it may sound simple there is one thing to pay attention to. Do not tie the wrong ends together. It may seem funny, but I did this. The best way to avoid this is by picking up two ends of string and moving them back and forth to see if you are holding on to the same piece of string. You know what I always say – I make the mistakes, so you don’t have to!

You can find butcher’s string and all the other equipment I use in my videos in my Amazon shops linked below.

I have been keeping my sourdough starter at 80% hydration lately. It used to be at 100%, but now I have found that the lower hydration makes it more predictable and forgiving. I feed it once a day every evening before I go to bed. That way it is always happy and active. One feeding per day is sufficient in my opinion although I used to feed it twice a day.

To keep your starter happy and healthy you should use good water. My started does not like tap water so I use filtered water.

When making the final dough do not use regular table salt as it can contain chemicals that mess with proper fermentation.

So, if you have been having trouble with your naturally leavened bread, then perhaps one of these tips may help you. To find out more about starters check out the Sourdough Starter playlist on my channel or the Sourdough Bread page on my website.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

For the leaven –

100g (3.5oz) strong white bread flour

80g (2.8oz) water at room temperature* if your kitchen is between 20C – 23C (68F – 74F). If it is cooler or warmer you may need to adjust the water temperature to compensate.

20g (0.7oz) active sourdough starter

*To learn more about dough temperature control click here.

For the main dough –

350g (12.35oz) strong white bread flour

9g (0.31oz) sea salt

250g (8.8oz) cooked mashed pumpkin, cooled down in the fridge.

1 egg for glazing

Method

1. Cook the pumpkin. Peel and dice pumpkin in 2.5cm (1in) pieces. Cover with foil and roast at 190C (375F) for around 1 hour or until completely soft. If it is a bit grainy, then cook it for longer. Mash the pumpkin and leave to cool down completely in the fridge. It must be 250g of cooked weight so you will need about 300g to begin with.
2. Make the leaven. In a small bowl combine the water, sourdough starter, and flour. Mix well until there is no dry flour left. Cover and ferment for 12 – 16 hours or until almost tripled in volume. *If you are not ready to make the final dough by the time the leaven has risen, then simply pop it in the fridge to slow down fermentation and use it when you are ready. I do this all the time when making mid-week sourdough. It gives great flexibility with naturally leavened bakes. Note that the cold starter will affect the final dough temperature so you will have to compensate with either warming up the mashed pumpkin or taking the leaven out of the fridge and letting it come up to room temperature. There are 100 ways of doing anything, I just want to give you options. To learn more about dough temperature when using a preferment click here.
3. In a large bowl combine the pumpkin and salt. Mix well to dissolve the salt. Add the leaven and the flour. Mix until there is no dry flour left.
4. Tip the dough out on your table and knead it for around 8 minutes. *Desired dough temperature 24C – 25C (75F – 77F). If your dough is warmer, then it will ferment more rapidly. If it is cooler, then it will take longer. Adjust proofing time accordingly.
5. Cover and ferment for 2.5 – 3 hours.
6. Fold.
7. Ferment for 2.5 – 3 hours.
8. Shape into a ball. Place in a cloth-lined bowl or a proofing basket with the smooth side down.
9. Now you can choose whether to bake it on the day or cold proof it. To bake it on the same day leave it to proof for around 2 hours. Alternatively cold proof it for up to 24 hours, which is what I did. *One hour before baking preheat your oven and your baking vessel to 220C (430F) fan off.
10. Lay down 6 lengths of string on a piece of non-stick paper with even gaps between them. See the video. Invert the dough onto the string. Brush it with egg. Tie the strings. Do not tie them too tight or too loose. You should be able to stick one finger between the string and the loaf. Poke a cinnamon stick in the middle of the loaf to make it look like the pumpkin’s stem.
11. Place the loaf in the pan and bake with the lid on for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 20 minutes. If you do not have a pan with a lid, then bake the loaf at a lower temperature of 210C (410F).
12. Leave to cool down and remove the strings.

Cut a wedge off and serve it alongside some hearty soup or just use it as a beautiful decoration.

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.

Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.

This black charcoal sourdough bread is the perfect spooky Halloween bake. It has a light and open crumb and super soft texture. Goji berries popping with sweetness and contrasting the blackness with their bright red colour it is sure to impress anyone.

Activated charcoal is commonly used to help with digestion, but it is also quite popular for creating black foods. It has no flavour so the only thing you get from it is the colour. Goji berries are sweet and tangy, and they are a superfood. Since the bread is naturally leavened, we have all kinds of heathy things going on in here. It may look dark and spooky, but it’s actually good for you.

You can find the charcoal powder and goji berries in my Amazon stores linked below. The bread only requires a little bit of each, but they have other uses so you do not have to worry about having bags of ingredients that will never get used up. Charcoal powder can be used to whiten teeth as funny as that may seem. And goji berries can be incorporated in your daily diet for extra vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

The recipe is straight forward made with a leaven and then cold proofed for extra flavour. You can modify the recipe and bake the bread on the same day if you like. Skull stencils are optional, but they do add to the theme. You can find them in my Amazon shop along with all the other equipment I use in my videos.

My starter and the leaven that I made are at 80% hydration. I have found that is the sweet spot for me personally as the lower hydration makes it more predictable and forgiving.

If you read this far, but you do not have a sourdough starter yet, then click here for more info.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

For the leaven –

100g (3.5oz) strong white bread flour

80g (2.8oz) water at room temperature if your kitchen is between 20C – 23C (68F – 73F). If it is cooler or warmer, then adjust the water temperature to compensate.

20g (0.7oz) active sourdough starter

For the main dough –

260g (9.2oz) strong white bread flour

40g (1.4oz) wholemeal flour

200g (7oz) cold water* I use filtered water which makes my starter happy.

8g (0.28oz) sea salt. Do not use table salt as it contains chemicals that will mess with proper fermentation.

8g (0.28oz) activated charcoal powder

40g (1.4oz) goji berries, soaked in water and drained.

*To learn more about dough temperature when using a preferment click here.

Method

1. Make the leaven. Mix the water, sourdough starter, and flour until there is no dry flour left. Cover and ferment for 12 – 16 hours or until almost tripled in volume. *If your leaven is ready, but you are not ready to make the dough yet, then simply pop it in the fridge to slow down fermentation. I do this all the time when making mid-week sourdough. The only thing you will need to adjust is the water temperature in the final dough as the leaven will be cold.
2. Make the dough. In a large bowl combine the water, salt, wholemeal flour, and activated charcoal. Mix well to dissolve the salt and distribute the ingredients evenly. Add the leaven and the white flour. Mix until there is no dry flour left.
3. Tip the dough out on your table and knead for 10 minutes. If it is too sticky, then you can switch to the stretch & fold method. *Desired dough temperature 24C – 25C (75F – 77F). If your dough is warmer, then it will ferment more rapidly. If it is cooler, then it will take longer. Adjust proofing time accordingly.
4. Cover and ferment for 1 hour.
5. Brush the table with water and tip the dough out with the smooth side down. Spread it out to a thin rectangle. Sprinkle over the drained goji berries. Fold the dough up.
6. Cover and ferment for 1 hour.
7. Fold #2.
8. Ferment for 1 hour.
9. Fold #3.
10. Ferment for 1 hour.
11. Pre-shape
12. Rest for 30 minutes.
13. Final shape. Dust the loaf with flour and shake off any excess. Place it in a proofing basket smooth side down. Pinch the seam together at the bottom. Cover and cold proof for up to 24 hours. *One hour before baking preheat your oven and baking vessel to 230C (450F) fan off.
14. Tip the loaf out on a piece of non-stick paper. Brush off any excess flour, then brush the loaf with water. Do the stencils.
15. Score and bake with the lid on for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for 20 more minutes.
16. Leave to cool down and enjoy!

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.

Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.

There are so many no-knead bread recipes out there, but I will show you have to do it effectively with minimal effort and a great result. This is basically fool proof as long as your starter is nice and active.

If you do not have a starter or would like to learn more about keeping your starter active, then check out the sourdough bread page where I have plenty of videos in which I explain everything is detail.

Your starter is the foundation of every bake. Everything relies on it. Make sure you use good water when feeding and making your dough. Use good salt without additives and good unbleached flour. Feed your starter regularly and know exactly how long it takes to rise at a certain feeding ratio. Once you have this kind of relationship you will be able to bake any bread.

With that out of the way let us talk about this bread. I do not make no-knead bread very often. But when I do, I am always surprised how good result can be without adding the effort and messiness of kneading. The strength that can be built up in the dough by simply performing a few folds and a nice tight shaping is amazing. You would never know that this was not kneaded.

At 70% hydration, this dough is a little sticky, but still easy to handle and because of the water content we get nice bubbles in the crumb and a beautiful texture.

Good quality water is super important for your starter. I would suggest using bottled water or filtered water. Another great way to neutralize the chlorine in tap water is by pouring it into a jar and leaving it uncovered for 24 hours.

Make sure to watch my hands to see how I handle the dough to make it nice and tight.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

For the leaven –

50g (1.75oz) strong white bread flour

50g (1.75oz) room temperature water if your kitchen is around 20-22C (68-71F)

10g  (0.35oz) active sourdough starter

*This is a 1:5:5 ratio and I know that my leaven will be ready in 10-12 hours. Keep in mind that every starter is different and yours may be more or less active than mine.

For the dough –

240g (8.5oz) strong white bread flour

50g (1.75oz) wholemeal flour

7g (0.25oz) sea salt

190g (6.7oz) water at around 26C (F) if your kitchen is around 20-22C (68-71F). This is quite a high temperature, but it is appropriate as we are not kneading this dough. The final dough temperature will in fact be lower because my flour is cooler.

*To learn more about dough temperature control click here.

Method

1. Make the leaven. Mix the flour, starter, and water. Stir well. Cover and leave to ferment for around 10-12 hours or until doubled in volume and bubbly.
2. In a bowl add the remaining water and salt. Stir to dissolve the salt. As we are not kneading, we need to make sure that all the ingredients are dispersed evenly throughout the dough as we mix them.
3. Add the leaven and wholemeal flour. Mix well once again. Add the remaining white flour. Mix this to a dough. Use your hands to mix it all well together.
4. Scrape the dough together, shape into a ball. *Desired dough temperature 25C (77F). If your dough is warmer, then it will ferment more rapidly. If it is cooler, then it will take longer. Adjust proofing time accordingly.
5. Cover & rest for 20 minutes.
6. Fold #1.
7. Rest for 20 minutes.
8. Fold #2.
9. Rest for 20 minutes.
10. Final fold.
11. Ferment for 3 hours or until almost doubled in volume.
12. Do a light pre-shape.
13. Rest the dough for 30 minutes.
14. Shape it tight using the stitching method. Place the loaf in a floured breadbasket.
15. Final proof 1.5 hours. During this time preheat your oven and baking vessel to 240C (F) fan off.
16. Place the loaf on your preheated pan and score it with a razor or a sharp knife.
17. Bake for 20 minutes with the lid on.
18. Remove the lid and bake for 15 minutes.

Let it cool down and enjoy!

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.

Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.

Everyone who keeps a starter ought to have a few sourdough discard recipes.

As we feed our starters every day, or perhaps even twice a day, plenty of leftovers start adding up and it may feel quite wasteful especially if we’re not making bread every day.

That is where a good discard recipe can come in and save us some waste. There are many ways to use up your leftover starter. You can check out the Sourdough page for more recipes.

If you have read this far and don’t know what a crumpet is, then this will be a treat for you! Crumpets are a classic British breakfast item. They are like a cross between bread and a pancake. Normally they have lots of little holes on the surface, but I like to make mine thicker and the holes do not appear that way. But on the other hand, there are plenty of little holes inside the crumpets. You can control this by pouring the batter thicker or thinner.

Cooked in a pan in pastry rings they keep their shape. But if you do not have rings, then you can simply make them the same way as thick pancakes. Or you could fashion some rings out of old tuna cans. I’m serious.

I have also made a regular crumpet video if you do not have a starter.

This recipe will make around 12 decently sized crumpets. Enough for 3 – 4 people, although I can demolish six on my own. If you want to make more simply multiply the amount of ingredients.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

100g (3.5oz) sourdough starter. Mine is at 100% hydration.

40g (1.4oz) melted butter

4g (0.14oz) instant dry yeast or 4.8g (0.16oz) active dry yeast or 12g (0.4oz) fresh yeast

3g (0.1oz) salt

170g (6oz) white flour

50g (1.75oz) sugar

190g (6.7oz) warm milk

To learn more about dough temperature control click here.

Oil for cooking

Method

1. In a bowl combine the milk, salt, sugar, yeast, butter & sourdough starter. Mix to disperse the ingredients, hydrate the yeast and dissolve the sugar. Add the flour.
2. Whisk until smooth. This mix is relatively thick, so this will take a minute.
3. Cover & ferment for 1.5 – 2 hours or until puffed up and full of bubbles.

*My pastry rings are not non-stick, so I had to grease them beforehand and preheat them together with the pan to prevent the mix from sticking. You may not have to do this. Make sure you do not pour too much mix into the rings as the crumpets will take too long to cook and rise too high. I would not suggest any more than 2.5cm (1in) of batter.

4. Cook the crumpets on medium-low heat for around 6 minutes on one side. You will see them getting dry on the surface and that is a good indicator of them being ready to be flipped.
5. Remove the rings and carefully flip the crumpets. Cook for another 6 minutes.

*As with pancakes, it is always best to try out one or two to check if the temperature of the pan is right before going ahead and pouring a bunch. Cook one, check the inside to see if it is nicely done and then continue with the rest.

Enjoy whilst fresh!

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.