Pain au Levain or Leavened bread

Ingrédients for levain:

Step 1: First levain (yeast)

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup water

Mix both ingredients and keep covered with a towel for 3 to 5 days.

Step 2: 2nd levain

On the 5 th day,mix 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water.

Leave covered for 2 days.

You will be able to see bubbles forming on top which means that your levain is forming properly.

Step 3: feeding your yeast

Wait 2 more days and mix 1/2 cup of flour with 1/2 cup of water ,cover for 24 hours.

Step 4: last levain (for bread use)

Mix 1/2 cup of the last levain with 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water.(Leave covered for 3 days).

Discard the rest of levain.

Step 5: Dough formation

Mix 1/2 cup of the latest levain with 3 cups of flour and 2 cups of water with 1 tsp salt.

Keep the rest of your levain refrigerated for later use.

kneed dough for 5 minutes than keep covered for 6 hours. Shape dough into bread and let sit for 3 more hours adding oil and flour to prevent it from sticking.

Preheat oven at 270 C and place bread for 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on bread size. Place a cup of water to have a golden crust .Decrease temperature every 10 minutes to reach 200 C.

Enjoy!