Sourdough Leaven

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Starter: Mix flur and water to a paste and knead it with your fingers
and thumbs until it is a smooth, firm dough. Put this nut of dough in
a glass or small bowl, cover it with a cheese cloth (not clingfilm)
and leave it in a warm place, at approximately 24-26øC/75-80øF for
about 2 days. Although the outside will crust over, the inside will  be
moist and slightly areated. The smell will be sweet. Discard the  crust
and procced with the first refreshment.  =46irst Refreshment: dissolve
the starter in the water, add the flour  and mix to a dough. Knead with
the wingers on a work table. Put the  dough in a small bowl and cover
with clingfilm. Put it back in the  warm spot and leave it for a day or
two. It will crust again, but it  will also have enlarged, and the
areation will be greater. The smell  will be very slightly sharp.
Discard the crust and procced with the  second refreshment.  Second
Refreshment: repeat as with the first refreshment, but this  time leave
for 8-12 hours and it should show every sign of life:  growing and
rising like a normal piece of dough with a slightly sharp  edge to the
smell, but not rotten or "off". The leaven is now ready  to be added to
a dough which will proceed as any other, though often  more slowly.
Notes: Natural leavens take a few days to get going.  They need to be
kept in a warm room and out of the draughts. If it is  too cold, they
will take very much longer to ripen, and then taste  too sour. Luckily
for us, they keep well in a refrigerator. If you  want to start a
leaven and use it once a week, you can pinch off a  piece of dough
weighing approximately 225 grams/8 ounces from the  finished dough when
you have made it, pop it in a glass bowl, cover  with clingfilm and
store in the refrigerator. A day or two before you  want to bake, take
up the recipe below from the point of the second  refreshment. Per
serving: 1422 Calories; 7g Fat (4% calories from  fat); 52g Protein;
294g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol;  Recipe by: Making Bread at Home by
tom Jaine  Posted to FOODWINE Digest 05 Feb 97 by Yaara & Yishay
<trophy@YANDY.U-NET.COM> on Feb 5, 1997.

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Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients)
----------------------------------------------
Calories: 1486
Calories From Fat: 46
Total Fat: 5.5g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 10.3mg
Potassium: 423.3mg
Carbohydrates: 304.6g
Fiber: 10.4g
Sugar: 1.2g
Protein: 46g