Eat Bread With Me: Sprouted Pain au Levain from Bread Revolution by Peter Reinhart (Teaser)

On a hectic spring afternoon, if I was not careful, I could have be seen as a crazy woman: I took a bread dough with me to a fitness club and placed it in the locker room so that I could do stretch and folds as my six and three year old daughters had their swim lessons. And worse: I would run to the locker room every 30 minutes, make sure nobody was watching and quickly stretch and fold my dough. Peter Reinhart, in fact, could be either blamed for or thanked for this. And here is why: the first time I started a wild yeast seed culture, I was holding one of Peter's books that I ran into, by happy coincidence, at a bookstore. I followed his lead to a successful starter. Since then, the offspring of my starter have traveled with family and friends inside the US, Europe and South America, and, of course, here locally. I have made wonderful bread and some that were not memorable; nourished my family and friends, and have taught friends how to make it.

It may seem crazy but, the feeling of connection I share is like some sort of contagious bread passion. This “infection” has been spread by authors like Peter, and other master bakers and enthusiasts throughout the ages. To me, the longer a bread takes fermenting and the longer I wait until I can eat it, the more nourishing and fulfilling the whole process is.

Early this morning, as I baked the “locker room bread,” I heard my oldest daughter rushing down the stairs following the smell of bread to the kitchen and she said: “ Hummm, mamma, this bread smells so good- it must be delicious.” My daughters love to feed the sourdough culture and to make the breads. I could not stop thinking about how many households have had their lives enriched having had a chance to read one of Peter's books or being in one of his classes and, because of this experience, enjoy a healthy freshly baked loaf of bread not realizing how big the web of bread lovers is.

My own little Bread Revolution experiment: Sprouted Pain au Levain from Bread Revolution.

I made two batches of this recipe (page 66). One using the optional yeast, I used 1g and the other using no yeast. They turned out wonderful. The flour is very easy to work with, the flavor was Delicious. My next adventure from the book will be Corn Bread.

Note:
Recipe on page 63 for the Sprouted Wheat Master Loaf correction by Peter Reinhart: the water weights are correct but the volume amount is a typo -- should be 1 3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon.