Levito Madre Sourdough
2 servings
10 minutes
Levito Madre is a traditional Italian dry sourdough starter for bread. You can bake ciabatta, focaccia and even panettone with it.
1
Crush the grapes with a blender or finely chop them, keeping all the juice. Add 30 grams of water and 120 grams of flour.
- Grape: 30 g
- Water: 500 ml
- Wheat flour: 1 kg
2
Knead into a very firm dough. On a clean working surface, roll out the dough into an elongated rectangle or oval 3-5 mm thick; the shape doesn't matter. Roll this flat dough into a log.
3
Place it in a deep container and fill it with water. Cover with a towel, gauze, or lid. Do not close tightly; air should enter the container, but dust should not get in. Leave for 1-3 days at room temperature.
- Water: 500 ml
4
Check the sourdough after a day — likely, the dough has stuck to the bottom; gently help the dough detach from the bottom and see if it rises. If it doesn't rise, leave it for another 1-2 days.
5
When the dough has risen, remove everything that has floated and weigh this mass. If there is a dry crust on the sourdough that is above the water surface, remove it. The floating mass is the sourdough to continue working with; the rest is not needed. It can weigh 10 grams or 50 grams; further feeding should be calculated based on the weight of the sourdough. Add water equal to half its weight (for example, for 50 grams of sourdough, add 25 grams of water) and flour equal to the same weight as the sourdough.
- Water: 500 ml
- Wheat flour: 1 kg
6
Mix and form a ball from the resulting dough: the dough will be softer than the first time. Place it in a transparent plastic or glass container, cover loosely, and leave for 1 day. The transparent container is needed to monitor the state of the starter.
7
After a day, the sourdough will spread and rare holes will appear in it. It is not yet ready for baking and needs to be fed further. Remove the dried top from the sourdough as it is not needed. Weigh the remaining mass, add water equal to half its weight and flour equal to the weight of the sourdough (these proportions should be followed for each feeding), reshape it into a ball and place it in a transparent container covered with a lid for 1 day. Feed the sourdough this way for 7-14 days. Initially, it may have an unpleasant sour smell — this is a sign that it is still not ready for baking. The photo shows the sourdough one day after the first feeding.
- Water: 500 ml
- Wheat flour: 1 kg
8
The ready starter culture grows about 2.5 times in a day, and large bubbles will be visible on the walls of the container. The smell of the ready starter is hard to describe: fruity, sweetish, and very pleasant.
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