I’ve been confused.
Starter and leaven (also known as a Biga) are not the same thing, at least for my base recipe. I’ve been feeding June Steinburg thinking that was enough, but not mixing a leaven.
A leaven is a small amount of starter mixed with a 50/50 blend of flour and water. You let this rise overnight at room-temperature, allowing its volume to increase by about 20%. A spoonful of leaven should float in room-temperature water, and that’s how you know it has enough gas in it to provide good fermentation for your bread.
Creating a leaven also provides a measured water-to-flour ratio that you wouldn’t necessarily get by just using starter.
The problem is, you only need half of the leaven for a recipe that makes two loaves.
FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
I’ve tried two things:
- Feeding June with the unused half
- Cutting the recipe in half and mixing a leaven with 100g 50/50 flour + 100g water