Fleur de Levain?
Your sourdough needs regular feeding. But as we all know, there always remains plenty of discard after each feeding cyclus. What to do with it? Throwing away is neither ecologically nor economically an option. Instead of using it for pancakes, cookies or waffles (this is at least the way of most homebakers), the Sourdough Librarian discovered a new fanatastic and culinary recycling solution: making flour of it. More precisely: sourdough-powder, which can be added as on-top ingredient for any kind of bread. Wheat, spelt, rye or lievito madre (stiff starter) – it doesn’t matter what kind of sourdough discard (or fresh sourdough) you use. Any kind is just perfect for making the delicious Fleur de Levain. Awesome, ins’t it?
How?*
Nothing easier than that: Apply your sourdough discard with a brush onto a baking parchment (stiffer dough has to be rolled out with rolling pin – no matter which discard you will use, make sure that at the end it is just a thin layer), and let it dry in the oven at 100 degrees Celsius for roughly 90 minutes. Let it cool down and mill it. That’s it! (*credits: Karl de Smedt, The Quest for Sourdough)
Variations
Be ready for stunning variations of Fleur de Levain here on #brotokoll. Even changing the temperature while drying will let you ending up with a totally different flavour (give it a try and dry your discard at 200 degrees Celsius – quite shorter timewise).
Why?
Especially wild yeast water based bread, which is missing the sourdough acidic taste, will be enriched with a really fantastic new spice and aroma range. Fleur de Levain – an absolute winner!
The taste?
Give it try! Sometimes it reminds me a well aged parmesan – in case of rye a bit sharper or dryer. The great aroma variety can hardly be described. And no worries – even if your sourdough had lived better feeding than lastly – the acidic level will be lowered during the drying process in the oven. Even try to mix different sourdoughs for your Fleur de Levain. It’ pure taste fascination!