There is a former recipe by Massimo but I don’t really understand italian so sorry if I write the same...

The yogurts and the bread, same idea: ``help the animals and the animals will help you’’ as would have said my old kung fu master. In other worlds, you have to feed bacterias so that they grow, and in the case of bread, produce gas. The question is: where do we take the bacterias? I propose several recipies that I’ve tried, increasing (relatively) in complexity. The first recipe just uses commercial yeast. The second uses commercial yeast but you produce also a part of the bacterias. In the third, you make grow your own bacteria from flour. The time indicated in the title is the time required from the first action to the cooked bread, but 95% of this time is only for waiting.

You’re supposed to be able to buy both fresh and dry yeast. The fresh has to be kept in the frige, not more than a few days. The dry can be kept in a dry environment for several months. The fresh is supposed to be better but in Leiden I only found dry one for the moment.

The two following recipies give a quantity of fresh yeast. Put half if it is dry.

I don’t have anything to weight at home so I just give the mass I read in some recipies. My conclusion is that for 10g of fresh yeast, I need 2 little spoons of dry yeast.

As you may know if you live on earth, there are several kinds of flour. Talking about wheat only, there is whole wheat flour, etc. The grain is surrounded by the its, etc, and the number given on a flour pack corresponds to the mass of flour extracted from the mass of raw wheat. Common white flour is 55, whole one can be 90 or 100. In principle you can use any of them, but to make grow your own yeast, the advices are to take 55-70.

The quantity of water required to get your bread will depend on the flour so adjust the parameters as you want. The same for the other ingredients, since they are never the same from one recipie to another...

• 500g of flour (any)
• 10g of salt
• warm water (~25oC)
• 10g of yeast
• 2 big spoons of olive oil

• Dilute the yeast and the salt in some water if the yeast is fresh.
• Put the flour on the table and make a hole in the middle.
• Add the yeast, the salt, the oil, and mix.
• Add more an more water on the flour, mixing meanwhile, untill you obtain a ball that does not stick on your hands.
• Knead the paste 15min. The purpose is to make the air go inside. But do not rip it.
• Put the ball in a salad bowl and cover it with a towel.

• Wait 3h. The volume has to double.

• Put the paste on the table (where you put a small quantity of flour before), trying not to rip it.
• Chase the gas of the ball by pressing with your hands. But do not really knead it.
• Separate the pieces if you want several breads, give them the shape you like.
• Put the balls on the plate where they will cook (after having put some oil and flour on the plate).
• Cover them with a towel.

• Wait 1h. The volume has to double.

• Warm the oven at 250oC with some water inside (this is very important). The vapor is required the first 15min of the cooking time, afterwards it is useless and may preventthe ass of your bread to cook (to dry). So choose the good amount of water (judge by yourself after a couple of times).
• Humidify the surface of the balls, cut some lines on the surface with a sharp knife, this is to allow the gas to go away while cooking.
• Put the balls in the oven, 250oC. To get a hot environment is important for the bread to grow: first, the gas which is already in the balls will expand, second the bacterias will grow during the first minutes and will produce some more gas.
• After 10min put it to 200oC and wait ~30min more. This depends on the size of your bread. As far as I understood, if you see that it stopped to grow, you can reduce the temperature to 200oC.
• That’ s it!!!

For the leaven:

• 40g of yeast
• 300g of flour 55-70
• 5dl of water at 25oC

For the bread:

• 1 big spoon of salt
• 2 big spoons of olive oil
• 4dl of warm water
• 1.2 kg of flour (any kind)

• Mix the ingredients and keep them 2 days at ~15oC

• To the leaven, add the salt, the oil, the water, and mix.
• Add progressively the flour and mix.
• After a while you have to use your hands. Add flour untill you get a paste which does not stick to your hands (you may need a bit more flour than the quantity which was given in this recipie, depending on the flour).
• Knead your ball for a while (the total time required for the whole operation is ~15min)
• Put the ball in a salad bowl and cover it with a towel.

Wait 3h.

• Put the paste on the table (where you put a small quantity of flour before), trying not to rip it.
• Chase the gas of the ball by pressing with your hands. But do not really knead it (you can if the ball is wet enough, the result is even better at the end).
• Separate the pieces if you want several breads, give them the shape you like.
• Put the balls on the plate where they will cook (after having put some oil and flour on the plate).
• Cover them with a towel.

• Wait 1h30. The volume has to double.

• Warm the oven at 250oC with some water inside (this is very important). The vapor is required the first 15min of the cooking time, afterwards it is useless and may preventthe ass of your bread to cook (to dry). So choose the good amount of water (judge by yourself after a couple of times).
• Humidify the surface of the balls, cut some lines on the surface with a sharp knife, this is to allow the gas to go away while cooking.
• Put the balls in the oven, 250oC. To get a hot environment is important for the bread to grow: first, the gas which is already in the balls will expand, second the bacterias will grow during the first minutes and will produce some more gas.
• After 10min put it to 200oC and wait ~30min more. This depends on the size of your bread. As far as I understood, if you see that it stopped to grow, you can reduce the temperature to 200oC.
• That’ s it!!!

The most important step is to get your leaven (a kind of sauce with bacterias your obtain from the fermentation (in water) of flour, or grapes, potatoes, milk, apples..., and that you feed from time to time with flour). When you want bread, you give them a big amount of food (flour) and the recipie is more or less the same as with the yeast, waiting longer times.

Good french web sites are:

http://enfourner.free.fr/

http://forum.aceboard.fr/index.php?login=20063#

This: pain.pdf is something I wrote for me, in french, from what I found in several web sites. I will try to translate it some day.

To make your first leaven take:

• 30 g of water
• 30 g of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of honey

Mix the ingredients.

After 2 days mix some more 30 g of water and 30 g of flour. The fourth day add some more 30 g of water and 30 g of flour. It should be evident that the leaven is making bubbles. The sixth day the leaven is ready if makes bubbles. At this point you can use your leaven.