Have you ever heard of Lievito Madre? Here you can find out what makes this sourdough variety special, how you can make it yourself and what delicious things you can bake with it.
Lievito Madre means mother yeast in German. It is the Italian variant of the one known in Germany sourdough. You can make it yourself relatively easily and use it to bake various foods such as bread, rolls or pizza. Equal Yeast or baking powder, Lievito Madre ensures that the pastries are airy and airy. It has a much milder taste than German sourdough, so you can even use Lievito Madre for sweet pastries.
The next section shows you an example recipe for growing your own Lievito Madre. Do not be discouraged if you do not succeed on the first try. It takes time and experience to learn how the dough reacts and how to best handle it.
The sample recipe is made so that you do not have to throw anything away. Many recipes work with relatively large amounts of ingredients and require regular disposal of similarly large remnants of dough, but this is a waste of foodwhich you can easily avoid. You do not need 100 grams or more of flour for the first batch, you can also do it with less. However, dough residues always occur in the process. It is best to collect these in a separate container in the refrigerator and use them later when baking.
There are many different ways to plan a Lievito Madre. By using dried Lievito Madre as a base, you can make a baking mass in just one day. Without it, the whole process takes up to 25 days at room temperature. But you can easily speed this up by laying the dough in a place that is around 28 to 30 degrees Celsius. In winter, for example, this can be with the heating, or you take a cooler and put the dough in it with a bottle of warm water, which you change regularly. In just five days at best, follow the steps below to create your own Lievito Madre.
How to get Lievito Madre to approach
Lievito Madre is approaching
- Preparation: about 30 minutes
- Rest time: about 7200 minutes
- Audience: 1 serving (s)
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225 g
organic wheat flour
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115 ml
water
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0.5 tsp
Organic olive oil
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0.5 tsp
organic honey
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day 1
Of the ingredients you need today:
30 grams of flour
15 ml of lukewarm water
0.5 tsp honey
0.5 tsp olive oilPut the flour in a bowl and add the remaining ingredients. First mix the ingredients roughly with a spoon and then knead them thoroughly by hand until a smooth dough is formed. It is very important here that everything is mixed and that there are no lumps. Form the dough into a ball and cut a cross at the top with a knife. Then place it in an easy-to-wash jar with a lid. Just put the lid on loosely. Put the dough in a warm place and let it rest for 24 hours.
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day 2
Today you need:
yesterday’s dough
25 ml of lukewarm water
45 grams of flourMix the batter with the water until it is dissolved. Then add the flour and knead again very carefully. Put the dough in a loosely sealed jar and keep it warm until tomorrow.
Today, and every day that follows, it is important to make sure that the dough is not damaged. If mold forms, you need to get rid of it completely and unfortunately start over. Good dough smells pleasantly of flour, yeast and slightly sour. Even a slight alcoholic odor is not bad.
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Day 3 to 5
On each of these days you will need:
50g dough from the day before (collect the rest in a separate container in the fridge)
25 ml of lukewarm water
50 grams of flourMix the batter with the water until it is dissolved. Then add the flour and knead again very carefully. Put the dough in a loosely sealed jar and keep it warm the third and fourth day until the next day. On the fifth day, the batch is placed in the refrigerator with the lid closed for further storage.
Lievito Madre should now on the fifth day have doubled compared to the day before and bubbled nicely. If this is not the case yet, continue the procedure for the last few days a little longer, sometimes it just takes more time.
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You can simply use the leftover dough from the last days for a pastry. They are very mild, so they fit in bread or roll dough as well as in sweet yeast dough.
How to care for Lievito Madre properly
You did it and bred your first own Lievito Madre. In order for you to enjoy it for a long time, it is important to never use it completely when you bake and feed it regularly. The more dough you have, the less often you need to feed him, usually recommended every eight to ten days. You can also use the intensity of the smell of alcohol as a guide: the more intense, the more urgent the dough needs refilling flour and water.
14 days without feeding is normally not a problem for Lievito Madre. If you are going to be away for a long time, you should wipe it off beforehand. To do this, add only a very small amount of water when you refresh, so that the dough becomes very chewy.
Feeding is very easy. Take the dough out of the fridge well in advance so that it reaches room temperature. Over time, a harder layer has formed on the surface. You can remove these and simply mix them in when you fry. Mix the soft part thoroughly with 50 g of flour and 25 ml of lukewarm water.
If you are already planning to bake a specific recipe, you can adjust the amount of flour and water to get the amount of Lievito Madre you need plus a small reserve for storage. The important thing is that you always use twice as much flour as water.
Then put the batter in a fresh jar. Wait until the dough is double in size and put it back in the fridge with the lid on.
Lievito Madre and sourdough – What’s the difference?
The difference between Lievito Madre and sourdough lies in the ratio of flour to water. With classic sourdough, it is 1: 1, ie as much flour as water. For Lievito Madre, on the other hand, you use twice as much flour as water, ie the ratio is 2: 1 flour to water.
Another difference is that you approach Lievito Madre olive oil and honey adds, sourdough always consists only of flour and water. The types of flour are also different. Rye flour is usually used for sourdough, while wheat flour is used for Lievito Madre.
As a result, Lievito Madre is less sour and contains more natural yeast than a classic sourdough, making it more versatile. If you already have a sourdough starter in the fridge, you can easily make a Lievito Madre from it. The necessary steps are:
- Weigh the sourdough starter and add the same amount of flour and half of lukewarm water. With 20 grams of sourdough, for example 20 grams of flour and 10 milliliters of water.
- Knead everything thoroughly and place the dough in a clean, loosely sealed container.
- Put the dough in a warm place for 12 hours.
- Repeat steps 1 to 3, adjusting the amount of flour and water, two or three more times. The dough should be doubled in volume within 6 hours.
In the further procedure, ie use, storage and feeding, you do not need to pay attention to anything other than with directly applied Lievito Madre.
If you are really in the mood for baking now, you will find a recipe you can try in the next section.
How to make focaccia with Lievito Madre
Focaccia with Lievito Madre
- Preparation: about 30 minutes
- Rest time: about 150 minutes
- Cooking / cooking time: about 20 minutes
- Audience: 1 piece
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70 g
Lievito Madre (fed the day before)
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350 g
organic wheat flour
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280 ml
lukewarm water
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1 teaspoon
Salt
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1.5 tbsp
Organic olive oil
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Herbs, olives, tomatoes or other favorite ingredients
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Knead the flour well with 230 milliliters of the water into a dough and leave it covered for 30 minutes.
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Add Lievito Madre and the salt and gradually add the remaining water while kneading for at least five minutes. You can do this by hand or with a food processor equipped with a kneading hook.
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Grease a flat frying pan with a little olive oil.
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Spread the dough outwards in the pan and let it rise covered in a warm place for at least two hours. If you have more time, you can also put it in the fridge overnight. In this way, the result is even better.
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Press small indentations in the dough from above with your fingers.
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Brush the dough with olive oil and spread olives, tomatoes, or whatever you have chosen on the dough.
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Bake the focaccia in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 to 30 minutes. It should be lightly browned. Actual cooking time will vary depending on the oven.
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