Ok, I guess it pays up most of the time.. As a formerly impulsive person, patience was a quality that was hard for me to acquire. Someone who enjoys instant pleasures and loves succeeding without putting in too much effort, finds it hard to get around the idea of a long process that brings fruit only on its end, and God forbid, even carries with it a few failures along the way. But like a few other qualities, my Grandpa, growing up, and life itself have taught me to overcome those urges, to wait.

Growing sourdough at home requires patience. Sourdough is, in fact, natural yeast, that replace all or almost all the yeast in recipes. It also enriches the products you make from it with a slightly sour taste, which cannot evolve in simple breads you make using regular yeast with no starter dough or lengthy making processes. The initial sourdough growing takes a few days, during which it usually needs to be fed once a day. After it’s ready it will also require some once a week TLC in the form of water and flour.

It took me 2 failed attempts and a successful third one to get my sourdough right. As soon as it started spreading that wonderful yeasty scent, I began looking for good sourdough bread recipes. I’ve tried 2 so far, both of them by Eric Kayser, a very talented French pastry chef. The first recipe I tried was of baguettes, which turned out tasty but I wasn’t that pleased with the texture. The second recipe I tried produced the most wonderful ciabatta breads! I tweaked with the recipe a bit - using whole wheat flour and bread flour mixed together, and I also let it rise for much longer than specified in the recipe, simply because of circumstance.

The ciabattas turned out having a wonderful stiff crust, big holes, which I adore seeing in breads, and a marvelous and balanced taste. Patience is required when making this recipe, it needs to rise 4 different times, but it is definitely worth your while.

Some notes and tips about the bread:

* There are two types of sourdough - a stiff one, that looks like a regular dough (in French: Levain dur), and a liquid one (in French: Levain liquide). The recipe in this post makes use of levain liquide.

* I used the clear instructions on Joy the Baker’s blog to make the sourdough. She has written a great step by step guide to preparing and maintaining sourdough, photos included.

* When I refresh my sourdough, which happens once a week, except for the water and flour I also add to it half a teaspoon of honey, which is a good choice of food for the yeast. A good friend from my pastry course, Idan, gave me this tip a few weeks ago. This doesn’t affect the taste of the products made from it, or at least not that I’ve noticed.

Cibatta au levain liquide / Adapted from Eric Kayser
Makes 4 ciabatta breads

Ingredients:
375 gr bread flour
130 gr whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp active dry yeast
150 gr levain liquide
350 ml water, warm
2 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Place both types of flour and the dry yeast in a bowl and mix them together.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients except for the salt. Start kneading.
3. When the mixture starts forming into a dough, add the salt. Knead for 10-12 minutes.
4. Let rise at room temperature until double in volume. With my sourdough it took about 6 hours.
5. Fold the dough to get some of the air out of it, and let rise again until double in volume (again, about 6 hours).
6. Move the dough to a working surface, be careful and try to avoid getting any air out of it at this point. Divide the dough into 4 equally sized parts. Let rise an hour at room temperature.
7. Gently shape each part into a ciabatta, by gently pulling the dough from each side. Don’t worry if the shape isn’t perfect, the most important thing is to keep as much air as you can inside the dough. Let rise for 45 minutes at room temperature. Meanwhile preheat oven to 500F (260C). If you have a baking stone, place it in the lower third of the oven before preheating it.
8. If you want to produce a harder crust, sprinkle some water into the oven before putting the breads in it, which will create a moist environment. Bake the breads for about 10-12 minutes, or until knocking with your finger on one of them produces a hollow sound.
9. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

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