Have you ever heard of Lievito Madre? Here you can find out what makes this sourdough variant special, how you can make it yourself and what delicious things you can bake with it.
Lievito Madre means mother yeast in German. This 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. Similar to Yeast or baking powder, Lievito Madre ensures that the baked goods are airy and fluffy. It has a much milder taste than German sourdough, so you can even use Lievito Madre for sweet pastries.
The next section shows you a sample recipe for growing your own Lievito Madre. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get it right on the first try. It takes time and experience to learn how the dough reacts and how best to handle it.
The sample recipe is designed so that you don’t have to throw anything away. Many recipes work with relatively large amounts of ingredients and require frequent disposal of correspondingly large leftover dough, but this is one wastage of foodwhich you can easily avoid. You don’t need 100 grams or more of flour for the first batch, you can also do it with less. However, dough scraps always appear in the process. It is best to collect it in a separate container in the fridge and use it later when baking.
There are many different ways to schedule a Lievito Madre. Using dried Lievito Madre as a base, you can make a baking dish in just one day. Without it, the whole process takes up to 25 days at room temperature. But you can easily speed it up by placing the dough in a place that is around 28 to 30 degrees Celsius. In winter, for example, it can be with the heating, or you take a cooler and put the dough in it with a bottle of hot water, which you change regularly. In just five days at most, follow the steps below to create your own Lievito Madre.
How to make the Lievito Madre approach
Approaching Lievito Madre
- Preparation: about 30 minutes
- Break time: approximately 7200 minutes
- Crowd: 1 portion(s)
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225g
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
Some of the ingredients you need today:
30 grams of flour
15 ml lukewarm water
0.5 teaspoon of honey
0.5 tsp olive oilPour the flour into a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. First mix the ingredients roughly with a spoon and then knead them thoroughly by hand until a smooth dough is formed. It is really important here that everything is mixed and there are no lumps. Form the dough into a ball and cut a cross in the top with a knife. Then place it in an easy-to-clean jar with a lid. Just put the lid on loosely. Place 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 lukewarm water
45 grams of flourMix your batter with the water until dissolved. Then add the flour and knead again very carefully. Place the dough in a loosely sealed jar and keep warm until tomorrow.
Today, and every day after, it is important to make sure that the dough does not spoil. If mold does form, you will have to get rid of it completely and unfortunately start over. Good dough smells like flour, yeast and slightly sour. Even a slightly alcoholic smell is not bad.
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Day 3 to 5
On each of these days you will need:
50g of dough from the previous day (collect the rest in a separate container in the fridge)
25 ml lukewarm water
50 grams of flourMix your batter with the water until dissolved. Then add the flour and knead again very carefully. Place the dough in a loosely sealed jar and keep it warm on 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.
The Lievito Madre should now double in size compared to the previous day on the fifth day and be nicely bubbly. If this is not the case yet, then continue the procedure of 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 past few days for a dough. They are very soft, so they fit in bread or roll dough as well as in sweet yeast dough.
How to properly care for your Lievito Madre
You did it and bred your first own Lievito Madre. So that you can enjoy it for a long time, it is important to never use it up when baking and to feed it regularly. The more dough you have, the less often you need to feed him, usually every eight to ten days is recommended. You can also use the intensity of the smell of alcohol as a guide: the more intense, the more urgently the dough needs to be refilled flour and water.
14 days without feeding is normally not a problem for the Lievito Madre. If you’re going away for a longer period of time, you’d better dry it beforehand. To do this, add only a very small amount of water when it is refreshed, so that the dough is very sticky.
Feeding is very easy. Take the dough out of the fridge early so that it reaches room temperature. Over time, a harder layer formed on the surface. You can remove it and simply mix it when you bake it. Mix the soft part thoroughly with 50 g of flour and 25 ml of lukewarm water.
If you already intend 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 most important thing is that you always use twice as much flour as water.
Then pour the batter into a fresh jar. Wait until the dough has doubled in size and then place 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, i.e. as much flour as water. For Lievito Madre, on the other hand, you use twice as much flour as water, that is, the ratio is 2:1 flour to water.
Another difference is that one approaches Lievito Madre olive oil and honey add, sourdough always consists only of flour and water. The types of flour also differ. Rye flour is usually used for sourdough, while wheat flour is used for Lievito Madre.
As a result, Lievito Madre is less acidic and contains more natural yeasts 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 out of it. The necessary steps are:
- Weigh the sourdough starter and add the same amount of flour and half the amount 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.
- Place 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 double in volume within 6 hours.
In the further procedure, i.e. use, storage and feeding, you do not need to pay attention to anything other than with the directly applied Lievito Madre.
If you’re really into baking right now, you’ll find a recipe to try in the next section.
How to make focaccia with Lievito Madre
Focaccia with Lievito Madre
- Preparation: about 30 minutes
- Break time: about 150 minutes
- Cooking/baking time: about 20 minutes
- Crowd: 1 piece
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70g
Lievito Madre (fed the previous day)
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350g
organic wheat flour
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280 ml
lukewarm water
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1 teaspoon
Salt
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1.5 tablespoons
Organic olive oil
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Herbs, olives, tomatoes or other favorite ingredients
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Knead the flour thoroughly with 230 milliliters of the water to form a dough and leave covered for 30 minutes.
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Add the 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 fitted with a dough hook.
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Grease a flat baking pan with a little olive oil.
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Spread the dough in the pan and leave to 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 becomes even better.
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Press small indentations into the dough from the top with your fingers.
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Brush the dough with the olive oil and spread the olives, tomatoes, or whatever you chose 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 light brown. Actual baking time will vary by oven.
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