Lepard in The Times: Article about freezing dough leaven
There's an interesting article by Dan Lepard in The Times about freezing fermented dough leaven. Here's the announcement from his forum:
In the Times newspaper today and on their website I've explained in loads of detail my current kitchen method for making sourdough loaves, much more pared back and simplified. It means that making a naturally leavened loaf can be much more spontaneous.
The theory behind it is that in liquid leaven the acidity builds quickly, whereas in a dough the acidity is more gentle. My reckoning is that the acidity build up has a much more drastic effect on storing leaven than freezing does, and if you can freeze a dough leaven as soon as the fermentation has peaked it will bounce back to a useable 'life' quicker than reviving a liquid one stored in the fridge. Liquid leaven doesn't seem to respond as well to freezing, but a dough leaven works really well. Have been trialling this for about 6 months now and it's my main method of sourdough baking at home. The full method is on the Times (UK) website here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/recipes/article5480824.ece [1]
And here's the link to forum thread (containing photo of an impressive loaf made using this method): Clicky! [2]