Is the flour in the levain a part of the total flour in terms of %? So if I use 1000 gm of flour but have a 200 gm levain with 100% hydration is my total flour 1100 Grams?
Same question re: Hydration. If the water is 750 gm and I'm using the levain above, is the water really 850? So instead of 75% hydration it's really 77%.
Thanks in advance
hester
p.s. sorry for posting this. I found my answer. Floyd, you can delete this post if you want. Thanks. hester
in the bakers percent in the classic way it is done per BBGA. so total formula might read
Levain -10% prefermented WW flour at 100% hydration
50% bread flour and 50% WW flour
80% water
10% seeds
2% salt
So all you have to do is pick out how much flour you want total - say 1000 G
You know total flour in the levain is 100 g with all of it WW and 100 g if water
dough flour is 1000 -100 = 900 g total with 500 g being bread flour and 400 g being WW
dough water is 800 - 100 in the levain or 700 g
seeds are 100 g (10% of 1000) and salt is 20 g (2% of 1000)
Some famous bakers choose to omit the levain amounts from their formulas and do not follow BBGA guidelines - like Chad Robertson. I think thos does nothing but confuse people on how to use bakers percent consistently and makes it much harder to get a recipe across to others as efficiently and simply as possible. But as a bread libertarian, I say why care what Chad does with his formulas:-)
Happy baking
last line. lol
First, I agree with everything dabrownman wrote. " Salut Libertaire!" But I have to interject one more twist to the process.
Let's use 1000g flour for the 100% factor and say I want a 20% levain @ 100% hydration. I would start with 200g of flour, add 200g of water, and on a 1:2:2 sourdough feed ratio add 100g of starter from my mother. After the levain matures and before I do my final mix, I remove 100g from the levain and add it back to my mother. In this way I "infect" my final mix but never add a quantity of starter that I do not remove. Additionally this process refreshes the mother and I am ready to do this all over again at my next baking run.
At times I will deliberately refresh my mother outside of the process mentioned above, but if I plan my bakes well I only have to do this rarely. In turn this method creates a very healthy mother because, in my case, it is getting fed every other day.
You can increase your starter by adding 400g/400g/200g and removing 600g from the levain before you add it to the final mix. In the end the same mature 200g of flour, 200g of water and some very active LAB end-up in the final mix, and you have another 600g of sourdough starter for future use, storage, or to give to a friend.
The one caveat is that you have to remember to removed the added portion before you do the final mix or your percentages and quantities will be off. Been there... done that!
detailed reply and explanation.