My everyday sourdough bread is made with a white levain 125% hydration. I make the levain over 24 hours with the discard from my firm rye starter that is fed every morning at around 7 am. Step 1 is to move the firm rye starter to a 125% hydration using white bread flour (about 18g rye starter, 12 g water and 6 g bread flour). Step 2 is to mix the levain build. At 4:30 pm I mix the levain build so it is ready by 6:30 am the next morning. I use 15% of the total formula flour at 125% hydration in the levain. I seed the levain with step 1. I don’t count step 1 in calculating the final dough as I remove it before mixing in. I ferment the levain at 21C.
The picture shows my firm rye starter, the resulting levain and the baked result.
Cheers,
Gavin