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Cereals and bread from France

French pain au levainpain au levain

Pain au levain is French bread raised with levain, a natural sourdough of wheat or rye flour and water kept going by refreshing it. French law (Décret 93-1074) lets a bread carry the words "au levain" only if the bread has pH 4.3 or lower and its crumb has at least 900 ppm of endogenous acetic acid.

Fully documentedCereals and bread5.3 h – 6 h

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAmounts are from a 2022 French study that baked with three French bakers' sourdoughs. The yeast limit is the legal maximum in Décret 93-1074.
Wheat flour1 kg[mietton2022]
Water0.80 kgPer kg of flour[mietton2022]
Salt14.6 gPer kg of flour[mietton2022]
Levain (bakers' sourdough)180 g per kg of dough[mietton2022]
Baker's yeast (optional)At most 0.2% of the flour in the last kneadingThe decree allows it only in the last kneading, at 0.2 % of the flour at most[decret93-1074]
Starterbackslop (levain kept and refreshed)

Total time across the recorded steps: 5.3 h – 6 h

Start
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What changes: A piece of sour levain is kept back from the last batch

Step 1 of 5
Keep a piece of the levain (the chief sourdough)
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
F. sanfranciscensis
Kazachstania
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
L. curvatus

By law the levain is a dough of wheat and/or rye flour and drinking water, sometimes salted, left to an acidifying natural fermentation; its flora is mainly lactic bacteria and yeasts. Output: chief sourdough.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Pain au levain is French bread raised with levain, a natural sourdough of wheat or rye flour and water kept going by refreshing it. French law (Décret 93-1074) lets a bread carry the words "au levain" only if the bread has pH 4.3 or lower and its crumb has at least 900 ppm of endogenous acetic acid. Made in 5 steps over 5.3 h – 6 h. The longest step, divide, shape and proof, takes 3.6 h (Mietton L 2022). Fructilactobacillus sanfranciscensis (Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis), the dominant lactic bacterium in French organic sourdoughs and Kazachstania yeasts (mostly K. humilis in bakers' sourdoughs); Saccharomyces cerevisiae dominated only one of 14 French sourdoughs do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3.6 hReported[mietton2022]Divide, shape and proof
Temperature250 °CReported[mietton2022]Bake
AciditypH up to 4.3Set[decret93-1074]Bake

What makes this one different

Pain au levain is raised by a natural sourdough, while ordinary French bread is raised with baker's yeast. The French decree allows at most 0.2% baker's yeast, added only in the last kneading, and sets a pH and acetic acid test for the name.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Dried levainThe decree allows dehydrated levain if it still holds about a billion live bacteria and one to ten million yeasts per gram.
  • Pain de tradition française au levainA "tradition" bread (wheat flour, water and salt, with small allowed amounts of bean, soya and malt flour, no additives, no freezing step) that also meets the "au levain" pH and acetic acid limits.

Safety

The loaves are baked through at a high oven temperature. The legal pH and acetic acid limits are labelling rules for the name, not safety limits.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The French bread decree no. 93-1074 of 13 September 1993 defines "pain maison", "pain de tradition française" and the "au levain" mention. Its article 3, which sets the pH and acetic acid limits, was amended in 1997 and reserves the mention for the breads defined in its articles 1 and 2.

  1. [decret93-1074] Décret n° 93-1074 du 13 septembre 1993 pris pour l'application de la loi du 1er août 1905 en ce qui concerne certaines catégories de pains, articles 3 and 4 (consolidated version of 7 September 2020, FAOLEX copy)spec
  2. [mietton2022] Mietton L., Samson M.-F., Marlin T. et al. 2022, Impact of leavening agent and wheat variety on bread organoleptic and nutritional quality, Microorganisms 10(7):1416, doi:10.3390/microorganisms10071416paper
  3. [lhomme2015] Lhomme E. et al. 2015, The predominance of Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis in French organic sourdoughs and its impact on related bread characteristics, International Journal of Food Microbiology 213:40–48, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2015.05.010 (abstract)paper
  4. [lhomme2016] Lhomme E. et al. 2016, Sourdough microbial community dynamics, an analysis during French organic bread-making processes, Food Microbiology 53:41–50, doi:10.1016/j.fm.2014.11.014 (abstract)paper
  5. [urien2019] Urien C., Legrand J., Montalent P. et al. 2019, Fungal species diversity in French bread sourdoughs made of organic wheat flour, Frontiers in Microbiology 10:201, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00201paper