Brittany Wood (aka sour_flour, who you should be following on Instagram): Starter vs. Levain

Starter vs. Levain. What’s the difference? Aren’t they both made of flour and water? Today let’s get back to the basics. When I first started baking I’d find starter/levain/poolish/sponge/biga/pasta madre used in different recipes all the same way, some people would call starter, levain while others used levain as a preferment for their sourdough, I was so confused! Well essentially they all mean preferment and are interchangeable in recipes, it all just depends on the baker and their lingo they use and what background they have. In this video I’m explaining what the difference is of starter and levain in MY recipes to make it easily understandable.

I'm still mostly confused anyway. But hey maybe follow her Instagram feed because she makes amazing looking loaves.