Loaf & Levain is an independent sourdough resource built around one idea: baking gets easier when you measure instead of guess. The free schedule calculator predicts fermentation timing from your kitchen temperature, hydration, and starter strength — and the knowledge base explains the why behind every number.
Who writes this
Loaf & Levain is made in Stockholm by the person who builds the calculator and the fermentation model behind it, not by a professional baker. The guides are written with AI assistance and checked against that model. Every number in them — bulk percentages, hydration targets, retard windows, water temperatures — is calculated from that model, for cold winter kitchens and humid summer ones alike. The same Q10 fermentation math (about 2.2× per 8°C, anchored to five hours at 24°C) runs through the calculator and every article, so the advice here and the tool agree by design — not by coincidence.
What we cover
Fermentation science, starter maintenance and rescue, hydration, shaping and scoring, and the long list of things that go wrong (and how to diagnose them). If a guide gives a number, it also tells you how to know whether that number is right for your dough.
How these guides are made
The guides are written with AI assistance and edited against the calculator's fermentation model and established baking references. They describe what that model predicts and what is well established about sourdough; they are not reports of our own baking tests. Where a guide gives a timing, it also tells you what to look for in the dough, because the dough has the final say.
The pizza dough calculator uses its own model for baker's yeast, fitted to the yeast tables pizza makers publish and to laboratory data on yeast activity at different temperatures. Its yeast amounts are predictions with a range, not measurements; its sourdough option uses the same model as the sourdough calculator.
How it's funded
The calculator and all knowledge-base articles are free. The site is supported by affiliate links and an optional one-time Pro guide. We don't gate the core content behind a paywall. Bakers' sites can also embed the calculator for free.
Get in touch
Questions, corrections, or a bake that's misbehaving? Reach us on the contact page.