The Fresh Loaf

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flax seed soaked in preferment

Barbarat's picture
Barbarat

flax seed soaked in preferment

Would there be a reason not to soak in particular flax seeds right in the preferment (of course with adjusted water)? How about other soaker ingredients like oats, corn ect.? As always I appreciate your input.

Barbara

plevee's picture
plevee

I've often wondered why there is a need to make a separate soaker when the preferment (etc) and soaker sit for the same time.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

sometimes the wet soaker can influence the preferment negatively if combined sooner than instructed.  

Doc.Dough's picture
Doc.Dough

I think the soaker is intended to bring the moisure content of the whole or coarsly ground grain up to a point where they don't steal water from the rest of the dough. Seeds, on the other hand, have high oil content and don't absorb water well (and don't need it since they are in the mix for crunch or are soft enough to chew without presoaking).

The preferment is there to do just that: to pre-ferment some portion of the flour and create flavor compounds from the yeast byproducts.  You certainly could try combining them, but getting the timing and hydration right might be tricky. You don't want the grain to get soggy and the preferment might have more liquid than you want to expose the soaker to.