August 14, 2019 - 7:43am
Proofing question
I'm wondering about how best to treat a levain. I accidentally forgot to put yeast in my levain for about 6 hours last week. I added it and let it sit for about 3-4 hours before using it. It ended up being the best bread I've ever made in texture, taste - everything. It could be a fluke of just getting everything else just right, but I wonder if having the bread and flour sit INACTIVE for all those hours did anything?
And if it did, would putting a preferment in a proofer at a slightly warm room do something similar? Or am I am exhausting the yeast? (It's commercial yeast)
Here's a link to the bread I made last week. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/60939/well-was-hairbrained-i-forgot
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If you mixed flour and water, and did not add yeast or salt, and let it stand for some time, that would be called an autolyse, and it is a pretty well acknowledge technique in baking - do a search and you will find tons of references. That you added the salt as well, that is pretty uncommon, though in Whole Grains, Peter Reinhart discusses an epoxy method - basically you divide the total flour in half, in one half, you add the water and salt and let that sit overnight, in the other half , you add the flour , water and some of the yeast, and let that sit as well, though IIRC, in the fridge overnight. Note this is a very gross simplification, but in general, it is similar to what you did on the flour water and salt. Again, assuming you added the salt.