The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Sourdough yeast hybrid

robadar's picture
robadar

Sourdough yeast hybrid

A couple of artisan bakeries around here produce a "sourdough" which has yeast in it.  The loaves are somewhat sour but light and fluffy like a supermarket sourdough.  They do not have the denser crumb of a pure sourdough.  I have tried to make a sourdough like this by adding a little yeast to my sourdough dough but without success.   I'm guessing that what I might need to do is to start out with a big innoculation of active starter (maybe 40-50% of total dough) add enough yeast to get a full rise in bulk fermentation in two hours, then shape, let loaf rise for an hour, and bake.  Or something like that.  Has anyone done this?  Is there a better approach?  Goal:  a crusty bread that is very light and fluffy but with a somewhat sour, non-yeasty  taste (not the kind of  taste that you get from using a yeast preferment).

RB

Postal Grunt's picture
Postal Grunt

If you have the opportunity,look through Jeff Hamelman's book, "Bread". There are some recipes for hybrid loaves in the book that have been proven to be very successful by more than a few posters here.

polo's picture
polo

I've baked sourdough loaves and substitued evaporated milk for about half of the water in the recipe. It made the crumb much lighter. Nothing like "Wonder" bread though, if that's what your after.

Peter Reinhart's "Artisan Breads Every Day" also has recipes that have options to use smaller amounts of commercial yeast in conjunction with sourdough starter and overnight proofing to achieve the same flavor.

Polo