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Yeast quantity in Struan (ABE)

Chiesa_Dan's picture
Chiesa_Dan

Yeast quantity in Struan (ABE)

Hi,

i've been using Hamelman formulas for a while and i got good to very good results; now i got one of Reinhart books (ABE) and i'm preparing a Struan.

What strikes me about the formula (and others in the book, so i suppose it's not a misprint) is the quantity of yeast; i'm using fresh yeast and multiply the formula's quantity (instant yeast) by 3. Then i'm left with what seems to me way too much compared for example with Hamelman's straight doughs.

For example, in this Struan, i've got 638g bread flour, some cornmeal, oats, bran and coocked rice, for a final dough of about 1360g. The formula calls for 19g of instant yeast, equal to 57g fresh yeast!

I did it anyways, since it seems all the recipies in this book call for that much yeast, so i'll give it a try. Now i've got the dough in the fridge and i'll bake it tomorrow.

Those of you familiar with this method or even this particular recipie, can confirm it's the way it's supposed to be and that it works?

Thanks for your thoughts,

Daniele.

jcking's picture
jcking

Read a little futher in Hamelman's book and you'll see he says when figuring yeast amounts with added grains, add the weight of the grains to the weight of the flour to calculate the yeast %. Your Straun should be just fine. Happy Baking.

Jim

Chiesa_Dan's picture
Chiesa_Dan

Hi Jim,

thanks for the comment; yet, i've made for example the Five-Grain bread from Hamelman's book, the straight dough version.

I made a batch of 2.5kg and with all the grains besides the different flours, it only calls for 25g of fresh yeast. So almost double dough weight with comparable grains quantities, yet less than half the yeast...

Will see how it turns out; it only seems strange that PR specifies a few times in the book that he tries to use as little yeast as possible.

Again, thanks,

Daniele.

breadforfun's picture
breadforfun

Hi Daniele,

Reinhart's Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire from BBA is, by his comments, an improvement on the Straun.  Scaled up to the amount of flour that you are using, he calls for about 17g instant yeast.  I have made this bread a number of times and it comes out great.  I've never tried Hamelman's formula.

Brad

jcking's picture
jcking

Daniele,

I pulled out the recipe to get a better look. With all the stuff in there it leans toward an enriched bread, you're gonna need a little extra yeast to help with the rice and stuff. With the brown sugar and honey your almost in the neighborhood of SAF Gold. If you read the last sentence of the variations "yes, it is a lot of yeast, but it's necessary."

Jim

Chiesa_Dan's picture
Chiesa_Dan

Thank you everybody,

the struan cooled down, and i was able to taste it; definitely sweet, but great.

My wife is all over it, it's hard to keep her away from it :-)

I appreciate all the help,

Daniele.

Chiesa_Dan's picture
Chiesa_Dan

And here it is; one of the two loaves i baked:

jcking's picture
jcking

I was gonna ask for a pic, but I thought it might have been all gone:) I wish my slicing was that good!

Jim

vink's picture
vink

I am pretty new to baking. I got the ABE and just made this bread. It came out quite good, but seems a little too salty. Could this be because there is lot of salt in the buttermilk? Anyone else have this problem? He mentions using regular milk as well, does that work out as well.

Also, it feels like the recipe is a little short for two 8x4.5 inch loaf pans..

Thanks.