The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Yeast and keeping qualilties

hreik's picture
hreik

Yeast and keeping qualilties

Gurus,

Please let me know if you think adding a soupçon of yeast will detract from shelf life of my bread. I'm doing Ken Forkish's Double-fed sweet levain. The levain is fed 2x within 3 hours and then final dough is made with: 540 gm levain (~80% hydration), 660 gm white flour, 40 whole wheat, 540 water, 20 salt and 2g of instant dried yeast. I am debating whether or not just to forget the yeast and let the bulk fermentation go longer.  the recipe calls for 5 hour bulk fermentation and then over night in fridge after shaping.

It's pretty hot in the northeast now and I'm wondering if the yeast will detract from shelf life of my bread... (or is it mostly eggs, and milk in enriched doughs that limit shelf life?)

Thank you in advance.

hester

cerevisiae's picture
cerevisiae

The presence of commercial yeast does not directly affect the keeping qualities of bread. My understanding is that many breads made with commercial yeast simply do not allow the same for the same build up of byproducts (acids, alcohol) that help preserve the loaf, mostly because they have much shorter fermentation/proofing times.

If the bread is still getting a long proof, it will probably still have decent keeping qualities, especially since it'll be getting a boost of acidity from the levain.

Additionally, my impression is that the addition of fats and sugars in enriched loaves actually improves shelf life somewhat, since it inhibits the migration of water within the loaf. Most enriched loaves are still made with copious yeast and go from dough to bread quickly, which is why they often stale rapidly.

If you haven't made this dough before, following the formula is probably a good idea since you don't know exactly what to expect from it in terms of process or end result.

If you have made it before, trying it without the yeast sounds like a good experiment, but I wouldn't expect that it would drastically alter the keeping qualities, though it might do so somewhat.

hreik's picture
hreik

I followed  your advice and the recipe since it was my first time. Was delicious.  ty.