Soaker doubled -- use?
Hello,
Reading about amylase enzyme activity online, it seems the ideal temperature for its activity of converting starches to sugars is around 30C / 86F, thereabouts. So I tried it. Yesterday I mixed a preferment using my starter (100% hydration) keeping it at 10C, and separately, a flour soaker (80% hydration), with a pinch of salt and keeping it at 30C / 86F. Both have been at it for about 20 hours so far. When I just checked them, the starter-based preferment had doubled in size, maybe a bit more. To my surprise, so did the Soaker. Both have risen about the same size.
This surprised me a bit, as I have done flour soakers before at normal room temp (20-21C), and have never seen it rise at all. Plus, I added some salt to this soaker. The soaker is full of bubbles, it looks almost identical to my starter-based preferment. Both are a mixture of whole-wheat + spelt flour that I milled.
Since it appears I basically created the beginnings of a new sourdough culture, it was not what I intended. I only wanted the amalyze activity, not any yeast or any other "beasties" going on. It doesn't smell foul, but not the same pleasant "earthy whole grain" as I am normally used to with a soaker.
I had planned to mix them both together in a couple hours and make bread out of it, but now I'm not sure if it is "safe" to consume this soaker, if there is now a wide-range of stuff growing in there, that hasn't yet equalized out to a natural balance.
Any suggestions? I'll probably go ahead with it anyway, the high heat of the oven should kill off everything that might be undesired (if any).