I killed my starters with heat. Any way to save them/the bread I was in the midst of making?
Last night I sadly managed to kill both of my starters. These are the first starters I have been succcessful in making by myself, they took months to establish, and represent the wastage of a massive quantity of flour, time and effort. I was also in the midst of making rye bread for a friend of mine, and have a rye dough here full of dead starter. It's my own fault, because I'm a forgetful idiot, but I would really appreciate any advice on what might revive them and/or serve as leavening for the thoroughly dead seeming 100% rye bread I was in the midst of making.
How did I manage to kill them both? It was cold in the house, and the starters were sluggish and I needed them to rise faster to help them make rye bread for me on time for my friend's visit today. So I did what I've done many a time, and warmed the oven up a bit with them in it, keeping the oven at the lowest temperature. Only, I forgot the crucial part of warming yeast products with the oven, and didn't actually turn it OFF. By the time I realised my mistake, the temperature of the starters was at 41C according to my thermometer.
Still, I wanted that rye bread made, and from looking around, 41C seemed like it might not have killed them. So, I went ahead with trying to use it to leaven the rye dough I had ready. And fed the starters again to find out if they were dead. I left it over night and there is absolutely zero sign of life from the starters or the mixed rye dough.
I'm sure there's at least a way to leaven the rye dough with instant yeast? The thought of trying to stir instant yeast into my horribly, horribly sticky annoyance of dough is horrible, but needs must. A sachet (7g) of yeast for my roughly 500g bread sound plausible?