Dough vs Levain Flour Characteristics
Hello, first time on here but I've been an avid reader of helpful posts on here since I began baking a little over a year ago.
I have a question about sourdough's effect on the flour it feeds off in a levain.
Being that there are characteristics that make different flours behave differently (I'll use white vs whole wheat here) for example, strong white flour lends itself to easily developed gluten, whole wheat less so......what happens to those characteristics if the flour is used in a levain?
Say there is one loaf made from 500g strong white flour, and 100g of (100% hydration) whole wheat starter is used to levain the bread..
And say there is another loaf made from 450g strong white flour, 50g whole wheat, and 100g of (100% hydration) strong white levain is used instead.
In loaf #1, the whole wheat is being introduced entirely through the leavin, in loaf #2 the whole wheat is being introduced entirely during dough mixing. These two imaginary loaves have the same total whole wheat / white flour ratios. Are the nutritional benefits, structural deficiencies, etc. of whole wheat in loaf #1 lessened because of the extra fermentation?
This scenario is ignoring a plethora of other variables that would have an effect on a final loaf, but my focus is on the function of the flour here.
If that makes any sense, I would like to hear your observations/inferences/proven theories to the question simplified:
Do a flour's characteristics "dull" or change if it is fermented longer as part of the leavin?