March 5, 2015 - 2:45pm
Yeast substitute for levan starter
not sure WHERE to post this question, here goes third attempt. Can I use yeast in a recipe that calls for levan starter? I can't keep a starter due to travel, etc. (in the past I've had a starter for years.) I want to use some favorite levan recipes, but use yeast. Any comments? Monica
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The easiest and best to get the most flavor out of the yeast is to take the amount pf water and flour in the SD levain,add a pinch of yeast (about a 1/16 th of a tsp) to it to make a polish that will sit on the counter for 12 hours or overnight creating a flavorful preferment and then add this to the rest of the dough ingredients to make the bread dough.
Happy baking
Thanks! I figured I could, but your suggestion of a poolish for 12 hrs. makes a lot of sense. I'll try it....but just a pinch of yeast should do it huh.
2 pinches if it s ADY.
What's
a polish/poolish?W
it's a preferment using flour, water, a bit of yeast. Allow it to sit overnight and it helps develop more flavor
Thanks Monica, do you use the whole requirement of yeast to the preferment?
I would actually re-write the formula into it's "raw form" first (meaning all of the flour/water/salt/etc) and create the recipe accounting for 30% or so of the flour as prefermented, a poolish would be the easist math. This is because most levian recipies have a much lower amount of pre-fermented flour than yeasted preferments. Example:
Origional Recipe:
Raw recipe (weights of starter added back into flour/water):
New Poolish Recipe (30% of flour prefermented, subtracted from total water/flour):
The poolish in this case is made with 105g flour, 105g water and a pinch of yeast.
Oooo, did I mention I'm a math-a-phobe? I'm the family joke when it comes to numbers, they scare me! And my son has a Ph.D. in math. But, thanks for clarifying with your last sentence.
If you want to bake a higher percent rye bread (more than half rye flour) you need a sourdough starter, or so much yeast that it will not taste very good.
Karin
good to know, but I'm not much for rye.