sourdough levain added to dough with commercial yeast
I have been making a delicious bread by creating a 80% hydrated wild yeast levain using abut 1/3 the total amount of flour in the bread. I ferment this overnight, and then add to the rest of the flour which has added about 1/4 tsp of commercial yeast to help the rise. final hydration is 68%.
my question is this - what would happen if I fermented everything at once, that is both the wild starter and the commercial yeast added to all the flour and water, and slowly bulk fermented over 12-18hrs to enhance the flavour?
I know the commercial yeast does not like a highly acid environment, but this would be cold fermented in the fridge to reduce the acetic acid formation, and move more to a milder lactic acid.
Would this co-fermentation work? perhaps the commercial yeast would overpower the wild yeast?
thoughts?
The commercial yeast will 'out do' the wild yeast starter and you won't get the full benefits of the sourdough.
Commercial yeast is a lot stronger.
If you did it all at once I highly doubt you'll get 12-18 hours out of it. Fermentation will be too quick.
That's how I make almost all my sourdough breads. Mix/knead in the evening, leave it in a covered tub overnight in a coolish place, then turn out - stretch & fold, or just leave it depending on the slackness of the dough, scale/shape/prove then bake.
Don't add commercial yeast though - it'll be too much for it. A good levian should suffice. I use 30% of the flour weight as levian in most of my breads.
My 'hybrid' breads are of the form of making up a sponge/poolish but using a tablespoon of sourdough starter rather than a pinch of commercial yeast - let that get going overnight, then use the sponge in the main mix (with a bit more commercial yeast) ratios vary depending on the bread.
I also do an overnight yeasted bread - no sourdough, but just 0.3% flour weight in commercial yeast. You need good scales for that - e.g. 2.5g yeast in 960g flour... (3 small loaves worth)
-Gordon
For my little home-based bread baking business, I prepare almost all my doughs with overnight bulk fermentation in the fridge, since this works much better for my schedule.
By trial and error I found the minimum amount of instant yeast that didn't cause overfermenting in the fridge, but ensured a reliable rise in order to get my breads out in time.
I seriously doubt that you can taste a difference between a mostly sourdough leavened bread with a minute amount of commercial yeast and a purist sourdough.
Happy Baking,
Karin
Karin,
Just to clarify, are you bulk fermenting overnight in the fridge with both sourdough and a small amount of commercial yeast in the dough?
if so, what is the approximate quantities / lb of dough for both the sourdough and commercial yeast?
Thanks,
Randy
Yes, I usually bulk ferment my final doughs, containing starter and commercial yeast, overnight in the fridge.
As an example, for my Bauernbrot (German famers' loaf) the baker's math is:
100% flour (396 g)
57% water (226 g)
1.83% salt (5 g)
0.76% instant yeast (3 g)
14% mother starter from the fridge (57 g)
43% flour is prefermented (57 g mother starter + 170 g flour + 90 g water)
Happy Baking,
Karin
Thanks so much!
This is very helpful.
Randy