December 9, 2015 - 11:08am
Vitamin C
I regularly bake a sourdough whole wheat rye bread in batches of 4-5 loaves, using a preferment. I would like to use vitamin C, but am unsure when to add it. I utilize commercial yeast in the preferment, and need to know if I should add it then, or wait until the dough is ready for the bulk fermentation. Any suggestions?
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What are you hoping to achieve by adding vitamin C?
Add Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) to the water before mixing with flour.
Vitamin C is beneficial to yeast growth and has the added benefit of neutralizing the effects of Chloramine water treatment.
Wild-Yeast
I doubt you will gain much benefit from adding vitamin C to your bread as the vitamin will largely decompose during the cooking process. See below for the information in Wikipedia.
"Vitamin C chemically decomposes under certain conditions, many of which may occur during the cooking of food. Vitamin C concentrations in various food substances decrease with time in proportion to the temperature they are stored at[126] and cooking can reduce the Vitamin C content of vegetables by around 60% possibly partly due to increased enzymatic destruction as it may be more significant at sub-boiling temperatures.[127] Longer cooking times also add to this effect, as will copper food vessels, which catalyse the decomposition.[102]"
from Wikipedia.
Ford
considered a sourdough?
http://www.thescienceofbreadmaking.com/vitamin-c.html
To get the most out of the oxidizing power of ascorbic acid, it should be added just prior to remixing (not in the preferment or "sponge"). The most you should use is 75ppm (parts per million) based on flour weight.
Bob