February 18, 2016 - 12:37am
Substituting levain for yeast
I'm planning on baking a Forkish recipe with poolish. It calls for 1/8 tsp yeast for the poolish. I was thinking of halving? the amount of yeast I put in the poolish and throwing a bit of levain I've been feeding this week. The levain is really mild tasting (I keep only a bit each time I feed it). The poolish is to sit for 12-14 hours. Suppose I want bread that isn't sour at all. Can I use some levain in place of the yeast in the poolish? How much should I use in place of how much yeast?
Thanks in advance!
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... I use just 10g of my stiff rye culture to make up an overnight sponge (call it a poolish if you like as the sponge is made to 100% hydration) using 20% of the total flour. This sits on my worktop (currently at ~17 deg C) for 12 hours overnight and by the morning, it's going like the clappers!! - in fact, it never ceases to amaze me that just 10g of culture (comprising just 6g flour and 4g water) can ferment 240g flour (20% preferment - my total flour is 1200g) so quickly and at such temperatures. It works so well that I don't bother with multiple builds anymore.
In the morning this starter is added to the remaining flour/water which is "autolysed" 45mins, bulk fermented 2 hours (with S&F early on) and proved 2 hours before baking. The whole process takes around 18 hours and is so successful that it has become my standard procedure. The result is a fairly mild flavour with just a touch of sour - and that's the way I like it.
Interesting. I'll see how the poolish/sponge looks after rising overnight with just the levain. Thanks!
Matt
Is the poolish then used as the ferment for the rest of the flour, or does the recipe call for yeast when making up the final dough?
If the latter, then the poolish is just there to add more flavour, texture and "body" to the final loaf - I use this method when making baguettes - overnight is flour, water and a teaspoon of levian where then recipe I started with called for "a pinch of yeast" - then subsequently has more yeast in the dough made up the next morning. (And there's no trace of sour in my baguettes, but lots more flavour)
But if you're not subsequently adding yeast or levian to the final dough, then it will still work, but you might need to adjust the quantities to make sure the resulting poolish has enough oomph to ferment the dough...
(I don't have any of Forkish books)
-Gordon
If the latter, then the poolish is just there to add more flavour, texture and "body" to the final loaf - I use this method when making baguettes - overnight is flour, water and a teaspoon of levian where then recipe I started with called for "a pinch of yeast" - then subsequently has more yeast in the dough made up the next morning. (And there's no trace of sour in my baguettes, but lots more flavour)
This is exactly what I was planning on doing. The poolish/sponge is there for flavor, and the next day when I bake the mix gets more yeast. Ok, so I'll try subbing the levain for the pinch of yeast in the poolish and will add the requested amount of yeast to the final mix (3g iirc).
Thanks!
Matt
completely. It doesn't add any flavor and just speeds things up for proofing. When it comes to SD, speed is bad for flavor and I'm not in a hurry. In AZ where it is already 90 F in the daytime, instead of using 20% pre-fermented flour I use 10%. The time works out about the same for the levain build, fermen tand proof.
I do other things to get mire sour flavor because I like the sour in Sd but when i want to tone it down I use apple yeast water for the levain liquid. AYW has a way of taking the sour out of the mix while still getting the keeping qualities of SD..
Happy SD baking