Sourdough Strength

[charbo]

I have been using commercial yeast and am thinking of trying sourdough.  Can I expect the same leavening power with a sourdough starter?  What about starting with sourdough for flavor, then adding some commercial yeast for the final rise?

cb

[canadianbacon]

Hi Charbo,

No, sourdough has nowhere near the rising power of a commercial yeast *in the same timeframe* BUT it
does have a surprising amount of power over many hours !

I have been doing a lot of sourdough lately, and really like it.  I did a number of breads using sourdough
and adding a bit of yeast to give it that extra kick. 

For example 6 cups of flour in my sourdough bread, with only 1 teaspoon of yeast made bread that really
blew up very high in my loaf pans.

If you are going to do sourdough only, then it's totally fine for pizza, but just remember that you are going
to want to let it sit for about 3-4 hours to get a some real activity to it like you would see in only  45 mins
using commercial yeast.

Your mileage is going to vary, so don't hold me to exact times.  Some let their bread rise for 6-7 hours !
if using 100% sourdough only ( with no commercial yeast )

Sourdough is very fun, and gives a nice "kick" or "twang" to your breads.

I LOVE sourdough croutons.  Just make up a few big round loaves of sourdough bread, then cut one of them
up a day later, into croutons.... onto a baking sheet with your fav spices and lots of olive oil sprinkled onto them.
Into the oven at 325 for over an hour, and wow.... they are just amazing in salads.  Sourdough bread is really
fun.  Don't give up on it, it takes some time to know how to do it, but eventually if you keep plugging away you know
how to do it.

I have been using commercial yeast and am thinking of trying sourdough.  Can I expect the same leavening power with a sourdough starter?  What about starting with sourdough for flavor, then adding some commercial yeast for the final rise?

cb

[canadianbacon]

Hi again Charbo,

I knew I had embedded some images into one of my posts....

check this thread out :

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3023.msg25629.html#msg25629

the links don't work any longer, but you can still see the images I posted inside my post.

you can see the sourdough loaves.

Mark

[tonymark]

I was so used to IDY that when Jeff gave me his culture I kept a little in there for the kick.  Listen and read, the dough for pizza does not need all that rise.  Just retard for 2 days in fridge and then set out for 4 hours before the baking.  I just made 3 pizzas tonight and they were some of my best! 

Keep in mind that sourdough cultures were the only way bread was leavened until the 20th century.

The flavor will be so good that you will never go back to IDY.

TM

[Pete-zza]

In my experience, it is possible to get similar dough expansion with a natural preferment as with commercial yeast, including a doubling and tripling, but the extent of dough expansion when using a natural preferment will depend on the amount of preferment used, its strength, the fermentation temperature (e.g., room temperature vs. refrigeration), the amount of salt, hydration percent, and other factors. It is theoretically possible, I suppose, to correlate amounts of natural preferment and commercial yeast to produce similar results under similar circumstances, but I have not seen any tables setting forth such correlations.

As far as combining a natural preferment with commercial yeast is concerned, my experience is that the crust flavor is less pronounced than if only a natural preferment is used. Many people use commercial yeast in combination with a natural preferment with the view of achieving better oven spring or as insurance in case the natural preferment is too weak (slow acting) or otherwise ineffective. With experience in establishing and maintaining natural preferments, it should be possible to rely only on the natural preferments and not have to use commercial yeast as a crutch.

Peter

[Bill/SFNM]

The amount of leavening-power of a culture is dependent on the yeast strain(s) in the culture. I have no knowledge of your particular starter, but I maintain 6 cultures and each has a different potency. The only one that I captured myself is the least potent and I usually add a bit of commercial yeast to give it an assist. The other 5 are all from sourdo.com and, although they vary in strength, they all have more than enough to be used without any commercial yeast.  One of them, the "Russian" starter, once activated, is as potent as IDY.

Bill/SFNM

[Kinsman]

My culture works pretty quickly too...and once it does get going, watch out!
It may not be as quick as those little packets, but almost.

The texture of the finished product is uncomparable.