Whey to go...
I fed my starter with my whey from kefir. I have been making a lot of kefir cheese lately ..we use it to fill crepes and make Mexican dishes and also lasagna. It is so yum but I have a LOT of whey. The starter was very happy . I then used the whey to replace the water in 3 different formulas. I have never made an olive loaf. I looked around on TFL and found mebake's take on Hammelman's formula in Bread. I used the whey and added extra as did mebake . I also used it in my More Sour Norwich formula. I have never made a sourdough fruit and nut bread so also made a formula for that from Wild Yeast's blog. 7 loaves all in all. Everything responded beautifully to the whey. I shall use it now each time I bake breads. I just noted that the crumb shot for the fruit and nut bread is too blurry to post. WIll have to do another later. I have posted the Norwich many times so won't repost unless you would like to see ;) Here are some pics:
olive loaf after retard overnight and ready to be turned out on parchment : 
slashed and ready to go in hot iron pots: 
baked olive loaves: 
More sour Norwich SD: 
crumb olive loaf: 
fruit and nut loaf crumb:
another crumb shot of olive loaf: 
fruit and nut loaf: 
Comments
Nice.
Are there any noticeable differences because of the whey? Or just general starter contentment?
I would like to know too if you could comment on how the whey effected the flavor of your loaves.
I make soft cheeses a lot and always use the whey in breads too but nobody I have given loaves to has made a comment on any change it makes so I am curious about what changes you see in your loaves because of it being used in place of the water.
The loaves sure do look nice!
Janet
floyd and janet. We just had pasta i fagioli and some of the olive bread. The crumb is very tender. I haven't made this particular bread before but since it is esentially like every other SD that I make I think I can probably safely generalize about the crumb. It is more tender than usual. The crust was not affected at all. It was very crisp and had a nice crackle out of the oven as did the Norwich. I have read that the breads will stay fresh and the crumb tender longer due to the whey. I feel that it probably happens due to the fat . I do notice a fine layer of fat on the surface of the whey, I use 2% milk to make my kefir. I will post back in a couple days and let you know.
As to the starter I think it bubbled up just the same as always and was not discernably faster. My starter is always very strong. I did notice the fragrance was really lovely and somewhat "fresher" for want of a better description. I will continue to feed with it as I have it and also use it for my liquid in my breads now that I know it doesn't hurt and may well add another dimension to keeping power as well as taste. Tomorrow will be a good indication on the olive bread.
The fruit and nut bread is simply amazing. The loaves are VERY dense. Small too !! But pack a wonderful flavor and sweetness from the fruit...I used dried cherries, cranberries, dates and pecans and almonds. I am going to experiment more and add the same volume of fruit and nuts to my regular SD and see what happens. So far I love this little sweet loaf.
Thanks for the detailed description. I am curious to how the whey impacts flavor when you add it as the liquid in the final dough too. I imagine it might make it a bit more tangy due to the bacteria it contains for the kefir but I have also read that it adds sweetness...
Janet
no noticable tanginess at all., and I did use it for all of the liquid in all three formulas' final mix. I think the sweetness and more moist and tender are what come through.
I do all formulas the same . By that I mean that I autolyse for at least an hour, then I mix on 1-2 KA for 3 min. then I let it rest and do 2 s&f's during a 2 1/2 hr period. I then shape and rise only 1 hr and then retard overnight or sometimes 2 days in the fridge. I then preheat my iron pots for 30 min at 500. Put loaves directly from the fridge into the hot pots and reduce temp to 460...bake covered 15 min/lid off 5 min/remove from pots and bake another 10-15 min to 210 degrees. I do everything the same way no matter what the formula says ;) I guess it is a rogue way of doing things but it works so far with everything I have done for the past 4 yrs or so.
I noticed that island66-Ian does the same routine for all of his breads also. I love having a set pattern and only change what goes in the bread as far as ingredients.
try your whey and see what happens and please do report back, Janet. c
Thanks for clarifying for me.
Tomorrow's loaf is a deli rye and I don't want to use it in that due to texture change. It will wait for the following day which is one of PR's recipes - Oat Bran Broom Bread.
If I forget to report back - don't hesitate to ask me. I tend to forget where I respond at times but always welcome reminders :-)
Janet
P.S. Once I found a method of mixing and baking that fit my days' schedules I do as you do. All breads get treated more or less the same though my routine is different than yours is. Simplifies life :-)
Beautiful collection of breads. I really like your fruit/nut bread. It looks like a bread "candy bar" chock full of goodness!
regards,
Ian
Off to look at your bread ! I bake once every 2 weeks now and there are only 2 of us so I don't try as many new ones as I should . The fruit/nut bread is wonderful. Natural sweetness from the ingredients and not heavy like a fruit cake. Will make it again. c
We don't like to throw away whey and bread making sure uses it all up very quickly. The only time I ever had a problem, it you could call it a problem, with whey was in the fridge during retard in conjunction with a large amount of spelt. For some reason the yeast really took to the spelt and whey. It just exploded in volume in the fridge. It hasn't happened since then but when whey is in the mix the spelt is reduced :-) I think it makes the crumb softer too.
Very nice baking as usual.
I have a small amount of spelt and when I used it , not even with any whey in sight, it exploded too...wonder what it is with spelt ??? Hmm...will try again using some of it and see what happens . Gotta get in touch with my inner experimenter...:) You got me way beat on that ! c
hi, these are lovely breads. I've always wanted to substitute water with whey but since i'm always trying new recipes for the first time i try to keep to water. You've confirmed what i thought - that it makes bread more tender, perhaps there is a little sweetness?? and maybe the crumb is a tad tighter?
i have a question: how long does whey keep? Mine is not a keffir whey ( i wouldn't worry about the keeping quality of keffir since it's fermented), but whey leftover from making mozzarella with raw milk.
i have yet to start on keffir cheeses but i'm hoping to make soon bread leavened with milk keffir :)