The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Hybrid doughs health benefits

Biggz's picture
Biggz

Hybrid doughs health benefits

In the book “ FLOUR WATER SALT YEAST” by Ken Forkish he mentions hybrid levaining doughs which include a small amount of commercial yeast added to the final dough mix. My question is does the addition of the yeast reduce or eliminate some/all of the health benefits gained when baking with a straight sourdough starter?

rondayvous's picture
rondayvous

So long as you gave the starter enough time to do its thing you shouldn't be penalized for giving it a kick at the end.

I routinely will judge the activity in the morning (after an overnight preferment) and add the rest of the flour/water/salt/yeast to make the final ferment predictable.

Abe's picture
Abe

Will do just as well without any added yeast. I've never had any issue with leaving the yeast out.

alcophile's picture
alcophile

I have made many loaves that have both starter and IDY. I don't see anything wrong with adding yeast to a dough and I can't think of a reason why any health benefits would be lost. The Lactobacillus spp. responsible for most of the health benefits would still be present in the dough.

King Arthur Baking has a blog entry on adding IDY to sourdough:

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2022/01/13/adding-yeast-to-your-sourdough-bread

Another recipe that I recently tried and really like is the Approachable Loaf from the WSU Breadlab. It uses a small levain and IDY:

https://breadlab.wsu.edu/the-approachable-loaf-and-the-breadlab-collective/

Sugarowl's picture
Sugarowl

I don't think your question was ever answered. So the answer is: No. The addition of the commercial yeast won't affect the health benefits of the sourdough culture. That small amount is usually added to give a boost to the initial rise as sourdough takes a lot longer to rise than regular commercial yeast. The two yeasts aren't competing with each other as there is no bad effect from commercial yeast.