People made very good bread for a long time before they added Vitamin C to their flour.
I do think the effect of Vitamin C is detectable to a careful hand baker. However, hand bakers can easily compensate by using a slightly wetter dough or longer fermentation times.
At this point, I think Vitamin C is added for professional bakers using mechanical dough mixing and handling equipment on a tight production schedule.
The other side of of this is that I now prefer flour without Vitamin C in it - something I would not have discovered without asking the question, "Would adding Vitamin C to my flour improve it?" It was a fun experiment - lots of pizza for everyone.
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I noticed today that the yeast I am using has Ascorbic Acid (AA) in the ingredients list. (Fleischmann's Instant Dry Yeast, 1lb brick, packaged for USA market; not all Fleischmann's yeast has AA per the label.) I am estimating I am getting about 110PPM AA in my loaf from the AA in the yeast. In current packaging, Fleschmann says there is AA, but the quantity is not stated. In old labels from 5+ years ago the label had more AA info, giving me an estimate of 3 mg AA per 1 gram of yeast. I use about 15 grams (~0.5 oz) of yeast and 400 grams (14 oz) flour per loaf (comes to 45 mg AA and 110ppm). In perspective, I think commercial usage ranges from 50-200ppm. Maybe there is a catch: There are a few versions of AA, and I believe only l-ascorbic is useful for gluten formation. Maybe they are not using l-ascorbic. Maybe the AA in the yeast is denatured by something in the packaging process before it makes it to my loaf. Your thoughts?
Your calculations look correct. I have a spec sheet for SAF Red and it gives an AA spec of 300mg AA per 100g IDY:
https://docdro.id/kEjR0Ks
I think your AA levels are coming out rather high because you are using a LOT of yeast; in old school baking, levels up to 2% fresh yeast were considered the norm, equivalent to 0.8% IDY, but you are using 3.75% - over 4.5X as much.
If it works for you, I wouldn't worry, but you might want to think about reducing your yeast rate - you might get better flavour and crumb structure.
Personally I prefer to use an IDY without AA and I add it separately to those few breads I make that I think need it - usually high wholegrain products.
Lance
Thank you for the pointers and review. I see the Red Star yeast has the same 3mg AA per 1gram yeast.
Thank you for pointing out that I was over-yeasting my dough. It really explains something. I has spaced out that I was doing that. Back around 8-9 years ago I quit making bread, and stored the 1.5 lbs of yeast that I had, into in my freezer. A year ago I started making bread again and decided to use up that old yeast. I decided to increase the yeast content to compensate for the age of the yeast; I likely should have tossed it and bought new. I have repeatedly complained to myself the crumb seems coarser than it used to be, and I think I have an explanation. (I always make the same whole wheat recipe a couple hundred times. It is just for me; family wants soft store bought stuff.)
If I cut the yeast level by 1/4 as you suggest, I would have about 25ppm ascorbic acid. I think this is around half what commercial bakers use in the Chorleywood process. The reason I noted this is I bought some fresh yeast a few days ago and it just arrived, and when looking at the ingredients, it was the first time I noted both the old and the new stuff has Ascorbic acid.
I make a point of storing all my IDY in the freezer, with a storage part and a smaller "in use" part, to save opening the storage part frequently.
Lance