Yeast substitute for levan starter

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Monica on 5 Mar 2015 at 14:45

not sure WHERE to post this question, here goes third attempt. Can I use yeast in a recipe that calls for levan starter? I can't keep a starter due to travel, etc. (in the past I've had a starter for years.) I want to use some favorite levan recipes, but use yeast. Any comments?  Monica

The easiest and best to get the most flavor out of the yeast is to take the amount pf water and flour in the SD levain,add a pinch of yeast (about a 1/16 th of a tsp) to it to make a polish that will sit on the counter for 12 hours or overnight creating a flavorful preferment and then add this to the rest of the dough ingredients to make the bread dough.

Happy baking  

Thanks! I figured I could, but your suggestion of a poolish for 12 hrs. makes a lot of sense. I'll try it....but just a pinch of yeast should do it huh. 

I would actually re-write the formula into it's "raw form" first (meaning all of the flour/water/salt/etc) and create the recipe accounting for 30% or so of the flour as prefermented, a poolish would be the easist math.  This is because most levian recipies have a much lower amount of pre-fermented flour than yeasted preferments. Example:

Origional Recipe:

  • 100g starter (100% hydration)
  • 200g water
  • 300g flour
  • 7g salt

Raw recipe (weights of starter added back into flour/water):

  • 250g water
  • 350g flour
  • 7g salt

New Poolish Recipe (30% of flour prefermented, subtracted from total water/flour):

  • 210g poolish (100% hydration)
  • 145g water
  • 245g flour
  • 7g salt

The poolish in this case is made with 105g flour, 105g water and a pinch of yeast.

Oooo, did I mention I'm a math-a-phobe? I'm the family joke when it comes to numbers, they scare me! And my son has a Ph.D. in math. But, thanks for clarifying with your last sentence.

If you want to bake a higher percent rye bread (more than half rye flour) you need a sourdough starter, or so much yeast that it will not taste very good.

Karin