Hello,
last night I made two types of bread with exactly the same flour, same hydration, same amount of ripe starter in each.
The only thing different was that one had 100ml of honey in it, the other was just plain water, flour, salt and starter.
The plain loaf bulk fermented as normal and doubled in size in about 4 hours. Nice and active and airy
The honey bread though, only doubled in size overnight, about 14 hours I'd say. Almost no sign of life from the aliquot jar or the dough for many hours and then it only creeped up very slowly indeed. In the end I gave up and shaped and put in the fridge overnight because I wanted to go to bed! In the morning the aliquot jar (which I kept out) had doubled but as I say that was a full 14 hours later.
I wonder why this happened.
Seems to me that it must be the honey that retards the ferment but I don't know why or if there's a way to make the recipe more conducive to my timeframes.
I'd be most interested in anyone's view.
Thank you.
Raw honey contains anti-microbial materials to prevent it from fermenting or rotting in the hive, as I understand it. If your honey had not been processed or pasteurized that might be the reason. See, e.g.:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8071826/
https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/top-raw-honey-benefits
However, these posts say that raw honey can be used in bread-making:
https://www.chefsresource.com/does-honey-kill-yeast-in-bread/
https://kitchenjournal.net/can-you-use-raw-honey-in-bread/
TomP
What was the amount of water? Maybe the amount/concentration of sugars was too high. The increased osmotic pressure slows down the yeasts and the LAB.
You don't say how big the two doughs were, but 110ml of honey is 144 grams. What percentage was that of the flour? Second question: was the honey unpasteurized to begin with?
I use raw honey all the time, at a rate of 5% (approx 17g) per loaf with no problem. This is with dry yeast not starter, if that makes a difference.
It can depending on the starter. Enjoy!
Thanks for the reply, it was 300g water to 500g flour, 100g starter and 100g honey.
I use 49ghoney with 1000 g flour. You would use 20 g honey with500 g flour. That’s a major part of your problem. Start there. 🙏
Apologies it was 100g honey, 300g water, 500g flour, 100g starter.
The bread turned out great btw, but the fermentation took an absolute age.
Simple answer - which you know already - is one is different than the other. Whatever the ingredients - emphasis on whatever - go by that. Enjoy!
I call it my trinity , I use 1000 g of mixed fresh ground grains different kinds all the time and I add to that 40g of honey, 40g of yogurt ( or buttermilk) and 40g of EVVO ( olive oil) . I’ve never had a reduction of fermentation times. The only times I had had adverse results is if I put honey in my yeast water to give it a boost or in my levain build… nearly killed them so never will again. I think you used way too much honey. That said I would never buy pasteurized honey as all the goodies are killed. Just use less.
Some interesting thoughts about the type of honey and the amount used.
The loaf did in fact turn out wonderful and tasted great but I was just curious about why such drastic differences in the rise and how the honey affected that and I think I have some good answers here so thank you for that everyone.
100g of honey for 500g flour is a lot more than everyone else has been saying they use. Sugar can pull the water out of yeast much as salt can, which would reduce the activity of the yeast. Possibly this is why your fermentation went so slowly.
If you are always using the ingredient - keep going. If you aren't - why start? Use what you have and adjust for it. I can see the changes for right now already. Enjoy!