Had to choose between fresh yeast and instant for my sourdough starter

I was prepping for a big farmers market batch last Saturday and realized my starter was sluggish. Fresh yeast from the local bakery or instant from the grocery shelf hit me as the fork in the road. I went with fresh cause I thought it'd give more tang, but it actually made my dough tacky and hard to shape. Three loaves came out flat with a gummy crumb, which cost me about $40 in sales. Instant would've been more predictable, right? Has anyone else had fresh yeast mess up their sourdough timing like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

lee68918d ago

Fresh yeast is alive and kicking so it'll throw off your timeline if you don't dial back the water. A wetter dough plus active fresh yeast equals that sticky mess you dealt with.

holly70918d ago

Life works like this everywhere. Like with coffee grind size - too fine and you get bitter sludge in your French press. Same with watering plants. More isn't better. Everything has this sweet spot where you gotta pull back one thing to balance out another. People don't realize how often too much of a good thing just makes a mess.

wren23018d ago

Dial back the water" is what I had to learn too. After one too many gluey batches I just started cutting the water by 10% when using fresh yeast and it saved me a ton of headache.