13 minutes ago, keychris said:
Did you have any additional yeast to the "starter yeast" in your dough?
No, and in fact I was just finishing the last bite of a piece just as I noticed the "new post" notification.
In rough figures, my recipe calls for about 12 oz. of water, and since I added a full cup of "starter" yeast, which was roughly half water and half flour, with a single t. of yeast (4 days ago), I decided that half my 1 c. of flour/water/yeast "starter" was water so I reduced my 12 oz. of water to 8 oz. Also threw in 2 of the worst bananas I've ever had.
The bread is DELICIOUS. Heavy, like banana bread, but still light enough to be thought of as white bread, It has a light flavor of banana, but not so much that you think "desert" instead of "meal". In fact I ate the bread with a hot bowl of very hearty pinto bean and baked ham soup (with onion and a dash of garlic). Mention this in case anyone thinks that white bread with a couple bananas thrown in would be ruined as "main meal" bread. I think it makes the ham & bean soup taste better.
As far as the starter yeast's performance, the 1 c. of "starter yeast" had enough active yeasties in there to make my bread raise to approximately the same height as usual. It was about 1/2" lower than what I normally get, and for sense of scale, when I add 2 t. of active yeast (instead of 1 t.), the 2.5 load raises so high it sticks to the lid of the bread maker. In short, in my recipe, 1 t. active yeast "good", and 2 t. active yeast "too much". Using just the "starter yeast" caused the bread to rise a little low compared to the standard 1. t. active yeast option, but I can't say what the non-standard water measurement plus the moisture from the 1 c. of "starter yeast", plus the effect of the 2 horribly flavorless (but still not brown and over-ripe) bananas.
Lots of learning going on over here. Like I say, an ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
I added more flour and water to my dedicated rotten starter yeast tupperware container, but held back on the water to see what would happen if I kept the "starter yeast" more like "dough" and less like goop. I'll report results in a few days as I plan on making another loaf using the starter yeast alone and hopefully these remaining bananas will have found their way into the compost pile.
