When I was at our local health food store recently, I saw something that caught my eye. It was Yogourmet Freeze-dried Kefir starter. It is a commercial product and all that is needed is to use 5grams of starter to 1 quart of milk. The product itself is supposed to be refrigerated, but when making the milk kefir it is left out at room temperature for 24 hrs. and then refrigerated again. It gives directions on the back of the package how to make the milk kefir. What I saw in the ingredients listed is what interested me most. The ingredients listed are: Skim milk powder, abcorbic acid, active lactic bacteria and yeasts. Inside the package there are 6 packets. I don’t know, but the sound of the abcorbic acid with active lactic bacteria might be able to create a sourdough pizza. I am not sure though, whether it will be able to leaven a pizza dough or create a sourdough pizza, like my last attempt at:
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,12173.0.html
Pictures below of front and back of product.
What I would like to do is make another preferment Lehmann dough, but I am not sure how much of this product to include in the formula or if I should just include this in the poolish. I think I will need to add some IDY, but am not sure of that either. I am going to start this milk kefir and see what happens. I started a dough Friday to bake at market on Tuesday.
Yogourmet Kefir Starter
Make healthy Kefir known to provide B-Vitamins and other healthy nutrients.
A blend of selected strains of dairy cultures, yeast and kefir grains including - L. Caucasicus, L. Casei, S. Lactis, S. Diacetilactis, S. Cremoris, S.Kefir, T. Kefir.
No appliance and no refrigeration needed, milk is incubated at room temperature for approximately 24 hours.
A predigested drink due to the fermentation process. Acceptable for people that are lactose intolerant.
A bubbly effervescent drink with a Ph of about 4, clean acid taste with no bitterness aftertaste. Smooth texture and a slight aroma of yeast and taste of sourcream and buttermilk.
Ingredients: Lactic Bacteria and yeasts (Leuconostoc Cremoris, Lactobacillus Plantarum, Streptococcus Lactis, Streptococcus Cremoris, Streptococcus Diacelillactis) skim milk powder.
Each single box makes 6 individual quarts of yogurt and contains 6 envelopes of 5 grams.
Each single box makes 6 individual quarts of Kefir and contains 6 packets of 5 grams. Total 1.5 gallons.
6 Box pack makes 36 quarts or 9 gallons.
12 Box pack makes 72 quarts or 18 gallons.
Made in Canada.
I did follow the directions to heat the milk to 180 degrees F and had left a small amount of cold milk to mix 5 grams of freeze dried culture in. So far on Friday, the milk didn’t look curdled and it still looked the same, but I did mix it into the poolish for a preferment Lehmann dough and also use some of the milk kefir to mix into the final dough Monday, in place of some of the water. Since I don’t really know how to go about this, or if it will work, I might also add a little IDY.
I decided this to use the milk with the milk kefir cultures in, even if it wasn’t curdled. I mixed the a poolish with replacing all the water with the not curdled milk kefir. I also mixed another poolish up for a preferment Lehmann dough, (1 dough ball) right after I mixed the milk kefir poolish to see how both poolishes would ferment. I left both at room temperature for 9 hrs. It can be seen on the regular poolish and the milk kefir poolish that the milk kefir poolish didn’t bubble at all. I then put the same amount of yeast in the milk kefir poolish. I haven’t decided, but think I am going to replace some of the water in the final dough on Monday with milk kefir if it curdles or not.
Picture of freeze-dried milk kefir mixed with milk before I mixed it with the flour and picture of the both poolishes after 9 hrs.
After I added the IDY to the milk kefir poolish the poolish did bubble, but bubbled different than my regular poolish. The poolish is thicker and the bubbles of fermentation even look different so far. The milk kefir poolish is now in the refrigerator. I tasted both the regular poolish and the milk kefir poolish. The milk kefir poolish doesn have a slight sweet taste and does taste different. The freeze-dried cultures have fermented the milk this morning. I tasted the fermented milk kefir made with the freeze-dried cultures and it does have a pleasant taste. It tastes like yogurt without any flavorings. It doesn’t have a slightly sour taste like the regular milk kefir grains did when making the milk kefir. It was put into the refrigerator until Monday 3/07/2011.
I made the first milk kefir smoothie from the freeze-dried milk kefir. I put almost 3/4 cup milk kefir in with frozen sliced peaches, frozen mango chunks, regular milk, and a little bit of vanilla in my blender. The milk kefir smoothie tasted great. The milk kefir has now separated a little, since it has been in the refrigerator.
Pictures of what milk kefir looked like last evening and milk kefir smoothie.
I made the dough ball 3/14/2010 and went “hog wild” to see what would happen if I used all milk kefir to replace the water, in the final dough formula for one dough ball. The dough even felt dry, so used a total of 134 grams of milk kefir in the final mix.
Picture of milk kefir poolish and amount of milk kefir added to one dough ball. It can be seen on the picture how much darker the milk kefir poolish is from the milk kefir. One picture of dough ball with all milk kefir, in the poolish and final dough.
The milk kefir poolish and dough made with all milk kefir, to replace the water, worked out okay. The crumb was moist and the rim did get oven spring. The bottom of the crust has me intrigued. It almost looks like a pie that came out of a WFO. I will have to work with the milk kefir poolish and milk kefir in the final dough and make some changes.
Norma
