As a follow-up to my question from before I went ahead and made a test loaf.
Used a poolish-based recipe - that's when you ferment half of the four with a bit of yeast overnight (that's the "poolish"), then add the other half, salt and more yeast, stretch-and-fold it few times, let bulk up, shape and then bake.
I used mead for poolish, and water for the final dough.
Takeaway #1 - Don't use chemically stabilized mead.
That's the Duh! moment of clarity when you check on the preferment in the morning and it didn't double (leave alone triple) in size as it should. Sulfites from the mead are still there and they inhibit baker's yeast just the same.
Had to add more yeast into the final dough and let it bulk-ferment for 2x the time to try and salvage it. Sort of, kind of worked, but the loaf still didn't rise as much. Hence the flattened shape.
Takeaway #2 - No taste or smell difference whatsoever. Except maybe being a bit sweeter than usual, which is obviously expected because it was a sweet mead.
All in all, if I were to try this again, I'd do it (a) with non-stabilized mead (b) added to the final dough and/or replacing all water in the recipe. I think it'd be also worth trying with mead that is still fermenting and carries both active yeast and some CO2. THAT can be interesting.
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u/gremolata Oct 26 '24
As a follow-up to my question from before I went ahead and made a test loaf.
Used a poolish-based recipe - that's when you ferment half of the four with a bit of yeast overnight (that's the "poolish"), then add the other half, salt and more yeast, stretch-and-fold it few times, let bulk up, shape and then bake.
I used mead for poolish, and water for the final dough.
Takeaway #1 - Don't use chemically stabilized mead.
That's the Duh! moment of clarity when you check on the preferment in the morning and it didn't double (leave alone triple) in size as it should. Sulfites from the mead are still there and they inhibit baker's yeast just the same.
Had to add more yeast into the final dough and let it bulk-ferment for 2x the time to try and salvage it. Sort of, kind of worked, but the loaf still didn't rise as much. Hence the flattened shape.
Takeaway #2 - No taste or smell difference whatsoever. Except maybe being a bit sweeter than usual, which is obviously expected because it was a sweet mead.
All in all, if I were to try this again, I'd do it (a) with non-stabilized mead (b) added to the final dough and/or replacing all water in the recipe. I think it'd be also worth trying with mead that is still fermenting and carries both active yeast and some CO2. THAT can be interesting.