Can you make your own yeast for bread baking?

Tereza Okava wrote:That's essentially sourdough (or levain). It doesn't always work exactly the same (often takes a bit longer) but since starting sourdough and using it, I've noticed I buy much less yeast.

Scott Foster wrote:Thanks for the great information.  I think I'll try making a batch with raisins and honey and a batch with white flour.  I'm a little confused about how to use it in a recipe, as far as the amount of starter to mix in, etc.  I think I'll have to experiment.

Kimbo Baugh wrote:

Scott Foster wrote:Thanks for the great information.  I think I'll try making a batch with raisins and honey and a batch with white flour.  I'm a little confused about how to use it in a recipe, as far as the amount of starter to mix in, etc.  I think I'll have to experiment.

Experimentation is the best way to go. A good starting point is a 1:2:3 loaf - 1 part leaven/starter, 2 parts water, 3 parts flour (by weight). For salt, use 1% of the entire dough weight, or 2% of the weight of the flour.[/quote

Thanks for this. :)

Morfydd St. Clair wrote: I have many yeast packets in my freezer... and flour is impossible to find.   Will do a no-contact trade.

I also have wheat and a never-put-together flour mill, so now could be my shining moment.  Maybe this weekend.

Kimbo Baugh wrote:You can also create a yeast water using water, sugar or honey, and fruit/herbs/flowers. I do this often. The procedure is very similar to creating a ginger bug or a naturally carbonated drink.

500g water
50g fruit (raisins or dates work very well, make sure they're organic)
27g of sugar or honey

Kimbo Baugh wrote:

Is it just me or does that sound like a recipe for methelglin mead?  

Scott Foster wrote:
Is there a way to make yeast for white bread?

Tereza Okava wrote:Scott, I have found that sourdough (like beer) tends to be super over analyzed. To me, that makes it lose the magic, quite frankly. I could indeed measure every single gram of everything, but I kind of enjoy having at least one area of my life that isn't like that, so I try to cook in a way that is less chemistry lab and more just basic notions.
I use this recipe for plain white sourdough, and it is easy enough that I can do it more or less blindfolded and fit it into my daily schedule. I have a large covered Tupperware where the overnight rise goes, and I bake in a covered Dutch oven. Try it and see how it works for you.  https://vanillaandbean.com/emilies-everyday-sourdough/
(sorry this page has so many pictures, I hate these recipe pages where you have to scroll through a small novella and photo journal to get to the actual recipe, but this recipe is well-tested, probably the easiest one I've seen so far, and worth trying.)

Mike Barkley wrote:Scott, I bake a lot of white bread with sourdough starter. It doesn't have a sour taste unless I use a high ratio of starter to flour when I'm preparing the loaf. Tastes like white bread.

Scott Foster wrote:
I need to get a dutch oven. I've been using bread pans.

Rebecca Norman wrote:Lots of great advice above.

When using sourdough starter to make bread, I find that adding the salt as late in the process as possible makes the result less sour. I think I read that this is because the salty environment encourages lactobacteria (as in sauerkraut and kimchi) whereas without salt encourages mostly yeast, which doesn't make bread sour unless it goes too far.

jason holdstock wrote:Since shop bought yeast is a rarity on shop shelves at the moment I currently have some from a packet of organic dried yeast doing its thing with water and wholemeal flour on the windowsill. I'd read that I should throw half of it away each day and replace it with the same volume of fresh flour and water every day for a week. I don't make bread with anything but flour water yeast and salt so wasn't going to add anything to my starter.
But having read this, and because it's not exactly going mad (although there only maybe 2-3grams of dried yeast to start with) I put some honey mixed with warm water in and it's perked up a bit.
The article I'd read said do that for a week before using it, then feed once a week transferring it to the fridge, topping up when I've used some.
An old Russian technique I'd read about said put dough in a bucket of cold river water. When it floats it's ready to bake YRMV
So more time between the dough being mixed in a bread machine (three hours 15mins, then folded a bit, rolled in a fat sausage and into a tin) and baking the next morning for me means it sitting in a fridge overnight in an inflated ziplock, then it sits on the side at room temperature if it hasn't quite come up enough. Plus a pizza stone and a sprinkle of boiling water on the loaf surface just before ovening.

Scott Foster wrote:  

Theoretically, I can put any weight of water and flour in the Levain mixture to 1. give me the cup of starter I need for a loaf, and 2. leave enough starter to keep it going.    This is crazy cool.

Tereza Okava wrote: And if you don't bake enough to have applications for large volumes of discarded starter every day (or if you're too cheap to conscience feeding that much every day) you can scale it up or down depending.

Tereza Okava wrote:

Scott Foster wrote:  

Theoretically, I can put any weight of water and flour in the Levain mixture to 1. give me the cup of starter I need for a loaf, and 2. leave enough starter to keep it going.    This is crazy cool.

YES. And if you don't bake enough to have applications for large volumes of discarded starter every day (or if you're too cheap to conscience feeding that much every day) you can scale it up or down depending. Keeping it in the fridge also slows it so you don`t have to feed as much (once it is going well, nice and strong). I "save up" the discard over a week and make something with it on the weekend, because I am a cheapskate.

Tereza Okava wrote:Kimbo, you're very welcome to post links. (and I have made that recipe, if it's the one I think it is, and it is worth making!). Discarded starter also makes the most amazing cornbread.

Scott Foster wrote:500g water
50g fruit (raisins or dates work very well, make sure they're organic)
27g of sugar or honey

Is it just me or does that sound like a recipe for methelglin mead?

Beth Wilder wrote:. I'm gluten-free, so I made my starter with and feed it a blend of gluten-free mostly-wholegrain flours and aim for about a 100% hydration (1:1 flour:water if I understand right; I am not enough of a bread nerd to understand all the terminology or know it by heart.....I use my starter to make a batch of stovetop gluten-free flatbreads every other day or so, and that's been a hugely positive thing lately.