> Dear Bread Bakers
>
> I hope you can help me. I sometimes bake bread at home, which is very
> pleasant as a therapy (better to thump the dough than whack my
> children). But I have for a long time wondered if I am correct in
> believing that it is possible for the home cook to keep her own continuous
> supply of live yeast instead of having to rely on "easy-blend" packets, or
> indeed to improve her own Yeast-plant by caring for it properly. If you
> can give me advice, I would be very grateful,
Hi Elaine
This is indeed how bread has been made for centuries before commercial
yeast came on the market. In fact, my grandmother (who grew up on a farm
and had her own farm for 15 years) kept a jar of yeast culture in the
cellar for her daily bread making. (In fact, when one of the kids
accidently broke the jar or the culture died, she would be in one heck of a
bind. She would have to walk the 3-5 miles to the neighbors to borrow some.
On the farm, you never had a meal without bread!) You can make your own
wild yeast culture very simply:
Combine 1/2 cup of unbleached flour with 1/2 cup of room temp. water. Put
this in a quart size mason jar. Leave this at room temperature. Over the
course of the next 48 hours, feed the culture every 12 hours by throwing
away 1/4 cup of the culture and adding 2 TBS of flour and 2 TBS of water.
After 48 hours, you should have a nice, active culture. If you intend to
use this every day or every other day you can keep this in a cool spot in
your pantry. If you only bake every once in a while, keep it in the fridge
and feed it once a week.
Most bread made with yeast culture need to be made with a sponge meathod.
Take your basic bread recipe and take a 1/4 of the water and 1/4 of the
flour called for and combine it with about 1/2 of your yeast culture. Let
this mixture ferment at room temp until bubbly and slightly risen, and then
proceed with the recipe.
When you take 1/2 of your yeast culture for a sponge, replenish it by
adding enough flour and water to get it to the orignial amount that you had
(I hope that makes sense).
Good Luck,
Roxanne