So I've been reading several threads on here about Yeast Water. I've also read several blogs and so on. I can't seem to find how to convert a regular recipe to use yeast water. I'm not very interested in sourdough, so just regular bread (think lesson 1). I autolyze my wheat flour with most of my water. Reason I'm asking is because I bought some raisins which smell strongly of wine (already reported it to the company) and instead of taking them back I began to think of using them in my cookies, then I remembered about the raisin yeast water. I have no idea if this will even work since it seems the grapes were already fermenting when they dried them. I may just take them back too. But either way I want to try this yeast water, but not before I know how to use it.
And before you ask, the reason I'm not going for sourdough is because my son hates it and he already has food issues. Sourdough is on my list to try, but we barely go through 1/2 a loaf a week.
Hey, SugarOwl!
Yeast water is just yeast. Just another way to levain dough. Nothing more, nothing less. It's pretty cool stuff.
I think the standard reply will be to substitute half of whatever yeast you're already using with yeast water. The experts will be along post haste. I'll be following this thread to see if there's a 100% yeast water solution.
I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the reply will be, "what are you trying to make?"
Just remember that you're trying to make a levain. Something that will raise a dough. You'll make the YW then you'll mix it with some flour. Then you'll watch the YW/flour mixture double. Then you'll add that starter to a larger mixture of flour/water/salt and see THAT proof up and bake it. In simple terms.
Here's a start: Mix 50 grams of mature yeast water with 50 grams of flour of your choice. When it doubles in around 12 hours, use it to levain something and bake it.
Murph
You don't want sourdough just a 'regular' bread. Well you won't get sourdough because you're using YW. You won't get regular bread either... because you're using YW.
However here is where sourdough helps. Follow the steps of a sourdough recipe for a YW bread.
Take any sourdough recipe and simply make the starter out of YW and flour in place of the sourdough starter. Then follow the recipe allowing for YW timings which will be longer. For example...
500g bread flour
300g warm water
8g salt
150g starter @ 100% hydration (75g flour + 75g water)
Make your YW starter by mixing together 75g yeast water + 75g flour and leave for about 12 hours in a warm place to mature. Once active and bubbly then proceed onto the recipe.
Yeast Water needs more time and warmer temperatures so knead till full gluten formation then bulk ferment till ready. As a guideline go for doubled. Then knock back shape and final proof till ready.
Just because you're following a sourdough procedure it will never be a sourdough nor taste like one.
Is that preferable to simply using YW in place of regular water (and presumably omitting the commercial yeast from a "regular" bread recipe)?
But is used to make the starter. Making the YW is a way to cultivate yeasts but it's at a pre-starter stage. When you do a preferment you're making sure they're active and firing on all cylinders before making bread out of it. Theoretically, I suppose, just replacing all the water with YW would work (in theory) but you'd need an awful lot of it and the results might be more unpredictable. Once your starter is active the actual dough stage goes quicker plus you're more in control now instead of vice versa.
If baked within about a day of making the levain is NOT sour, not at all.
hester
starter how you use it depends on how you store and maintain it. Some people keep their YW starter on the counter and feed it regularly and it is always ready to go just like they would keep a sourdough starter on the counter that is fed regularly. In both cased the starter is just added to the recipe ready to go in larger amounts.
The YW replaces some of the water in the recipe say up to 200 g just like they would add 200 g of SD starter to a recipe
The other way to use YW and SD starters is the way I do it. I hate to maintain and feed either one so I keep a smaller amount of each in the fridge for weeks and weeks at a time and just take a small amount of each starter out to build a preferment. I might take 70 g of YW and add it to 70 of flour and let it ferment for 12 hours to make the 140 g of preferment for a loaf of bread just like I might take 10 g of SD starter and build a 140 g preferment from it.
Either way works just as well as the other. So it depends on how you store and maintain your YW and SD as to how you use it in a recipe. Once a YW levain is built you can store it for 48 hours or even more in the fridge and will not go sour. Many people use YW to cut the sour of their SD breads, and to open up the crumb of heavy whole grain ones, since YW can be explosive when it comes to spring and and open crumb.
Now I have to go find my YW in the fridge since it has months since I used any of it.
Happy YW baking
Hi, SugarOwl!
I'm with you... I just want a tasty bread without all the hassle. I'm new and every step is a worry. It's getting easier but the one thing I NEVER worry about is my starter. Once mature, it just works.
The secret is the "build." That's where you take a small bit of starter and add flour and water over two or more steps until you wind up with what you need for a final levain weight. How many steps depends on your schedule and starter strength. In a nutshell.
I learned this confidence from dabrownman's post on No Muss, No Fuss starter. I made one but haven't used it much because I have so much of discards that I promised myself that I'd use up, etc...
The point is he shows you how to build starters and levains. Notice how he says to throw out the second stage weight if nothing's happening. I don't throw anything out.
If I know I have a pitifully weak starter, I just add more steps or time. It all just works. With YW, sourdough, or old gym socks. Ok, maybe not the socks...
Murph