Culturing, Growing and Baking with a Range of Wild Yeasts

  Figure 22 provides the formula for the first AWY Loaf I was to make. The full procedure can be found at the previously given link. However, note that the total dough was divided into 3 parts, with only 1 loaf being baked now.

 My first fruit based wild yeast loaf, was a boule baked in a Dutch Oven. It is seen in Figure 23. You can see how softly yellow the crumb was in Figure 24.

Interestingly enough, while it had a great flavor, I could detect no actual apple flavor. I have now read the this is generally true, I am told from what I've read that this is even more true of the vegetable wild yeast sources.

I hope this gives a more or less complete overview of the capture, growing and use of wild yeast other than just from your sourdough culture.

Ron aka 雷朗書家

*********** Second Loaf Update  101121

This is the second loaf made from the Apple Water Yeast formula shown in Figure 22. That formula, appears to confuse some readers, and, therefore, I will restate it in the simplest of equivalent forms.

  Figure 25 restates the AWY loaves' formula in the last column on the right. An examination will show it is just 9-1/2% smaller than the two other formulae, which are simply Flo Makanai's "1.2.3, An Easy Formula for Sourdough Bread".

To make a yeast water loaf, once you have made the yeast water, and confirmed that it is an active yeast, just replace every bit of water in your bread formula of choice with yeast water. That includes the water in the starter builds and in the body of the mix. There is no reduction in the gluten content, nor any change in the HL (Hydration Level) of the loaf.

Yesterday, I baked the 2nd loaf from the dough batch of AWY detailed above. It had been 6 days in retardation 1 or 2 degrees above freezing. The dough rose in 4 hours after being replaced in an 80ºF (26.6ºC) proofing box and baking done in a Dutch Oven, essentially as described above for the first loaf (above).

  Figure 26 is the 6-day retarded, 2nd loaf from the AWY dough batch.

  In Figure 27, the openness of the crumb and light golden yellow result can be seen.

I am very pleased with this experiment with wild yeast derived from fruit, in this case, apples. While there was no distinctive flavor of apples, there was a slightly different flavor, that I find excellent, although, there was not the slightest sourness, but perhaps the slightess sweetness. I believe that this bread will be one of my favorite favorites ;-)

***** Updated 101124

The Third Loaf....

Today, I baked the third and final loaf from the Apple Water Yeast dough mixed a full 12 days ago. The first loaf was baked after an overnight retardation. The second was baked after a 6-day retard, and the loaf baked today was, of course, a 12-day retardation loaf. Over and above the fact that I can only eat so much bread in a day, I wanted to compare the effects of such periods of retardation. My sourdough, normally gets more sour the longer the dough is held in retardation. These 3, AWY loaves tasted - to my limited ability to discriminate - exactly the same. I could detect no sourness at all in any of them. Since I generally prefer sourness in my breads, that is not the greatest of outcomes. But these breads taste so good to me, that I have no complaints, whatsoever.

There was still that very pale apple-flesh, orange-yellow, that mark the first two loaves, as well. Again, the flavor was not really "apple" but a pleasant, slightly sweet flavor. I cannot say how well the shelf life is, since none of them last more than the second day. But, as long as they did last, they remain slightly moist and quite enjoyable.

Try it, you might like it....

    Ron 雷朗

****************** 101122 Next: My Darling Clementine Yeast Water

Yesterday afternoon I started making my first loaf of bread using another Yeast Water as the levain. To my surprise, it rose faster than my well cared for sourdough starters. It also wanted to rise higher, but I panicked and baked sooner than necessary. The result was a great tasting boule with a slightly more closed crumb than I had expected, but I have no complains. A very pale yellow and trace of sweetness added to the crumb from the clementine juice that I had used to grow the yeast water - and no doubt a bit of help from the small amount of honey that initially helped the juice along.

  The crumb was moist, with a great taste just touched with a sweet suggestion of the clementine juice used to provide the leavening. Of course, the crumb was a bit tighter than necessary, due to my under proofing the final rise.

Method:

1/ Levain was formed from 33g of AP flour and 33g of the active fermenting yeast water. It was placed in my proofing box set for 80ºF(26.6ºC). It doubled in 2-1/4 hours.

2/ While the levain was growing, the 200g of AP flour was split into 133g placed in a 3qt (2839 ml) SS bowl. And the 67g remainder was placed in a 1qt (946 ml) SS bowl, to which the 4g of fine sea salt was added and whisked.

3/ When the levain was ready, the 133g of yeast water (87g clementine yeast water and 46g of apple yeast water ) was combined with the levain, roughly mixed and then added to the 133g of AP flour in the SS bowl. The combination was mixed with a large silicon spatula, covered and allowed 20 minutes of autolysis.

4/ Following the autolysis, using a plastic scrapper, a very sticky mix was treated to a set of 30 Stretch & Folds in the 3 qt, SS bowl. The 67g flour-salt mix was used to dust the dough between each S&F. then covered and left rest 20 minutes.

5/ Repeated sets of S&F at 30 minute intervals (including the S&F and rest periods in the 30 minute periods). Continue the dusting between each S&F with the flour/salt mixture until the mix is exhausted.

6/ At the end of the 4th set of 30 S&Fs, it was close to a total of 2 hours (including autolysis time). Gave dough a 10 minute rest.

7/ On a lightly dusted work-surface, turned out the dough. Shaped into a boule and place in my preferred cloth-lined and flour bowl, cover with a "shower cap" bowl cover.

8/ The dough went into retardation fridge 44º-47ºF (7º-8ºC), where it stayed overnight.

9/ The dough was removed from the fridge and placed in the proofing box at 80ºF(26.6ºC)

10/ In under 2-1/2 hours it had risen enough that I feared over proofing. I started the Dutch Oven (DO) preheated 30 minutes to 450ºF(232ºC). Boule turned out into the preheated DO, slashed, and inside of rim of the DO sprayed and lid covered it at once, then returned to oven at 450ºF(232ºC). Since, all required steam is inside the DO, no external steaming method was used. That is the main reason I love a DO method some much.

11/ At 20 minutes, oven was reset to 425ºF ( 218º C), and DO lid removed.

12/ At 30 minutes, cracked oven door 1/2".

13/ At 40 minutes, it was removed from oven: Internal temperature = 209ºF / 98.3ºC and exiting hot weight = 368g (down from about 404g - 9% drop in weight. Cooled 1 hour on wire.

I am really enjoying these wild yeast water loaves. I suppose the grapes should be the next test... Yum ;-)

Ron 雷朗書家

  Boule Made From Prune Yeast Water Levain.
The crumb can be seen in the photo below.

Crumb of the Prune Yeast Water Loaf.

The loaf had a moderately tight crumb, especially considering that the hydration level (HL) was 71.2%HL.

The basic formula is the same as with the previous sited loaves, as was the method. The formula for this is given below, as well.

The 100%HL Prune Levain was built and 66g fed into the formula. An additional 133g of the prune yeast water was combined with the levain and 133g of AP flour. Then that mix underwent autolysis for 20 minutes.

The remaining 67g of AP flour and the 5g of salt were whisked together and added into the dough while also serving the dual function of being used to dust the sticky dough during the 3 series of In-the-bowl-S&H sets of 30 preformed during the first 3 hours. See Link:

Ron 雷朗

I guess one could call this boule a "Red Grape Yeast Water & Alcoholic's Apple Sauce Bread". Unfortunately, there was no trace of grape, apple, or alcohol in the finished loaf, however, there is an undeniable redness to the loaf. One out of four is better than none, which is what I though it was going to be after 24 hours with no rising worth mentioning.

    Red Grape Yeast Water & Alcoholic's Apple Sauce Bread

Don't ask what the formula is, I can't tell. I can and will tell you what it started out to be, and what and why things were done to it, but I doubt I could recreate it - nor would I care to do it the same way a second time.

Saturday, I baked a Prune Yeast Water Bread, and while trying to determine how best to describe its taste characteristics, I realized I had eaten over half of the still warm loaf, and still hadn't come to any conclusion on how to provide a verbal method to relay the flavor to my satisfaction. Worse still, I might be out of bread on Sunday.

That, of course, meant the more pressing problem was what to make next to minimize being without bread. I settled on a variation of one of Dan Lepard's loaves from HML. Originally it was his Mill Loaf, a pleasant, somewhat nutty flavored combination of White, Whole Wheat and Light Rye. To speed things up, I would make it as a straight method mix - just combine all the ingredients and knead. I had Red Grape Yeast Water in the fridge, and while I had not made a test levain with it, it had seemed active enough a few days earlier, when I'd strained the grape parts from the yeast water and placed it in the fridge. I did a quick replacement for the white levain @80%HL called for and added the water to the Yeast Water and the flour amount added in the White All-Purpose. The initial formula looked like this.

The Intended Red Grape Yeast Water Straight Method Mill Loaf Formula.

I mixed the dough, kneaded 3 sets of 30 S&F over a 2 hour period and then put a shaped boule into a floured cloth-lined boule proofing form, lightly covered and decided to hold it at 64ºF(17.8ºC) overnight because it hadn't shown much activity during the 2 hours I had been kneading it.

In the morning, it hadn't shown any rising overnight. Okay, perhaps a bit of coaxing - I put it in the proofing box at 80ºF/26.6ºC, and waited 6 hours, then 4 hours, then some hours more.... A full 20 hours from the initial mixing, I had a lump of 59.7%HL dough. I hate to throughout anything, and to even consider wasting a potential pound loaf was too painful to consider.

Earlier in the day, I had emulsified the remaining parts of 2 apples, which I'd used to refresh a batch of apple yeast water. I now strained off the parts, and without even considering measuring the amount, I turned out the lump of dough, hand flattened it, spread all the crushed, alcoholic apple sauce over the dough and letter folded in, and again, and... It took two plastic scrappers to lift into a large bowl.

I actually enjoyed the "Red Grape Yeast Water & Alcoholic's Apple Sauce Bread" enough that I thought I give it another go, only including a test levain on this loaf (and all future yeast water levains). Wao says that straight methods are slow risers. If so, I am not sure I could say why that should be so?? Certainly, it turned out to be true when you start with a weak yeast - of any kind.

Technically, given the inclusion of 40g of the test levain, this would not be an example of the straight method. I chose to try the prune yeast water this time. Since, the initial loaf with prune yeast water had a crumb as dark any rye, I wanted to see what it would do with actual rye in the loaf. As it so often turns out with me, it was another unplanned experiment. I grabbed the wrong flour and instead of WW, I added another rye. Thus, this multigrain loaf had White HG, White AP, Light Rye, Dark Rye and Dry Malt diastatic. I also upped the HL from 59.7%HL to 62,1%HL - not that the 2% hydration increase was that noticeable.

Above is the formula, as it was used in the loaf.
Method:[list]
[*] Mix the 40g test levain, 3g of Dry Malt, and all 185g of Yeast Water. Once mixed, combine all other ingredients. Make sure the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, then cover bowl and let rest 1 hour.
[*] Over the next 2 hours brief (1 to 2 minutes) kneads , or letter folds, at 30 minute intervals.
[*] Now, at 3 hours, gently form into ball and place the smoothest side down in floured-cloth lined nest. Cover with a "shower cap" type bowl cover with plenty of clearance and either retard in fridge until you wish to complete the final rise,
[*] Or place the shaped dough directly in a proofing box for the final rise at this time, at about 80ºF(26,6ºC).  I chose to place it in the proofing box at once.
[*] After 2 hours in the proofing box, it was rising, and would be over proofed by morning. So, I removed it to a 65ºF(18ºC) location for the overnight.
[*] After overnight at 65ºF(18ºC), little addition rising had occurred, and the dough was placed back in the proofing box at 6 AM to continue the final rise at about 80ºF(26,6ºC).
[*] 10 AM turned out the loaf on parchment over cornmeal, scored, added 100g boiling water to TPDO and covered DO.
[*] Placed TPDO in preheated 450ºF ( 232º C) and turned the broiler on for the first 5 minutes, which got the oven over the 500ºF ( 260º C) mark. Otherwise, my electric oven will not go above 460ºF ( 238º C).
[*] At 5 minutes the oven reset to 450ºF ( 232º C)
[*] At 20 minutes, the TPDO was removed from oven, uncovered, loaf still in fry pan replaced on oven stones and with oven door cracked 1/2" (6 mm) the oven set down to 425ºF ( 218º C).
[*] At 40 minutes, oven turned off, but loaf remain in pan on stones until 45 minutes.-
[*] Fresh out of oven: Internal = 199.9ºF(93ºC); Weight = 483g, down 58g or 11%
[*] Cooled 1 hour on wire rack.
[/list]

  There was very little oven spring, but then the dough was stiff enough that the boule did not sag, either.

The crumb was tighter than I had expected. Of course, it was 29% rye, and only 62%HL. Then, too, the first prune yeast water loaf had come out tighter than expected. Only more loaves are likely to provide clues.

Another thing is that with that much rye, I suppose I might have been better off to have waited a day before cutting it, but it is good, not overly moist, so why wait?

So far, I have not made a single loaf with yeast water that didn't taste good, and not one has been sour in the slightest. I may have to make a good sourdough before I go into withdraw !!!

Ron

 The test levain rose nicely, nearly doubling in a few hours. So, with the reassurance that I still had an active yeast water, I was ready to incorporate 35g of the 40g test levain - while my calculations show the 5g remaining as "new seed", in this case, it really was allowance for the inevitable waste with such a small total amount.

So, the formula came out looking like this.

  The Formula for a 541g loaf - One Pound Loaf after the estimated 13% loss I generally get.

The calculate percent hydration came out as 68.5%HL in the formula. That wasn't too high and I didn't want the Chia seed to interfere with the gluten development, so I choose to hold back on the Flaxseed Meal, Dark Rye Flour and the Chia seed initially.

I added the test levain into the total water of the formula. In this case that total water was 200g of Apple Yeast Water. I whisked the levain and AYW to distribute the levain in the AYW, and then added the 200g of KA High Gluten Bread Flour. Let's call it my preferment sponge, although, customarily somewhat less than the total water would go into a sponge.

Once this mixture was completed, the dough was covered and left for 3-1/2 hours. During that time I combined the remaining ingredients - all dry. I whisked the salt in with the Chia, Rye, and Flaxseed Meal.

The sponge mixing had been finished at 4:30 PM, and at 8 PM I turned out the preferment on a very heavily "dusted" portion of the dry mix of remaining ingredients. I had covered the work-surface in a Silpat sheet, and the dry mix and preferment were combined on the Silpat sheet in a combination of kneading and letter folding as was required at the moment. Once combined, it rested on the work-surface long enough for me to lightly oil (about 10 drops of grape-seed oil) 1L/1Qt. Snap-lid plastic doubler container. I then place the ball of dough into the oiled container, snapped the lid in place and moved the container and contents into a 35ºF/2ºC fridge for overnight retardation.

The next morning at 8 AM, the cold dough ball was turned out on lightly floured surface and shaped into a better ball shape. For boules in the one pound/ 500g range, my preferred final proofing dough form is a "birds nest', which I fashion from a combination one of Cambro's 1L/1Qt. (same as 1 of KAF's 1 qt. Starter Doubler Buckets), one of TMB Baking's small (7-3/4") liners , and a rubber band. The liner's elastic fits over the 1L.1Ot open top and two handles, the rubber band(s) additionally hold the liner's top below the handles of the container, and the liner's center drops down inside of the container, forming a suspended, hanging "bird's nest". The inside of the "nest" is floured and the boule shaped dough drops into the nest. I covered the top with a "shower-cap" type bowl cover, well peaked above the dough. This lets me easily judge the amount the dough has risen, just by looking through the glass top of my proofing box.

The oven had been preheated to 450ºF(232ºC), and the TPFPDO went directly into the oven, centered on the oven stones. The oven set on broil, for the first 5 minutes of the baking. At the end of 5 minutes, the oven was 525ºF ( 274ºC) and was reset to 450ºF ( 232º C).

At 20 minutes into the baking, the temperature was set to 425ºF(218ºC). The TPFPDO was removed from the oven, opened and the fry pan with boule returned at once into the oven on the oven stones with the oven door held open to 1/2" (6 mm) to allow any residual steam to escape. The loaf baked thus, for 25 more minutes.

After a total baking time of 45 minutes, the loaf was removed from the oven. The boule's Internal temperature = 194ºF/90ºC, and its hot weight = 492g, down 53g, or 10% - 3% less than usual. It was cooled one hour on a wire rack before cutting.

  The finished boule was well formed, nice color, but had less oven spring than might be expected from a 68.5%HL. This was consistent with what I had experienced with the previous use of Chia seed. The seed does not seem to release all of the water it absorbs. That was also in agreement with the loss on only 10% of the weight during the baking.

The first slices had a crumb that was initially more moist that one might wish, however, a few hours later, that was no longer true. The taste was the characteristic Chia nutty flavor, a flavor I rather enjoy. The crust initially was crunchy, but not too thick, also nutty and very good to my taste. By the next day, the crisp crunch was gone and the crust somewhat softer. Two days later it was still in excellent shape. The moisture not much less than it had been a few hours after being baked.

The morning of the second day I found I could repeatedly cut slices in the 3 to 4 mm range and the slices held together nicely and this continued through the next day, down to the final heel of crust.

I can think of only one thing I would try differently. I might try dropping the temperature after the first 20 minutes somewhat lower and extend the baking time to see if I can further reduce the moisture by the end of the baking. Alternatively, I think I would try holding off on the initial cutting for at least 6 hours, or longer, as one might do with a high percentage rye loaf. This loaf does have a baker's 31.5% of of Rye, Flaxseed, Chia, all capable of holding a fair amount of moisture, even after baking.

Ron