# Yeast Water Bread



## snic (Sep 16, 2018)

Someone posted a while back that they pureed some raisins in water and added them to bread dough, and it gave the bread a nice flavor. That got me thinking: some winemakers rely on wild yeast on the grapes rather than adding commercial yeast, and it gives the wine a more complex flavor. So why not do the same with bread? It turns out there's a whole breadmaking subculture devoted to this idea. Google "yeast water" and have a nice trip down the rabbit hole.

Here's the recipe I've settled on. It's absolutely delicious bread - more complex and satisfying than using commercial yeast. It takes about a week to make the yeast water but supposedly you can store it in the fridge so it's ready whenever you want it.

*Yeast Water*
100 g organic, unsulfured raisins (we don't want any chemicals that would kill yeast)
1 spaghetti sauce jar, clean
Filtered water (filtered to get rid of the chlorine, because we don't want any chemicals that would kill yeast)

Add the raisins to the jar and fill with water up to about 7/8 full.

Twice a day, slowly open the lid and close it again, shake up the jar, then repeat the open/close.

Over a few days, you'll notice bubbles forming and air escaping when you open the lid. You'll know the yeast water is ready when it makes a really nice "head" of foam when you shake it, and you see bubbles forming around the raisins and rising to the top like champagne or beer. It should also have a nice fermenting cider smell.

Eventually the raisins will start breaking down. I used most of the yeast water, then just added more water to the jar and used that for a second batch of bread. I'm working on my third use from the same raisins but they're really disintegrating. This might be the last one.

*Poolish*
300 g bread flour
300 g yeast water

Mix together, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 24 hr. It should double in volume.

*Bread dough*
The poolish
400 g bread flour
300 g whole wheat flour
400 g filtered water, lukewarm
3 tsp salt

Mix the water into the poolish to loosen it up a bit. Then add that to the dry ingredients and mix by hand, squeezing the dough and stretching it until combined.

Let sit for 20 minutes, then grab the dough and pull to stretch it, fold it over, and repeat 7 or 8 times.

Repeat the process twice more at 20 minute intervals.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough sit at room temperature for 18 to 24 hr. It should double in volume. 

*Shaping, Proofing and Baking*
Dump the dough onto a well floured board and cut it in half. With each half, press the dough ball so it's about 6 by 9 inches, and fold the left third over, then the right third. Shape this into a ball, tugging the dough so it gets taught on top (there are a zillion videos on how to do this, but it's hard to explain with words).

Most recipes tell you to put the dough into a proofing basket. I don't have one, so I take a kitchen towel (not the terry cloth kind, the smooth kind) and place it over a colander and stretch it flat over the top. I sprinkle some flour on this, then I place the dough smooth side _down_ into the lined colander. Most recipes also tell you to put the dough smooth side _up_ into the basket, but then you have to do a complicated song and dance to get it into the dutch oven smooth side up.

Let the dough proof for 3 or 4 hours at room temperature (or, you could place it in the fridge now and let it proof for longer - I haven't tried this but some recipes say you can do it). Preheat a dutch oven at 475, with the lid on. Remove the lid, use potholders to grab the colander and hold the towel out of the way, and invert it over the dutch oven (admiring how the smooth side of the dough is up). Some people score their dough at this point but I always worry about deflating the dough so I don't bother. Put the lid back on, turn the oven down to 450, and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 15 minutes or so until to bread is dark brown. Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing. (Many recipes use hotter temperatures like 500 or 525 - I find the bread burns at these temperatures. Of course it will depend on your oven.)

*Additions*
This is delicious plain, but I also made a parmesan and green olive version with a heap of freshly grated parmesan and a huge handful of sliced castelvetrano olives. And another version with a heap of dried cranberries and walnuts. Both were really good.


----------



## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

That was me. It was my wheat bread that tasted like beer that my friends raved over.. Especially good with melted cheddar cheese.
It was much simpler, though, & I used regular dark raisins, pureed, probably a larger amount.. I also would have used brown sugar, probably in addition to white in the bread. I think I let it rise overnight in the refrigerator for a dinner bread the next day. That probably gave it time to ferment some.

I'm glad it worked out so well.
I made it up, but, "there's nothing new under the sun!"

Now, I have to look up poolish.


----------



## wooleybooger (Feb 23, 2019)

I have a proofing basket, aka Banneton, but have yet to use it. @snic your method of kneading sounds very much like a Peter Reinhard method and yes allowing the dough to rest in the frig will retard the rising and allow the dough to develop more flavor.


----------



## Two Knots (Nov 12, 2011)

My son in law has those baskets, and always uses them.

snic…This reminds me of sour dough mix…you first ferment it over several days and then you take away some to make your bread, and replenish it with more flour and water, and it lives on forever…Italians call it “The Mother” 

“Over a few days, you'll notice bubbles forming and air escaping when you open the lid. You'll know the yeast water is ready when it makes a really nice "head" of foam when you shake it, and you see bubbles forming around the raisins and rising to the top like champagne or beer. It should also have a nice fermenting cider smell.”


----------



## snic (Sep 16, 2018)

Yes, it's a lot like sourdough starter, but there's less waste from having to throw out some of it (as you do when "feeding" the sourdough starter). But the yeast water method doesn't make for a sour bread. The only way to get that is the sourdough method, as far as I know.

A proofing basket with a cloth liner (or a kitchen towel in a colander) is I think the most important step for getting a crispy "rustic artisanal bread" crust. Some of the dough's moisture wicks into the cloth and evaporates (which is why a colander is better than a bowl), so the outside of the bread gets more dry and therefore bakes up crispy while the inside stays soft.

I love the "stretch and fold over" method of kneading - it's so much less effort than kneading the conventional way, and all the loaves I've made using this method have had a very nice texture.

And last but not least, thanks, Nik, for the idea! Given how much time it takes to get the raisins to ferment, I don't think the ground raisins in your bread would have contributed much to the dough proofing - but the wild yeasts might have contributed to the flavor. I'm basing this on having tried to make a batch of bread before the yeast water was ready. It didn't rise at all. I rescued it by adding some commercial yeast and kneading it in. The end result was tasty and a bit different from what a bread made with just commercial yeast tastes like. And of course using ground raisins would give the bread an interesting taste - I'm thinking of pureeing the disintegrated raisins in the third batch of yeast water I'm making and maybe using them for a sweet roll dough. I have a surprisingly prolific Meyer lemon tree (in NY!) and I've been trying to recreate the amazing lemon ricotta sweet rolls I used to get at a bakery (defunct for a long time now) in the Cole Valley in San Francisco... I'm pretty sure they didn't use pureed fermented raisins in their dough, but who knows. There was SOMETHING in them that was addictive.


----------



## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

I just looked up poolish and the definition said poolish uses commercial yeast but wild yeast use is called levain.

I would have had a different flavor and more fermentation because I used brown sugar,


----------



## Two Knots (Nov 12, 2011)

I made a beer batter bread once that was quite good.


----------



## snic (Sep 16, 2018)

Nik333 said:


> I just looked up poolish and the definition said poolish uses commercial yeast but wild yeast use is called levain.


Generally that's true, and those definitions are consistent with what the historical French terms refer to. Levain refers to sourdough starter and Poolish to the so-called "polish" method of pre-fermenting a flour/water mixture with added yeast. Sourdough starter always grows bacteria that produce the acids that make the sour flavor, in addition to wild yeasts, but in addition to a sourdough starter, commercial yeast can be added to sourdough bread dough. Poolish is not left to ferment for long enough for those bacteria to develop or for wild yeasts to reach a large enough population to raise the dough, so (a) a Poolish has to include the addition of yeast, usually commercial, and (b) the flavor of the bread isn't sour.

The yeast water method is, as far as I can tell, a much newer method. It seems that those acid-producing bacteria don't develop when raisins are left to naturally ferment. Now, there are probably some bacteria in yeast water, maybe a lot (that could be why the flavor of the bread is so rich), but the bread isn't sour. So a pre-fermentation with yeast water is something in between a Poolish and a levain. It would probably be most accurate to just call it a "yeast water pre-ferment", but if I had to choose between Poolish and levain I'd choose Poolish according to the definition that it's "a type of preferment that is made with equal amounts of flour and water (100% hydration) along with a small amount of yeast." That particular definition doesn't say the small amount of yeast has to be commercial yeast!





__





Glossary of Bread Baking Terms | Challenger Breadware


Bread bakers use a lot of complex terms in the recipes that can be confusing. Now you can learn them all the right bread baking terms here!




challengerbreadware.com


----------



## miteigenenhaenden (Nov 30, 2021)

Zwei Knoten said:


> Mein Schwiegersohn hat diese Körbe und benutzt sie immer.
> 
> snic … Das erinnert mich an eine Sauerteigmischung … Sie gären es zuerst über mehrere Tage und dann nehmen Sie etwas weg, um Ihr Brot zu backen, und füllen es mit mehr Mehl und Wasser auf, und es lebt für immer weiter … Italiener nennen es „Die Mutter“ :kichern:
> 
> ...



That's a good description!

I also bake my bread with sourdough. I make the sourdough myself and take care of it as if it were a pet. The older this sourdough is, the better and more aromatic it becomes. But there is a difference between the Italian "lievito madre" and sourdough. At Lievito Madre, the bacteria are fed with sugar and flour, only flour is used in sourdough. The result is that Lievito Madre is not so acidic and is therefore used more for finer pastries, such as yeast pots, sweet rolls or cakes. Sourdough is traditionally used for breads that have a strong flavor.










my gluten free sourdough bread


----------



## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

FYI, Zwei Knoten above is Two Knots in German.


----------

