Recipe for Natural Leavening Yeast

Monday's Child left a comment on my post More About Pioneer Yeast and Cinnamon Roll Recipe. She had some trouble with her wild sourdough starter. I'm really no expert, but I love to read, research, and try things out. And I'm blessed with great friends who do the same thing.

I got this recipe from my friend. She uses a natural yeast that is different from Pioneer Yeast. The book she recommends is The Bread Baker's Apprentice. It's not a book I own.... yet. I am interested in trying this type of yeast to see if this type of yeast processes gluten the same way that the Pioneer Yeast does.

She also sent me to this site to read and watch the videos. Although I haven't had time to go through everything yet, I'm looking forward to it once we have the animal situation fixed.

I haven't tried this recipe, but my friend used it to start her yeast and she loves it!

Original Fast Foods

Here's the recipe my friend sent me:

Day 1: 1 cup coarse ground or dark rye; 1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice (I bought frozen concentrate). Make it into a ball, using your hands. Press it down into a glass beaker (canning jar) and put tape on the side so you can see if it rises at all. (Probably won't on the first day.) Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temp for 24 hrs.

Day 2: 1/2 cup of the rye; 1/4 cup pineapple juice. Same procedure.

Day 3: 1 cup unbleached high gluten or bread flour; 1/2 cup room temp water. Look for maybe a 50% rise. May smell fermented. Don't worry. Discard half of the starter and mix the remaining half with the day three ingredients. Cover with plastic and leave at room temp for 24 hours.

Day 4: 1 cup bread flour; 1/2 cup water at room temp. Sponge should have doubled in size; more is better. If still sluggish and hasn't doubled, allow to sit another 12 to 24 hours. Otherwise, discard half and add the day 4 ingredients. Cover and ferment until it doubles in size. May take 12-24 hours. Okay if it triples, but it will not be able to sustain that much of a rise, so expect it to fall.

Barm: 1 cup seed culture (above); 2 cups water at room temp.; 3 1/2 cups bread flour. Make sure all flour is hydrated and seed culture is evenly spread through the mixture. Put in clean glass or plastic container and put tape on side to measure rise. Allow to ferment for 6 hours or until bubbly. He says not to breathe in the fumes if the plastic inflates with gasses from the fermentation. Mine didn't inflate. Replace cover and refrigerate over night and you can use it the next day. It is potent for three days and then needs to be refreshed.

Refresh: Use or toss 1/2 and then add enough flour and water to AT LEAST double the total amount of barm. If you have a cup left make sure you double it to 2 cups, or even more.

You can use the barm you would be tossing out to make sourdough crackers. Google it. They taste great. My kids love them.

Thanks for your comments. I love hearing from you.