Making Bread

[Mark IParticipant]

Making bread is a religious naturalist practice for me in several ways. It is my way to commune with two other major eukaryotic kingdoms, fungi and plants. In particular, it is my way to totally get deep into the full life cycle of the Saccharomyces genus of yeast fungus, and to appreciate the eclectic glories of various whole cereal grains. And it is also my way to energize some of my senses, the feel of mixing and manipulating dough with my hands, the smell of yeast fermenting and bread baking, and of course the taste of fresh made bread. Hallelujah!

I hope to add another post or two here on this topic, and would like to hear other people’s experiences with making bread. À votre santé!

[Mark IParticipant]

Soon after everybody closed down for the pandemic, there was no yeast in the stores. Then I looked around the internet and found this delightfully intriguing video from Bali:

How to Make Fruit Yeast Water: A Complete Guide to Homemade Yeast

It turns out wild Saccharomyces yeast is already in our kitchens, and we just have to tame it! I started putting just about any past-fresh fruit in a jar, filled it with water, closed it, shook it every day, waited a week and voilà, a jar full of yeast water to start my bread. Some strains were more successful than others, and I saved off successful strains to help start the next batch, which would cut the growth time down substantially. My domesticated yeast never were quite as active as that selectively bred commercial yeast, but they worked well enough to raise bread dough given time. I ended up going through four successful strains which I called α, β, γ, and δ. A couple strains each ended when I accidentally used it all in a dough, and one strain died when I tried to use it to ferment melon which for some reason killed it. Then after two years of making yeast water, I finally lost the δ strain when my jar broke. After that, since commercial yeast had long been back and making yeast water was so time and space consuming that I started calling that period two years before the yeast, I gave up the craft.

But oh those beautiful fruity yeasty smelling potions were so wonderful and not only made unique tasting bread but flavorful beverages too. And in retrospect, I developed an interesting inter-kingdom relationship with those little fungi. I gave each batch of the “guys” everything they could need, plenty of sweet food, fresh water, fresh air, an environment free of damaging sunshine or moldy enemies, plenty of encouragement to grow and multiply, all right up until the moment that I of course roasted them alive in the oven.

Anyway, I’ll try to dig up and share a photo or two, and at some point write about my relationship to the plant kingdom side of bread too. Mark I

[Mark IParticipant]

Here is a batch of yeast water just starting to ferment with tomatoes, spinach, and carrots…

 

[Nat44RelParticipant]

Mark, Here is a photo of a King Cake I made for Mardi Gras.  Basically a yeast dough rolled out into three rolls, each with a filling (one chocolate, one almond paste, one plain), braided together and formed into a circle, then with some mardi-gras colored sprinkles.  The tradition is to put a plastic baby in the dough somewhere, and whoever gets it has to make the next King Cake — however, we have abandoned that part of the tradition.  Later, Michael

[Mark IParticipant]

Michael, that looks great! I’m guessing the random assignment of making the next King Cake was abandoned because everyone wanted you to make it again.

[Mark IParticipant]

And here is a batch of yeast water ready to harvest made with apricots and raisins…

 

[Nat44RelParticipant]

Mark, I’m not sure what “yeast water” is.  Do you then mix it with flour to make a recipe?  Is it essentially a sourdough, or do you start with commercial yeast.  It looks very enticing.  Michael

[Mark IParticipant]

Michael, I explain much of that upthread in this post (and I hope this link goes to the right place):

Making Bread

The short answers are:

• yes it is much like a sourdough except more watery and it is fed with fruit not flour
• it doesn’t start with commercial yeast but the wild yeast that’s always on fresh fruit!
• and yes the yeast water is mixed with flour to then make bread in the usual way
• the woman from Bali in the video linked in that earlier post explains it much better

As I said in that post, I’ve stopped making yeast water for a year now but could return to it someday. But I am still making bread, and in fact I just made a fresh-ground rye dough enough for four loaves that is in a covered bowl in the fridge. Tomorrow I plan to bake two loaves from it.

Cheers!
Mark

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