Yeast water - off to the races 🏇🏼
First, a heart felt thanks to Abe, Caroline, Clazar123, as well as multiple previous TFL members for sharing your methods! Especially the reminder about using the microwave with the light on. I did a test run (empty) and left a thermometer in there with the door slightly open and the light on. After 3 hours, the temp was holding at 76F, so that should work.
I decided to go ahead and make 2. I can decide later which one works best. The one on the left is half of an organic granny smith apple diced into roughly 1/2 in pieces. The jar on the right has the other half of the apple, with probably a little less than 1/4 cup of organic raisins. Half of them were chopped in half and smooshed a little bit before going in the jar. And since I was cutting into an orange for an afternoon snack, I squeezed a little juice into the one with raisins as Dabrowman suggested in an old post of his. Both jars got a gentle shake and after taking the picture below, the rings were removed. The lids are just resting on top of the jars, so things can vent as needed.
We'll see which one is ready first, and which one lasts best in the fridge later. I'll update as things progress.
Mary
Comments
When the raisins float it’s a sign that it’s well on the way. As long as everything stays floating it’s still fresh and ready. Also a lot of folks take out the fruit completely ,before it starts to sink ,when the YW is “ ready” and store it in the fridge. That works very well too. It’s a good idea to do a test flour/ YW and see how well it’s fermenting. My YW makes a very active levain in just a couple hours. You will love the fragrance! Good luck. c
Well i'm placing my bets on either they will mature at the same rate or the one with extra stuff in it might mature quicker. But you never know.
So far Abe is right: the one with "more stuff in it" seems to be in the lead. I had wondered if that would be enough fruit in the one that only has diced apple, but decided to give it a try anyway.
There wasn't much to see at the 24 hour mark. At 48 hours (yesterday), both smelled like sweet apples. The one with raisins (right) had a slight scent of apple cider (the US version of cider, which is quite different from UK cider):
Today, at 72 hours: Both still smell good. And the raisins are now all floating. Both are developing a white, cloudy sort of residue at the bottom, moreso in the raisin one. Both still smell wonderful! No fizz yet:
That is a good sign. If you put your ear to it can you hear a fizz?
The one with raisins is definitely making fizzy sounds this morning. The other one - not yet. I'll do what Caroline suggested and put that fruit in the other jar, and up the temp a little this afternoon.
And all the raisins are floating it won't be long now before its ready. 'Might' even be ok now but to be sure give it another day or two. See how active you can get it. Transfer the fruit from the other one, as Caroline suggested, and concentrate on this one. Keep it above 80F and you'll be baking with it soon. Are you taking of the lid then replacing it, screwing it on tightly and giving it a shake once a day? Then loosening it a bit so air can escape.
That’s a lot of water for that amount of fruit. A pint jar with that small an amount of fruit would be better. Just scoop that fruit out and toss it into the other jar. More is definitely better. It takes several days and warmer is better so more like 85 degrees is way better. Make some adjustments. 🙏
Gotcha, will do. Overall it has been kept between 74f (night) to 78f (day). The garage is around 85 at the moment I'll stick it out there for a while.
It definitely is fizzy sounding, with more bubbles than yesterday. I have a test levain started, with 10 gm of YW and 10 gm flour. After a couple of hours, I can see bubbles starting to form in the levain.
Meanwhile.... some logistics questions. After another stir and "air exchange", I put it in the fridge (loose lid) for now. The apples are slowly getting mushy and the YW is a little cloudy. Is it best to leave the fruit in ? Do you filter the YW somehow before using? With a tea filter or?
When you measure out some for a bread recipe, do you add roughly that amount back in to the jar? I seem to remember it only needs feeding every 3 weeks or so.
Thanks for the input!!!
Mary
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Use a slotted spoon and get all that solid stuff out. Try not to stir . Pour off the clear YW into a clean jar. Add all new fresh fruit. Refrigerate. It doesn’t need to be out anymore. It DOES need to be fed all fresh asap. It worked very hard , harder than the follow-up refreshes ever will.
YW can be stored w/o fruit but only after you’ve been maintaining it for awhile and it’s responding quickly to refreshes . You do add back the water you remove .
Refreshes can’t be on any set schedule . Fruit and temps vary widely. As soon as the apples start to sink get them out. Don’t keep the murky stuff on the bottom. Don’t agitate the YW anymore. No need to aerate a loose lid is fine. Do put a large piece of fresh orange peel over the floating apples like a hat. You will be pleasantly surprised how much fresher it stays .
Get that old fruit out now! 😂👍
Got it! (Races to the fridge before the morning coffee has finished brewing . . . 🏃🏼♀️)
Thank you so very much for your help!
It’s depending on YOU! Just dumped 200 g of my sweet smelling apple YW into an old Oatmeal Pullman formula that TX farmer posted in 2011. She modified a recipe from the old Laurel’s Kitchen and I modified it further to not only have a levain but YW also. I also increased everything to accommodate a 13x4x4 large Pullman.
The baking world is yours to do with as you find what works for you.
The orange peel also is the Vit C , ascorbic acid , useful for maintaining the freshness. https://www.google.com/search?q=is+there+vitamin+c+in+orange+peel&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS676US676&oq=is+there+vit+c+in+orange+perl+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCggBEAAYChgWGB4yBggAEEUYOTIKCAEQABgKGBYYHjIICAIQABgWGB4yCAgDEAAYFhgeMg0IBBAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBRAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBhAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMgkIBxAhGAoYoAEyCQgIECEYChigATIJCAkQIRgKGKAB0gEJMTA0NjBqMGo3qAIZsAIB4gMEGAEgXw&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
Ask away there is a lot of helpful information on this site.
Enjoy your yeast water. Using raisins has its advantages. They don't dissolve into mush is one but all the same it is interesting to use different fruits and seeing how they differ. All part of the fun. I've used dried mulberries and they were like yeast water on steroids. Wow, they were fast and strong. Don't use them anymore as i'm allergic to mulberries but worth a try if you can get hold of them. I used to keep a yeast water going but not now. If I want one now i'll just make it from scratch each time. Like sourdough starter you'll find everyone has their own way of maintenance. If the fruit doesn't get mushy then just keep it all in the fridge fruit n' all. If it does then find another way. If you take a little off to build a preferment then it can last a long while but if it's been a few weeks it's worth doing a refreshment.
That makes sense about mushy fruit. I have apples and raisins with an orange peel cap on top for the time being. Interesting info about the dried mulberries. I'll have to see what our local health food store has, those would be a bit exotic for my usual stores.
Fwiw, I did a test levain yesterday (?) with just 10gm YW/flour and let it go on the counter for 24 hours, just to see what it did. It's hard to judge volume increase with such a small amount but it had a decent amount of bubbles at the 4 hour mark. By 24 hours it had a mix of fruity/yeasty scent with a hint of alcohol getting started. I tossed it because I had just taken a SD loaf out of the oven and didn't want to fuss with it for the next few days. I'll do another levain build (probably 2 stage) and bake something with it in the next couple of days. Our weather is pretty hot and dry at the moment, baking inspiration is a little low right now, lol.
I'm looking forward to playing with some different formulas!
Mary
Wait till you try fresh bananas to make a yeast water !! Look up TX Farmer. She has 2 banana SD and or YW formulas that I have made in the past and posted here on TFL. The yeasts go crazy.
When you make a test batch the next time don't leave it that long to see it bubble and use a lot more flour and YW to get it going . Start with 25 g each and after 4 hrs give it 25 g more of YW and flour again . It needs food that's why is smelled like alcohol...there you go starving her again !! LOL. It only takes 3-4 hrs tops ever for my YW levain to get going . You don't want it to go into starvation.
Take a look at my blog post today. You can sub most anything as far as flours and use commercial oatmeal and you will get an amazing bread !! Use a regular loaf pan or 2 for the 1400 g.
Most of all have fun !! c
About 16 hours later some sultanas are floating, bubbles are clearly forming around the sultanas and you can hear it fizzing.
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P.s. It's been just 20 minutes after I posted this, and after giving it another good shake, and many more sultanas are floating now. This is fast. Juts made a sourdough but this should be ready by tomorrow or the day after. Right conditions and you can have a yeast water going within 3 days.
I hope we will hear back about the experiment with both apples and raisins. I have a banana YW levain raising a bread Shiao Ping popularized. Will post tomorrow
Wouldn't have put YW and banana together. I would think the yeast grows on the skin so I assume when making one it's skins 'n all?
I just break off rounds and float them in my AYW converting what I need to the banana. I never start a “ new” YW I just convert with new fruit like I convert my SD starter with a feed or two of different flour.
Here is Shiao Pings Banana Pain au Levain
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14432/banana-pain-au-levain
to propagate an already existing YW. I wonder if one could use bananas to make a YW.
Thanks for the link. Haven't seen Shiao Ping on TFL in ages.
Varda is quite famous now with her bakery in Boston . Accolades everywhere about her. She’s amazing.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23908/vermont-sourdough-banana-yeast-water