YJL

In the beginning of this year, I had been trying to welcome wild yeast again for sourdough starter, but I failed at least three times miserably. I guess, two years ago, my first try on capturing wild yeast, succeeded without much efforts, that probably what you call the beginner’s luck.

Last month, I learned there are other ways to procure wild yeast from a now-gone YouTuber WoodlandGardener¹. I didn’t plan to explain the steps but send whoever is interested to his videos, now I think I would give some quick instructions.

To make yeast water, you need fruit, I think he used dried plum if I recall correctly. I don’t have that, so at my first try I used fresh apple and black tea leaves. After watching his video, I did some research and learned even tea leaves could work.

You just chop everything into small cubes, the put into a jar, water in. Let it sit in kitchen for three days. After first day, you should already hear it bubbling. Three days later, you should be able to use it.

To use it, have enough yeast water for making sponge (pre-ferment). Mix with flour and wait for few hours, then use the sponge to make the dough, the rest is the same.

Beside apples, I also tried lychee, which also works. In the end, whenever I need to feed the yeast water, I just mix altogether with fruits I have in hand and I store the jar in fridge all the time since I only bake bread once or twice a week. As for the flavor, you can really get a hint of fruitiness but not much of sourness even I let it rise for about 12 hours at room temperature.

I am still trying to care my yeast water, it doesn’t seem to rise as much as sourdough and a bit of doughy in the crumbs, probably need more time to let them grow even stronger. But the last one (first photo) looked quite nice, nice and soft crumbs, good crust, it might just be me too lazy to knead the dough properly.

I’ve made breads using yeast water for five times or more, I am quite happy with it. The best thing of yeast water is it’s less messy to look at and get it out of jar since it’s fluid.

By the way, the peanut butter is also homemade. I learned it from Alton Brown, Wok Fried Peanut Butter (YouTube). The rest of photos can be viewed on Flickr.

[1]	The account is closed some time within a month, I didn’t realize until now. The links of videos are all gone.