Wild yeast comes in more than 1,000 different species, and since they are so tiny, millions of them may fit inside of a spoon. The toxic components of grains are broken down, the beneficial minerals, vitamins, and fiber in wheat are made more nutritionally available, and most significantly, wheat is transformed into a diet that is simple to digest and won’t cause a blood sugar increase.
The use of natural yeast has four wonderful advantages. First off, since you won’t need to buy yeast anymore, it won’t cost you anything. Natural yeast slows digestion and increases satiety, which may help you lose weight.
In addition, it neutralizes the toxic enzymes present in grains and functions similarly to probiotics in fostering beneficial intestinal flora. You might wish to understand how to catch and use natural yeast given all the advantages it has.
We’ll discuss a few advantages of using natural yeast in baking in this post. We’ll also discuss how to gather your own wild yeas and provide you with a couple of recipes to try. But first, let’s quickly go over what natural yeast truly is and how it differs from commercial yeast.
What Is Natural Yeast?
Wild yeast and natural yeast are both types of microorganisms. Carbon dioxide is released as it consumes carbs. Wild yeast may be found in people, animals, and even plants.
This wild yeast is gathered by a yeast starter so you may use it in recipes. For instance, the yeast starter can leaven (or make rise) bread and initiate fermentation. Once you’ve obtained natural yeast, you can use it to prepare foods like bread and waffles as well as other things that need yeast to rise before baking. In addition, probiotic drinks are possible.
You might want to attempt trapping your own natural yeast if you’re a prepper seeking for methods to be self-sufficient or a parent looking for a fun science experiment. Let’s first discuss the differences between natural yeast and commercial yeast before moving on to how to catch your own natural yeast.
What Makes Natural Yeast Different from Commercial Yeast?
Yeast comes in a variety of varieties and is employed for various tasks.
Baker’s Yeast
The sort of yeast you may buy in the grocery store is called baker’s yeast, and it is frequently offered in little packets. It is a particular strain of yeast that has been developed for its capacity to raise bread. Because it consistently produces results, it is also beneficial for use in breadmaking by big commercial enterprises. This sort of yeast will remain fine in your refrigerator for up to two years.
Brewer’s Yeast
Baker’s yeast, on the other hand, is used to produce bread, whilst brewer’s yeast is used to make beer. A separate type of yeast called brewer’s yeast is used to produce alcohol. However, both brewer’s and baker’s yeast produce fairly consistent outcomes.
Natural Yeast
Wild yeast, also known as wild yeast, is gathered by bakers and nurtured into a useful yeast starter that may be used to produce bread. Natural yeast may be found on a variety of foods, in the air, on your hands, and on your skin.
Unfortunately, wild yeast isn’t nearly as reliable as professionally developed yeast in terms of flavor or outcomes. However, employing natural yeast has advantages over commercial types that you simply do not receive.
4 Benefits of Natural Yeast
- You won’t have to buy yeast any longer. You won’t need to go to the grocery store every time you want to create bread if you can harness the power of natural or wild yeast. Additionally, although producing your own yeast starter requires a few days, it is really simple and cheap to do.
- You feel fuller longer. It’s interesting that using natural or wild yeast causes your digestion to slow down. You will likely eat less and lose weight as a result of feeling fuller for longer.
- Breaks down harmful enzymes in grains. The rise in health problems linked to gluten and the usage of yeast that is bought commercially may be related. Nevertheless, beneficial enzymes present in grains may be broken down by natural yeast, which causes fewer gastrointestinal problems. Additionally, it could lower the glycemic index of bread, preventing the blood sugar surge caused by carbohydrates.
- Probiotics and prebiotics are found in natural yeast. Natural yeast introduces beneficial bacteria to your stomach through fermentation, acting as a probiotic and prebiotic that may improve your health in general.
How Is Natural Yeast Made
To obtain your own natural yeast, you must collect some of these unique microorganisms in a jar and ferment them. Your yeast starter, also known as yeast water, will be created as a result. The process is very simple, as the yeast grows in just a few days.
The objective is to establish an environment where the yeast may flourish and ferment since it needs moisture and carbohydrates to survive. To produce your own yeast water, follow these steps.
In a container, put some dried fruit. The simplest technique to trap yeast is using dried fruit, especially if you have never done it before. For beginners, dried dates or raisins work nicely. Just be sure that sulfur dioxide was not used to treat your fruit.
The yeast won’t ferment due to sulfur dioxide. Fresh fruits, such as apple slices, veggies, or herbs can be used in place of dried fruit if you don’t have any on hand, although they may not be as consistent. The key here is:
- A little more than an inch above the fruit, add water to the jar. If your tap water is chlorinated, you should use filtered water to avoid slowing or stopping the process.
- Keep the jar well closed and away from direct sunlight at room temperature.
- When bubbles start to develop and there is froth on the surface of the water, your yeast water is ready. Normally, this procedure takes five days.
- You should filter the liquid and get rid of the fruit before using the yeast water.
- In recipes, substitute the yeast water for the baker’s yeast. Depending on how much yeast water you use, you’ll probably need to decrease the amount of liquid in the recipe.
- To relieve the pressure that is accumulating inside the jar, periodically open the lid.
- To stop mold from developing on top of your yeast water, shake your jar twice day.
- Other varieties of fruit and vegetables can be used to create yeast water.
How to Speed Up The Yeast Process
Put sugar in. A spoonful of sugar can be added to the water to speed up the process. The yeast will benefit from the sugar.
Use a little of your previous yeast water. By reserving part of your old yeast water to mix with the fresh yeast water, you might hasten the production of your subsequent batch.
How to Create a Sourdough Starter from Yeast Water
Yeast water may also be used to prepare your preferred sourdough bread recipe. But first, you must use your batch of yeast water to make a sourdough starter.
Simply combine equal amounts of yeast water and flour to make a sourdough starter, then allow the mixture to ferment. This would be used in place of a standard sourdough starter that requires feeding and maintenance. This is how to do it:
- 100 grams of yeast water
- 100 grams of flour
Give the mixture about 16 hours to ferment at room temperature. Use in lieu of the sourdough starter in your recipe for sourdough bread.
Why Use Yeast Water Instead of Traditional Sourdough Starter
One advantage of using yeast water for bread making instead of a sourdough starter is that no flour is wasted. For conventional sourdough starters to thrive, you must reject some of the starters and add fresh flour in its place. This means that some of the starting is being wasted, but yeast water eliminates this concern.
Keeping a typical sourdough starter alive is not necessary with yeast water either. Once prepared, the yeast water can be kept in the refrigerator for a few months.
However, when you wish to utilize yeast water in a sourdough recipe, you need to wait a little longer. If you’re using a sourdough recipe, you’ll combine the yeast water with a little amount of flour and let it rest before baking the bread. The rise time for a yeast water recipe will thus take longer than it would for a sourdough starter or a bread produced with commercial yeast once the starter has been included in the recipe.
