Want to make homemade baker's yeast?
You are quite right ! Nothing better to make your homemade bread!
It's true, why buy yeast when you can make fresh one yourself?
It's much more natural, more economical and it's easy to prepare!
My baker gave me 3 recipes to make your own yeast:with beer, potato or flour. Watch:
The first recipe is based on unpasteurized beer. or cider.
If you take pasteurized beer (the one usually found in stores), the recipe may not work well.
Better to choose a craft beer or a Trappist so that the bread dough rises well.
- 100 ml of craft or Trappist beer
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of flour
1. Pour the beer into a container.
2. Add sugar and flour.
3. Mix everything well.
4. Let stand overnight at room temperature.
5. If the yeast hasn't set yet, let it rest for a few more hours.
There you go, your beer-based baker's yeast is already ready :-)
Simple, practical and economical!
You have to admit that it's quick and easy, isn't it? And you don't even need a Thermomix!
With this homemade recipe, you have made about 50g of fresh yeast.
You can keep it in an airtight jar for about ten days in a cool place at around 4°C.
This second recipe for making your own yeast is prepared with a potato! Surprising, isn't it?
But very practical because you always have a potato on hand.
And you'll see, it's just as easy as with beer.
- 1 medium sized potato
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of salt
- 4 cups boiling water
- 1 sachet of dry yeast (optional)
1. Peel the potato and rinse it.
2. Put it in a saucepan with boiling water.
3. Cook until the potato is completely soft.
4. Take it out of the water and put it in a deep plate. Be careful, you have to keep the cooking water.
5. Mash the potato with a fork.
6. Add salt and sugar and mix.
7. Let the mixture cool.
8. Pour the mixture into the cooking water.
9. Add a sachet of dry yeast (optional).
10. Cover.
11. Leave to ferment in a warm place (over 20°C) for one or two days.
There you go, you made your homemade yeast with a potato :-)
If fermentation has not taken place, all you have to do is start again, because it is not possible to recover it!
Sometimes it takes several tries before you have homemade baker's yeast.
But it's worth it!
This yeast recipe is made with wheat flour.
It's an ancestral method for making homemade yeast.
It works with any type of unbleached flour .
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 cup lukewarm (not hot) water
1. Pour the flour into a jar.
2. Add water.
3. Cover the jar.
4 . Let it sit in a warm place until the mixture rises and bubbles.
There you go, your flour-based yeast is already ready :-)
In general, it takes 1 to 7 days, depending on the temperature and humidity of the place where you let your yeast rest.
When it is ready, take a cup of this yeast to make a loaf of bread.
Then add water and flour in equal quantities.
The use of homemade baker's yeast is identical to that which you buy at the store.
Know that one cup of wet yeast equals one packet of dry yeast.
- The salt is used to preserve the yeast and the sugar is used to nourish the yeast. Respect the quantities of salt and sugar, otherwise the yeast will be too dry. If you put too much salt, the sodium chloride can deactivate the yeast. And too much sugar prevents the yeast from working.
- Make sure your kitchen equipment is clean and sterile. Bacteria must not contaminate the yeast. They could destroy your yeast and ruin all your efforts!
- Do you know that baking soda can replace baking powder? Find out how here.
- On the other hand, baking soda cannot replace baker's yeast! Yes, we can't ask everything from this good old baking soda.
- Do you have any dry yeast? It is dehydrated yeast that comes in the form of small granules. You can feed it to breed. You have to sprinkle the dry yeast on 10 cl of lukewarm water and wait for 10 min. A foam should form on the surface. This is when you need to add 1 teaspoon of sugar. Wait a few more minutes and you have baker's yeast to make your bread!
- Be careful, do not put yeast in your compost. Too many bacteria could grow there and unbalance your compost.
Yeast is a leavening agent. It is a live (active) yeast that is used to leaven bread and make it lighter.
It is made with a fungus obtained through a process of separation and fermentation.
The strains used produce carbon dioxide which will allow the bread to rise.
Don't confuse baker's yeast with brewer's yeast which is dead yeast, made from strains that produce alcohol.
- The yeast can be kept in the fridge in an airtight box for about ten days.
- If you have a lot of fresh yeast cubes, you can freeze it without any problem. Then, to use it, you have to dissolve it in a little warm water to reactivate it.
- However, be careful with the temperatures:the yeast should not be stored above 50°C and below -20°C.
