Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Everlasting Yeast...I need help

Ok, I have some questions. It's one of those days here for me. I'm just plain addlepated and need the simple basic things drawn out like preschool work for me today.

Everlasting Yeast...I have a couple recipes, for the most part they are all the same anyway:

1 quart warm potato water (1 qt warm water plus 1 Tbs potato flakes)
1/2 Tbs yeast
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs flour

Mix and let stand 12 hours at room temp. Leave 1/3 cup in container when baking, then replenish with same ingredients...just no more yeast. Let stand 12 hours after replenishing and then keep stored in fridge. Try to use regularly, or discard a batch and replenish every 3-4 weeks.

The other is a larger version of the recipe:

4 cups warm potato water
1 teaspoons salt
2 cups white flour or wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar


Here's a couple of my recipes...how do I use the everlasting yeast in these recipes? What is the gist of the yeast amount/usage with everlasting yeast?

One Hour Bread
makes 3 loaves

4 Tbs yeast
1/4 cup honey
3 cups warm water
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup powdered milk
8 cups flour
The entire thing gets mixed in the Kitchenaid and it does all the work :o) Divides into 3 regular loaves and bakes 350 for 30 minutes.

We use this one alot for regular bread, cinnamon rolls, pan rolls, raisin bread, etc.
How do I start using the everlasting yeast in this recipe? For get the water in the recipe and that's it? I'm telling you, I'm just a bundle of non-understanding today. Must be all the recent rains. I'm addlepated ;)

Our other standard recipe here is a big 6 loaf batch:
6.5 cups hot water
1 cup oil
1 cup honey
2 Tbs dough enhancer
1/3 - 1/2 cup gluten
2 tbs salt
5 Tbs yeast
18 cups flour
You mix all together with just 8-10 cups flour to sponge for 20 minutes, then add in remaining flour to make a soft but kneadable dough It divides up to 6 loaves and bakes at 350 for 35-40 minutes. We use mostly Prairie Gold flour in this, sometimes a cup or two of bread flour.
Is there some kind of ratio I need to know about to use this? Am I just making a mountain out of a simple little ant hill here? I found a recipe that already haa the everlasting yeast worked in...but I like my recipes :o( I have some favorites that I know work, that I know we like.

And honestly, if I'm making yeast that will last forever, I just plain want to know I can use it for whatever I might decide on on any given day, kwim? Food storage-wise, I could store a bunch of bulk yeast, but when you use about 6 pounds yearly, just how much can I seriously store? The Everlasting Yeast is the answer, I just know it, but dangnabbit if I have a clue how to work it in.

I'm telling you, I'm reverting to my second childhood in terms of clarity of thinking some days. Someone come draw me a picture and spell it out for me really s-l-o-w ok?


4 comments:

Dawn said...

Hi, I haven't been on in awhile but I was just trying to work almost the same thing out for myself. I have a recipe for home made yeast that was in an old cookbook. There is a recipe for the yeast bread as well. It is really long so if you interested I will e-mail it to you. I don't know if is will help you get an idea how the measurements go, but it is good for a chuckle. I Love old cook books and their lingo.

Dawn

MyBulletinBoard said...

The old timers swear you just substitute the everlasting yeast brew for the water. I haven't used this particular recipe (just through it up on my blog for viewing because another blogger was trying to find something cheaper than her Red Star), but I have used the sweet sourdough starter you put on your recipe blog. I wouldn't use it hoping for a one hour rise. Plan on a slower rise. I don't use it in a dough with eggs. I have allowed batches to rise as long as eighteen to twenty-four hours --- great for soaked grains. It was delicious. But I don't usually feel like messing with it that long. You can pitch in a 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast into your dry ingredients to kick it up a little.

If you have a small quantity of yeast it WILL multiply, just like that overnight bread at Hillbilly Housewife.

Why don't you try it with just a single or double-loaf recipe. See how long it takes. You always have to adjust the amount of flour, anyway, depending on rain, etc. I think the potato in the sourdough starter takes up part of the flour space, so to speak, but it also makes very tender bread. I'm sure the frontier cooks weren't so worried about a recipe; they just started with a sponge and let it develop from there. I very seldom mess with measuring flour anymore. Just add what I have to and quit. So maybe if you mixed just part of your flour with the other dry ingredients, then mixed in the wet stuff, and finished with what extra flour you need, you'd be okay.

Dangnabbit and addelpated. That's that rain for ya'.

Bean said...

http://theprepared.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=48&Itemid=35

I googled everlasting yeast, the above link gives a recipe, it appears to be a "starter", bake the bulk of the recipe and keep a bit back for the next batch. According to the link above you just store it in the 'fridge between times.

MyBulletinBoard said...

Have you seen this one, yet?

http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.html

I'm still not sure exactly what the difference is between what the old timers called everlasting yeast and real sourdough starter except that real sourdough doesn't start with added yeast. How are you coming on this one?

Jer.6:16

Jeremiah 6:16
Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.

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