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We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden

Author Elena Zheleznyak, 🔗

There is another great way to bake healthy homemade bread without adding industrial yeast, but still using yeast - to make the yeast yourself from fruit, honey and water. In a couple of days you can get real natural yeast, which will contain everything you need and at the same time nothing superfluous to bake excellent bread with your own hands.

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden

How to make them?
Any fruits, herbs, vegetables, everything alive and clean, plucked from the garden or bought in the market from grandmothers, a little honey or sugar and clean water. The further process is even simpler: I don’t wash the fruit, so as not to wash off the wild yeast that lives on fruit shells, for the same reason we don’t clean it, but simply cut it into small pieces.

It will take about a handful of such fruits, plus, you can add a little raisins to bolster the yeast. We put the prepared fruits in a jar (I have the usual half-liter), fill it with water at room temperature, add a spoonful of honey or sugar, stir, close the jar with a lid and hide it in a quiet place for 2-3 days. Fermentation should begin in the jar.

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden

After the indicated time, shake the jar, open the lid to release the gas, and again hide it for a day or two. We check: if, after opening the can, you hear a hissing, like from a bottle of lemonade, then the yeast is ready. I advise using them for 4-5 days.

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden
In the photo on the left, yeast after 3 days, air bubbles are visible inside the jar. In the photo on the right of the bank on the 5th day, no bubbles are visible, but it sizzles if you listen, and is ready to go.

In fact, we have yeast water and what is the concentration of yeast in it, I honestly cannot say, I just have no idea. I made this yeast exactly three years ago, and I remember that the concentration of yeast is not constant and changes: the longer you bake with this yeast, the stronger it is. If at the beginning of breeding, wild yeast raised the dough slowly (my first bread lasts about five hours), then by the second or third baking they were much more active, so much so that I had to reduce the volume of yeast water used in the recipe. I think this is due to two important points: the readiness of the yeast water and the maturity of the dough. It seems to me that during my first experiment, I put the first brew too early, I had to wait a couple of days for the fruit yeast to “mature”. When I used them, they bubbled and sizzled, it was worth waiting a little.

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden

How do I use them?
Instead of regular yeast, only the "dosage" needs to be adjusted periodically, because over time, their activity can change. Yeast water should be mixed with flour, covered and left for 12-15 hours until ripening. The dough should just ripen, be bubbly and porous, and it is not a sourdough that needs to be fed with flour, it is a dough that must be used all without residue, kneading the dough on it.

When I first started working on fruit yeast, I withstood the dough from ring to ring, not really looking at its real state, so my first bread with homemade yeast came up for a very long time and reluctantly, even the extra 50 ml did not help. yeast water added to the dough instead of part of regular water. This time it was different. Compare yourself, first try and second try:

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden
first try

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden
second try

Fermentation time, temperature, amount of flour and volume of yeast are the same, in both variants it is apple yeast with raisins, and the difference is obvious.And there is also a huge difference in the way the bread approached, this time, after an hour, signs of fermentation were noticeable, the dough visually grew noticeably.

How to feed them, where to keep them?
Despite the fact that yeast water is not a leaven, it also needs feeding, because it is also alive. Each time you pour a little yeast from a baking can, add a little honey or sugar to it, replenish the water loss and supply with a new batch of fruit (old fruit can be partially caught and disposed of). It is best to store a jar of yeast in the refrigerator, there definitely nothing will happen to it, it will not ferment or grow moldy. To re-bake bread with fruit yeast, just take out a jar, add honey or sugar, a couple of slices of apple or other fruit, and wait for the lemonade fizz.

How do they affect dough and bread?
This fruit yeast has a wonderful effect on the dough, it becomes silky, very elastic and pleasant. Plus, they give their color and flavor to the bread. This is especially noticeable with dark berry yeast. I made it from bird cherry, the yeast turned out to be maroon, and the dough was lilac. Real magic! The finished bread also had this beautiful shade.

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden

Fruit yeast also affects the porosity of the bread, more precisely, the pattern itself. Have you noticed that yeast and sourdough bread has a different crumb and pore pattern? So, it is also different for bread on fruit yeast. Bread can be perfectly loosened and baked and have unusual patterns in the cut, not like sourdough or yeast. This is clearly seen in the example of bird cherry bread.

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden

I think this has to do with how this yeast water affects the gluten of the dough, or rather, it weakens it. If you knead the dough with a lot of yeast water, it will be a little strange consistency, at the same time silky and pliable, but at the same time sticky, not as strong and elastic as, for example, a dough made with lactic acid sourdough. I may be wrong, but I think this is due to the presence of alcohol in the yeast, and alcohol is known to destroy gluten. But in small doses, it gives an interesting effect, just influencing the structure of the crumb.

The taste of bread
I won't say that fruit yeast strongly affects the taste of the finished bread, but the fact that this is an unusual bread is immediately noticeable. It is given out by subtle notes in taste and aroma, fruity, subtle, fresh, sweetish, believe me, ordinary bread does not smell like that. I baked a trial today and it's just delicious!

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden

What can you make fruit yeast from?
I already mentioned that they can be obtained from anything, even from greenery. I tried to make from bird cherry, from lemon and from apples with raisins, and it's hard for me to say which ones I liked more.

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden
Whole grain with apple yeast

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden
one more on apple

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden
with caramelized garlic and olives on lemon yeast.

I put in the mint yeast from the peppermint stalks left over from the mint pesto, I want to try the baking with it.

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden

What bread is fruit yeast suitable for?
You can bake any wheat bread with small additions of any other flour on them, but rye, it seems to me, will not work. For rye bread, lactic acid bacteria are important, which should be present in large quantities in the dough, but fruit yeast cannot give this. There is a favorite rye sourdough for rye bread

By the way, while summer, you can dry all kinds of fruits and berries, from which you can then make pure fruit yeast.

baba nata
Admin, is it possible to make yeast on frozen cherries?
Admin

I think you can. Defrost it first. Her tissues are already torn by the cold-freeze.
You need to try Only by trial and error you can understand what can happen
baba nata
Thanks, I'll try it today.
baba nata
Unfortunately, it did not work out. We will wait for a new harvest.
lappl1
Quote: Baba Nata
Unfortunately, it did not work out. We will wait for a new harvest.
Tanyusha, Natalia, but I did it! I made 4 types of yeast, for all I have already baked bread. I am delighted !
Tanya, thank you very much for publishing this article by Elena. She hooked me so much that I could not resist and made yeast and bread on them. I even wrote yeast recipes and 2 bread recipes! And kneaded them today with us.
Albina
Interesting information. Thank you Tatiana. Somehow I'll try
MariV
So I started such a yeast from dried fruits with honey. Duck, after all, this is a natural brew! Something doubts overcame me.
Bread - well, yes, large-hole,
We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden

We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden

however, much more fuss, requires a long proofing time. It tastes like wow.
On the forum someone will answer me - it turns out - alcohol yeast, or what?
lappl1
Quote: MariV
On the forum someone will answer me - it turns out - alcohol yeast, or what?
MariV, yes it is an alcoholic yeast - Saccharomyces serevisiae.
MariV
lappl1, Yes. Thank you, I found all the information I was interested in on the Internet!
Lada_Lelya
Thank you for the detailed story! I put yeast on raisins, today is the 4th day, they foam well. I’m thinking, when will they be ready? I really want to bake some bread! I gave up yeast a few months ago, but I miss real bread. Maybe someone can tell you the simplest recipe for raisin sourdough bread? I'm a beginner and a detailed recipe would be very helpful. I appreciate it!
Lada_Lelya
I also forgot to mention that Shogonya put three more types of yeast to ferment - on banana peels, on tea and on raisins again. So that for sure at least one kind turned out, otherwise I fought with the usual leaven for three months and nothing happened in the end, neither with rye, nor with wheat, although I did everything exactly the same, with scales, etc.
Lada_Lelya
Thank you, I went and risked to bake bread from raisin sourdough on the fourth day. A day the pre-enzyme came up, then another day almost dough. Very little came up (most likely, the leaven was not ripe), but I decided to bake it anyway and that's what happened. Surprisingly tasty, we ate it in half a day with our beloved
We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden
Now I have kneaded one more bread, rye-wheat, with a preponderance of rye, on a 7-day ferment. It has been worth almost a day and is not particularly suitable. What to do?
Admin
What to do? Learn to bake bread, learn to make bread dough

Look in the Sourdough Bread section for wheat-rye or rye-wheat bread, and first repeat after the author of the recipe.
So gradually and gain experience
Lada_Lelya
Here is my rye-wheat bread (80% rye) on raisin liquid yeast.
We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden
The dough was suitable for 24 hours, and then the dough was also suitable for 24 hours. When I put it in a slightly preheated oven, he began to approach more cheerfully. Maybe not as fluffy as it could have been on rye sourdough, and I don't like fluffy breads, but this one is very satisfying. Very tasty, we've already eaten half of it.
Admin

Beautiful bread!
You can draw up your own recipe
brendabaker
And how much yeast water is needed per 1 kg of flour,
or all the water that needs to be changed to yeast according to the recipe. I would like to find a recipe for simple wheat bread with such yeast, cooked in the oven. If anyone advises, thank you in advance.
KLO
Tatyana,! MERRY CHRISTMAS! Thank you so much for the recipe! Here. Now I have yeast from grapes (making vinegar), I admire Khlebushek! I also read your articles about mixing. THANK YOU!
Admin

THANK YOU! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
To your health! Bake delicious bread!

On the forum in the SECTION section there are recipes for homemade starter cultures, including fruit https://Mcooker-enn.tomathouse.com/index.php@option=com_smf&board=172.0
KLO
Thank you! I will also read your articles, very interesting. Until I got on
forum, I thought that cooking is not bad .. now I read .. (I have to learn to cook)
Tatka1
Admin, Tanyusha, good afternoon! I want to thank you as the discoverer of this topic on the site. Now liquid yeast is essential for me when baking bread !!!
We make homemade yeast from fruits, berries, vegetables, herbs from the garden
Admin

Tanyusha, Thanks for the kind words
It is always nice to know that your breads turn out to be so wonderful - breads for health!

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