Raisin Yeast Water (Part 2)

February 2, 2012

Read Part 1 here.

So nothing much happens for a couple of days. You stir every few hours, as you remember, and by the end of the third day it’s looking like this:

Raisin Yeast Water (day 3)

Then you go to bed, and wake up on day 4, and in the morning it’s like magic angels have played with your jar overnight.

Because now the raisins are FLOATING. And there are little bubbles around them. If you put your ear close to the jar, it sounds like a glass of pop (like coke or pepsi!).

Raisin Yeast Water Day 4 (floating)

Can you see the bubbles?

So next up, we check the water to make SURE it’s strong enough to make bread.  That’ll be in Part 3.

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Raisin Yeast Water (Part 1)

January 28, 2012

So it turns out that you can grow yeast that’s strong enough to make bread out of raisins.

I kid you not.

Once I saw this picture online, I knew I had to figure out how to do it.

My first attempt didn’t go very well.  Neither did my second, third or fourth. I either had NO activity, or I grew mould.

I posted on Facebook and asked a few of my friends for their solutions, and finally I figured it out.

Here’s my first loaf of super-yummy bread made with yeast water:

Bread made with homemade raisin yeast water

Bread made with homemade raisin yeast water

 

Since then, I’ve been making a new kind every few days, experimenting with different yeast-water flavours, like orange, and smoky tea.

But the easiest one to start with by far is Raisin Yeast Water.

HOW TO MAKE RAISIN YEAST WATER

What you'll need to make Raisin Yeast Water

What you'll need to make Raisin Yeast Water

You’ll need a very clean jar with a lid (or you can put a saucer on top of the jar), natural honey, organic or natural raisins, pineapple juice, bottled water.

The key parts here are to use organic ingredients as much as possible, and bottled water, and to make sure that your jar is super-very clean. Anything ‘foreign’ or with ‘preservatives’ will prevent the yeast from growing. Also make sure the jar is big enough so that there’ll be space at the top once the ingredients have been added.

Also important is that your lid should NOT be put on tightly, as the mixture needs air to grow yeast. I’ve got a candy jar and we’ve removed the metal part of clasp for the lid, and so I just place the lid on top of the jar. You could use a saucer, or you could use a metal lid that is NOT screwed on properly. Just something to keep bugs and dust OUT, but allows air IN.

INGREDIENTS:

So into your jar, put 2 tablespoons of raisins, 1 tablespoon of honey (to help it grow faster), 2 tablespoons of pineapple juice (to even out the acid/pH of the water and help things grow), and 1.5 cups of bottled water.

Stir, put the top on loosely, and put your bottle on your counter in the kitchen in warm place. The warmest part of the kitchen right now (January) is on the counter near the stove, because we boil the kettle for tea about 5 times a day.

Raisin Yeast Water, mixed (Day 1)

Important: Using a clean spoon each time, lift the lid and stir your creation 3-5 times per day, as you remember. This helps aerate the mixture, and keeps yeasts that are growing ‘mixed in’ with the batch and not just sitting on top.

Now you have to wait. Patience is super important here.  It’s going to take 3-7 days before it starts to take action (faster in summer, longer in winter).

This is Day 1. Saturday afternoon at 2:30 pm. I’ll add more pictures in a few days to show you how it looks as it goes along.

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