The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Fermenting Fruit Water/ Starter Question

Zaza Smith's picture
Zaza Smith

Fermenting Fruit Water/ Starter Question

Hi everyone

I have a week-old-thing going made of 2 apples and some mulberries. It's cloudy and only has little bubbles and I was going to throw it out but decided to use some of the water to make a poolish tonight (I added equal amounts of this and flour to an established starter.) The sponge is looking great 3 hours on, but I am suddenly jittery about using (hmm) decomposing fruit water to make bread. I know this is irrational! Of course! What is the starter fermentation, right? My starter is a few years old and I love it. But it's way past my bed time and the cloudy water is really driving me to think crazy: rotting fruit. So excuse me for asking what must seem like silly questions --

1) presuming I survive tomorrow's loaf, how often do you refresh fruit-infused water (and in fact do you actually or do you throw it out)?; how long do you keep this 'pet'? 2) would you use all this water instead of regular water you use when you mix the final dough, or is that overkill when you've already got ripe poolish? 3) do most people that use this do so instead of using their starter? 4) does it matter that the fruit floats to the top of the jar and parts of them have oxidised? I am sure that I had read that you were meant to let the liquid breathe by opening the jar about 10 minutes a day, so I do, and try to make sure the fruit is immersed as much as I can.

Apologies. And thanks for helping me with this mild panic! :)

lepainSamidien's picture
lepainSamidien

In many French bakeries, a levain (sourdough starter) is begun with a mix of rotting (not rotten, but fruit that you wouldn't want to eat) and dried fruit and VERY warm water, all left to party together in a warm place for about 24 hours. The resulting water is bubbly and cloudy, lots of sugars and yeasts and bacteria floating around, and it is filtered from the fruit before being mixed with flour to begin a levain. So your technique seems to me to be sound.

What's important to keep in mind with baking is that all bread is destined to spend the last part of its life in a VERY warm environment (i.e. the oven), where most harmful bacteria will have little-to-no chance of survival. Yes, there are certain bacteria that are a little more hardy than we might like, but there presence will be rather obvious when you cut into the bread (search up "bread ropy" or "bread spiderweb"). However, the bacteria coming from your aging fruit probably won't bear these meanies.

Lastly, let your nose do the preliminary investigating in these matters . . . evolutionarily speaking, it's an immensely useful tool. More often than not, when it comes to a sourdough starter, if it smells good and healthy (vinegary, apple-y, maybe a little funky but not unpleasantly so), it won't do any harm. If it starts to smell really bad, it probably won't do you much harm necessarily (since the bread will be effectively sterilized in the oven), but it won't make a very good bread. In a word, Toucan Sam was right in telling us to "Follow your nose !"

Good luck and keep us posted !

Zaza Smith's picture
Zaza Smith

Thanks very much lepainSamidien! I shall persist then, just for the sake of experimentation and experience! It actually smells quite nice, the liquid, and I would need to use more for the bulk/ final dough to have the benefit of the flavour. 

Yes, will update:) 

Zaza 

Maverick's picture
Maverick

I suggest you read through this: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/35473/yw-primer

and watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcfuUtbnteY

I would say that dabrownman is the yeast water guru around here.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

now.  It makes great bread with no sour component at all.  No need to mix it with SD starter to make bread since it will cut the sour taste of the resulting bread quite a bit.  Here is a post  that might be helpful.

YW Primer
hreik's picture
hreik

primer b/c I had no idea how to maintain it and hubby loved the breads I make w YW starter.  You are a wealth of information and generosity.

 

hester

Zaza Smith's picture
Zaza Smith

Thanks very much! So good to have all the expertise here.