The Fresh Loaf

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Nothing Bread - 100% Unbleached Yeast Water White Bread

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Nothing Bread - 100% Unbleached Yeast Water White Bread

I know you are thinking the same thing I am when Lucy came up with this one.  What is wrong with her?  No whole grains, no sourdough, no add ins – No Nothing Bread!

 

I was quickly reminded that we had company coming over for Valentines Day with one not even out of high school and they might nit like those other kinds of wonderful breads we like so much.

 

Plus it has been a long time since we baked with our yeast water, now apple and about forever since we baked with it alone without at least some SD in there somewhere!  Lucy thought about using some bread flour or some light colored beer or whey or even enriching this dough with cream cheese, egg and butter but thought I was way too lazy to follow through with it. 

 

She might be right but this bread was just Sprouts binned unbleached white AP flour at 12% protein, water, YW and salt.  She really made it easy using one of her favorite fool proof, except for me of course, 1_2 3  concoctions so no formula required for this post.

 

We starter with 60 g of YW and flour each making a 120 g , 1 stage levain that we retarded for 48 hours after it doubled in volume - which took 12 hours as the YW had been stored for months with no maintenance.

 

We did autolyse the dough flour and water for 1 hour as the YW levain warmed up on the counter with the salt sprinkled on top.  Once the levain hit the mix, we did 3 sets of slap and folds of 7, 1 and 1 minute each and 3 sets of stretch and folds from the compass points all on 20 minute intervals. 

 

We then pre-shaped and shapes the dough into a squat oval, put it in a rice floured basket, bagged it and retarded it for 13 hours.  The dough didn’t proof enough during the retard so we let it warm up on the counter for 3 hours before firing up BOB to 500 F with Mega Steam in place.

 

We un-molded the dough and slashed it in a decorative way, at least for us, hoping the long middle slash would get an ear and that this bread would blister and brown well.  We slid the dough on the bottom stone and turned the oven down to 450 F for a 15 minute steam bath.

 

Once the steam came out, we turned the oven down to 425 F, convection this time, and baked it for another 10 minutes until the internal temperature was 208 F.  We then turned off the oven and let it sit on the stone until the internal temperature hit 210 F when the bread was removed to the cooling rack.

 

While waiting for that YW levain to double a prickly pear margarita hits the spot..

Sure enough it sprang and bloomed well with an ear in the middle, large blisters pretty much everywhere and a nicely browned cover too.   Lucy loves it when everything on the outside comes out as planned but ….. we will have to wait on the inside until it cools down  and we can slice it for lunch turkey pastrami sandwich.  Right now it looks like it has some promise.

 

 

Comments

a_warming_trend's picture
a_warming_trend

Doesn't look like nothing to me! Looks like a delicious loaf. Great blisters, great ear. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I'm using it for hamburger bun substitutes for dinner.  I was really kind of taken back by how good a a YW white bread could taste!  It is really pretty good.  Soft ,moist and glossy for sure, a YW trait,  and the crust is nicely chewy and tasty too.  Can't complain that it looks to good either.  

Glad you like it, can't wait to see you improve on that great loaf of yours today.... and

Happy baking 

hreik's picture
hreik

SD white is incredibly versatile. It's very good and has 'broad' appeal to a lot of people.  My husband, who is not a fan of my whole wheat breads (though he does like rye sometimes) adores my sd white.

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Since it doesn't have any LAB in the culture, just yeast, there is so sour component to the taste but it does have a sweet undertone.  I use it to replace the commercial yeast in recipes that call for it or where sour is not needed or wanted, so I don't have to buy commercial yeast,.  When YW levain is mixed with a SD levain in the same bread, it tones down the sour note to a great degree.  It also has a way of opening up the crumb in whole grain breads for some reason too.  YW also delivers the most unique, moist, soft and custard like crumb and delivers the most irregular holes and shape of those holes too.  It also seems to put blisters on crust like crazy. 

I don't usually make an all white bread or one that doesn't have some SD in it so having one so different for a change is a treat.  Glad you liked it and

Happy baking . 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

That's a fine looking "Wonder bread" Lucy came up with :)

I don't even have my YW starter anymore, but will have to start one up again in the summer when Cherries are cheap.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

It is every bit as hardy as SD.  This one is as close to a non enriched Wonder Bread as Lucy can get.  My wife loved it.

Glad you like the post Ian.

Gail_NK's picture
Gail_NK

Just converted my starter to your method and it bubbled up just right. It will take some getting used to - starting tge three step build with 6 grams to make a levain looks impossible... Will be baking on Saturday and hope to post some good results.

Hi to all your girls - and a thank you pat for your furry apprentice!

G.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

and an abusive maintenance schedule that wastes lots of flour - and time,.  It is perfect for those of us who make SD bread once or twice a week.  I've been using it for a long time now, well into its 2nd year and it always makes a fine bread when used properly.  It is very forgiving too and no worries about killing it.

Can't wait to see your first No Fuss, No Muss SD Starter and Levain  bake.  It makes retirement so much easier:-)

Happy Baking Gail

greenbriel's picture
greenbriel

Now to go find out more about yeast water! How do you get the blisters?

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

YW Primer to begin your YW journey.  It is just another natural culture that has no sour component.  Whote breads have larger blisters, YW seems to promote blisters, as does Mega Steam, DO's, long cold proofs and baking the bread while it is still cold from the fridge.  It can be hit or miss though but I always get these blisters on Whitish YW bread with long cold proofs and Mega Steam.  Hard to look better than this bread on the outside.  Lucy says it is picture perfect!

HAPPY BAKING 

greenbriel's picture
greenbriel

You are a gem! Lucy is quite right, it's beautiful!

One I don't recognize: "DO's"?

Happy baking to you, too!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I forgot to mention that higher hydration also promotes blisters.  I get the best blisters in the Mini Oven that has such a small cubic space.  It is easier to saturate with steam when it is small using 2 of Sylvia's steaming cups.  This is why a DO or cloche promotes blisters - a very small space easily saturated in steam indeed!

greenbriel's picture
greenbriel

(see what I did there? :) )

Will investigate these things of which you speak!

baybakin's picture
baybakin

Looks awesome dabrownman!  YW is going to have some acid, mainly because lactobaccillus outnumber yeast cells 20-1 in our environment, and they love sugar water just as much as yeast, they are just different lactic acid bacteria than the ones in our sourdough starters.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

if she had dome any work with YW and she said that she had and published an article in the BBGA news letter about it here Bread Lines earlier this year. If you have access to the publication, you can find it in Volume 21, Issue 2, Spring 2013.  Problem with me is I'm not a member and can't get to the artificial.  I hope someone can get to it and let us know what was in yeast water!

If there are a bunch of LAB in yeast water like in SD then they have to be a weird strain of LAB, ones that don't produce lactic acid, since there is no taste of acid to be found anywhere :-)

Glad you liked the bread, it is a better looker than a taster though!

Happy Baking 

baybakin's picture
baybakin

The process you describe for yeast water is very similar to how brewers/wine makers harvest "wild yeast" and you're basically making a culture of what is found on the skins.  There is lots of articles on this in the brewing world, but less in the bread making world it seems.  here are some of the more common yeasts and bacteria found in "wild beer" or wine, using a similar culture technique:

Brettanomyces (Bruxellensis, Claussenii, Lambicus)
Saccharomyces (Cerevisiae, Paradoxus, Bayanus)
Lactobacillus (Brevis, Buchneri, Delbrueckii, Casei, Plantarum)
Pediococcus (Damnosus, Parvulus)
Oenococcus (Oeni)

there are anywhere from 160 to 100,000 colony forming wild yeasts per berry, so who knows what you actually end up with as it interacts with the flour, but in the yeast water itself, probably a pretty big range of organisms.