September 24, 2013 - 5:55pm
Potato Starter
The bakery I work at uses a potato flake starter....and honestly...its the sweetest, yummiest bread you can snack on. Personally, I prefer very crusty loaves...but this stuff is a real treat!
I'm wondering if anyone here uses one? How do you incorporate it into your recipes since it is 100% liquid?
Are their certain types of recipes a potato starter is better suited for?
Also...I've been giving my first-ever flour starter tender love and care for weeks now....she gets fed regularly but will NOT develop a sour taste. Even when bubbling and bursting everywhere...there isn't even a HINT of sour. I'm lost. Any advice?
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http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20693/culturing-growing-and-baking-range-wild-yeasts
ronray has compiled a list of every topic that has to do with wild yeast water...potato is included. Many have found that it is a great way to then get other fruits etc to grow yeasts. Have a good time reading..there is a lot of material. c
trailrunner,
Thanks for the link. I just spent an hour reading about yeast water, and I'm sure there is at least a couple more hours' worth of reading there. Very interesting. I may try to start one!
CJRoman,
I suppose you know everything you want to know by now, eh? Are you thinking of making one of these starters or were you just trying to figure out what it is?
two other, non YW, potato starters in his book One is cooked potato that starts with milk, sugar and cornmeal that is scalded before and cultured for 3 days before ny potatoes more sugar and salt are added.
The other one is a raw potato starter that uses water, AP flour, sugar and salt .
I'm thinking the salt is added to cut down on the LABs that might want to grow in the mix.
The one we use in the bakery only has water, sugar and water in it. I think we used a smidge of commercial yeast to get it going. It smells like straight alcohol when you open the containers.
I would NEVER think to use this kind of a starter but I have to say....the bread is like NOTHING I've ever tasted before...
CJRoman,
After reading over an hour worth of the stuff about yeast water that trailrunner linked to, I was inspired to try it myself. The idea is that all fruits and vegetables, and even tea leaves, have natural colonies of wild yeast on them, which can be cultured to make yeast water, which can then be used to raise bread. Some of the items mentioned were bananas, potatoes, strawberries, cherries, clementines, and black tea. I happen to have bananas, potatoes and tea at my house, and even some frozen strawberries. But, I wanted to do something different. So, I took some fresh picked, ripe, red cayenne peppers, cut them up into chunks, removed the seeds, put them in a container with a lid, and added water and a little honey. I did all that at about 5:00 PM last night. This morning, at 5:00 AM, I checked and it had some small bubbles on the top already! I'm hoping that in a couple days I will have a thriving culture, and maybe within a week, I will be able to bake some very interesting bread from it.
David will you keep me posted?? I would love to hear how strawberries and bananas affect the flavor!! You could truly create a one of a kind starter...
I have a thriving apple starter now. I used the raisin one to make the apple go faster. Once started you can convert to any other fruit/veg. by taking a spoonful of your current one and adding anything you want. Organic to start with is suggested as it has more yeast on the outer layer. Nothing waxed or sprayed to get started.
Magic :) Please post back as to how a YW with hot peppers does ! Wonder if the bread will be hot. c