50 And Not So Glitzy: A Date

(Warning: The following post contains more than my usual two photographs. If poor photography frightens you, avert your eyes after reading.)

A couple of months ago a friend texted me with an intriguing way of capturing wild yeast for bread baking. I was curious for many reasons. First, it was not the traditional sourdough method that everybody and their kitty cat is posting on social media. Secondly, it seemed less labor intensive than the sourdough method. And, best of all, it wouldn't demand a lifetime of sourdough starter guilt and babysitting.

That being said, there was certainly a learning curve for me as I explored the process with two steps forward and one step backwards, on a good day. The basics are relatively simple: water, a little sugar, a little salt and dried dates. Mix, shake and place in a warm place to let the magic happen. If all goes well, the wild yeast on the dried fruit will be activated and the yeast babies start munching away on the sugar in the water, thus creating fizzy bubbles (a.k.a. carbon dioxide) as a byproduct and voila, a leavening agent is born.

The development of the yeast water should have taken about ten days. Unfortunately, it took about a month for me as I killed the first round of yeast and had to start over again. In defense of myself, the directions for developing yeast water are difficult to pin down on the internet and I found myself mashing together information from multiple sites. The bulk of my information came from a leader in baking products, King Arthur Flour. The instruction that killed the yeast was "use tap water." As I faithfully waited for bubbles to form in my bottle of date water, it became clear that all I had created was a bottle of murky water with chunks of dates floating in it. Not a pretty sight or very effective.

In my second attempt I substituted bottled water for tap water and bingo, wild yeast action was born. I am assuming my tap water brought a dose of yeast killing chlorine to the party. Sorry, yeast babies. Ten days with my new mixture produced the coveted yeast water and the bread baking process could begin. If I thought making yeast water came with sketchy instructions, making the bread was like spelunking in a cave passage with a sketchy map and a finicky flashlight. King Arthur suggested using a sourdough recipe, substituting yeast water for the usual sourdough starter. After three rounds of that process, it was clear that I needed a lot more practice and perhaps a little bit of hand holding for any hope of complete success. It wasn't a complete crash and burn, however. The resulting bread was usually tasty with just a hint of fruitiness. My struggle was in the correct ratio of flour to yeast water and most of all, shaping a round loaf. Sourdough recipes involve linen towels, fancy baskets, parchment paper, pizza stones and bread slashing tools. My bread baking has always involved one tool, a loaf pan.

I will spare you the gory details but suffice it to say, towels were ruined, embedded parchment paper had to be dug out of dough blobs and a piece of my favorite stoneware needed to be scrubbed for an unspeakable length of time. Call me crazy but I am too stubborn to pour my precious yeast water down the drain. And thus, I persevere.

The good news is that I stumbled on a video about yeast water that was posted fairly recently (Mary's Nest). The perky little homemaker in the video has a personality that is part kindergarten teacher and part cheerleader, goading us all onward to a more "traditional kitchen". She provides step-by-step instructions for creating yeast water and most importantly, making bread from said water in a far more streamlined manner. The bad news is that the ratios didn't work out for me and I am back to the drawing board.

Thankfully, I have been able to salvage some of the bread along the way. We eat a little bit of it fresh and the rest goes in the freezer. The sturdy bread makes crispy, crunchy toast for breakfast and delicious french toast for any time. My yeast water lives on and lessons continue to be learned.