brendies bread success

Bread making using natural yeasts.

Im not a bread expert. These are pieces of information I have gathered while researching for my own pleasure.  My interest is mostly from a “do it yourself” perspective.  To be self reliant, I would grow my grain, mill my flour and grow my yeasts………..so for now im growing the yeast.

History.

Bread has a long history, as long as civilization probably.  What we think of as yeast has a short history.  The dutch and the german had isolated the yeasts and grown them commercially for bread making in the 1700s.  In America in the 1870s commercially produced yeasts were introduced, making breadmaking a much quicker process.

Quick, is not really something I aspire to, slow food real food making it from scratch doing it yourself, that’s what I aspire to.

In NZ weve had a traditional bread “rewana” or maori bread, made from a potato “bug”  fermentation of the potato and water bring to life the wild yeasts. Isnt that a sexy thought, bread with life in it. Living food, gotta be good for you do you think.

Ive been growing my “sourdough” yeast for nearly 3 weeks now without much success.  Then just 3 days ago I decided to have a go at a traditional NZ rewana.

I can remember eating it as a child, having a slice or 2 after school at my friends place, her mother kept the recipe a closely guarded secret.  I wish my recipe was a family secret, or at least a bug that had been feed and passed down through generations, but its not.  

I researched the internet, came across a few different variations and then made up my own as I went on,  which in a way is very cool and sexy too don’t you think.

Here is what I did.

I peeled and boiled one potato (cut up smaller) in a cup of water.  When soft enough to mash, I did with the water still in it.  I put this in a little Tupperware container and left it on the window sill.

 The next night while cooking potatoes for dinner, I saved some of the water.  I used a couple of tablespoons of the potato water and a equal amount of flour to “feed” my bug. Put it back on the window sill, in the morning I could see some bubbles and the bug had a nice beer smell, yippee ive harvested wild yeast, yeah sexy baby!!

Not wanting it to starve, I now just feed it some sugar, just a tablespoon, mixed in.  by lunch time it was a very happy bug, so I gave it a sprinkle of flour and a dash of the potato water.  In the evening I feed it another mashed up watery potato.

The following morning, its quite spongey looking and I feed it again with a bit of flour and water (equal portions)

That night I took 4 cups of flour with a teaspoonful baking powder and a good tablespoon of sugar mixed in, about ¼ cup oil (I just poured a bit unmeasured) about 1 cup full of the potato bug and 1 ½ cups of warm water.  Mixed it all to a lovely spongey dough. Put it in a bread loaf tin (oiled) and sat it in the hotwater cupboard.  This morning it had risen and I put it in the oven at 170 for 45 minutes.  I shall take some to my “old Maori guy/elder”

“kaumatua”

 before it went in the hot water cupboard ( i covered it with oiled cling wrap, shouldnt have done that as it held it down and it fell over the edges

It has a sourdough flavour to it.  I remember the rewana I had as a child being quite sweet, and probably had a higher content of sugar in it, but in light of the high incidences of diabetes in our society it wouldn’t hurt to reduce the sugar and make it healthier for our families “whanau”.

Next, ive feed the bug again to keep it alive for the next loaf.....you want doughnuts dont you, yeah i know.