My Discovery of Natural Yeast

I wrote this post back in March of 2013 and published it on my personal blog. Because of continued interest in Natural Yeast by myself and others I have decided to start a new blog solely dedicated to natural yeast and the things I am learning about it. I also want to share my adventures with baking bread using natural yeast. I am in no way a chef or professional baker. I am just someone who is curious...

I have been gluten intolerant for over ten years. In the past two years I have discovered that three of my five children are also gluten intolerant. The cost of gluten free breads, snacks, desserts, etc is budget busting and in an effort to cut costs I decided to try making my own gluten free bread. This decision, back in January, changed my life.

I made a beautiful loaf of gluten free bread using rice flour and other ingredients that our family uses on a regular basis. The only addition was Active Dry Yeast that I purchased at the local market. I was surprised when the bread made my stomach hurt and had a small suspicion that maybe it was from the yeast. Not very many days later I came across a comment on someone's Facebook post that led me to a blog post by Caleb Warnock about Natural Yeast. I wondered what it was and read his post. (I strongly suggest you read the article). Anyway, I was mystified and slightly inspired. I thought over his ideas for a few weeks and decided to take the plunge and order the book The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast (on Amazon for $12, also found at Costco and Deseret Book).

I knew nothing about wheat. I don't buy it. I don't store it. Why store something you will never be able to eat. In fact I'm actually rather self conscious about my wheat allergy. In D & C 89: 14-17 it says, "All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, ... Nevertheless, wheat for man, etc." Those particular lines bothered me, especially when I had to teach on the subject because I couldn't eat wheat, or barley, or rye, or many other kinds of wholesome grains. So, wheat is ordained by God for the use of man but not me? It was frustrating. And as much as I tried to ignore how I felt, it always bothered me, even more than not actually eating wheat products. Mostly because I knew most wheat products we purchase at the store are crap anyway with little to no nutritional value.

After I read the book and Caleb's blog post I knew I needed to conduct an experiment with myself as the guinea pig. I sent a self addressed stamped envelop to Caleb and received my microscopic sample of yeast. The next few weeks were frustrating and discouraging as I tried to get my yeast to grow. I fed it and watched bubbles rise but couldn't get it to double. I knew it wasn't dead since it was producing bubbles but it didn't seem happy either. In the mean time, instead of throwing away large batches of yeast while I was nurturing it we decided to cook simple things.

We started with pancakes. My son Dallin made the first batch and I only allowed the two allergy free kids to try them. But I had One. It tasted ok but mostly I was waiting for tell tale signs of my food allergy. Only two weeks before this I had given in to temptation and ate two ravioli at Carrabas and ended up gassy, bloated, and then constipated for days. I waited and waited and the pancake did Nothing to me.

So then I experimented with making a loaf of bread. It was a brick (since my yeast still wasn't rising) but tasted good and again, no symptoms. Then I went out on a limb and made crepes from a recipe in the book. I ate three huge whole wheat crepes and fed my whole family. I didn't have any symptoms and neither did anyone else as far as I could tell.

Now I was excited! I can't even tell you how excited I was. So I started doing research, tons and tons of research and then I started praying. I really wanted my yeast to grow so I could make wholesome, inexpensive, bread for my family. The very next day I got a message from a good friend who said her mom was coming down that night to teach her how to make bread with Natural Yeast and she thought I might be interested. I knew God had answered my prayers. I went and discovered the mistakes I was making with my yeast (using tap water), learned how to best make the bread (use all your yeast in the jar), and saw examples of something I had just read about online (how to make yeast from raisin water). I left that night with an incredible sense of hope. And enough dough for one loaf that turned out like this,

I started my raisin water the very next day. The following Monday I poured my first cup of raisin water into a jar and fed it. I refed it on Tuesday and Wednesday morning I woke to a full, bubbling jar of yeast. I made my first light, absolutely delicious loaf of bread and fell in love!

In the meantime I had been maintaining my original yeast from Caleb with bottled water, a little rye flour and hope. I was considering throwing the whole thing out when low and behold Thursday morning I woke up to find a full jar of yeast on my counter. I guess it just needed a little more time (and bottled water).

I have now been eating whole wheat bread for several weeks. I feel great. I feel like I have more energy and like a weight has been lifted from me. I still have things to learn and understand but I'm discovering new things every day and hope to keep sharing what I discover with you.

If I can make delightful little whole wheat dinner rolls like this, so can you!