No Commercial Yeast Starter (2024)

FAQs

How do you make a starter from commercial yeast? ›

Mix the yeast with a cup of bread flour and a cup of water. Then let it sit out overnight until things get bubbly and start smelling fruity. That's it—you've got starter. Proceed to feed it and bake with it as you would with any other sourdough starter.

Throw out your starter and start over if it shows visible signs of mold, or an orange or pink tint/streak.

Baker's yeast turns the sugar into alcohol (a very low volume which evaporates away as the dough is baked) and into carbonated gas. Sourdough starters turn the sugar into carbonated gas and lactic (and acetic) acid, which give this bread its sour flavor.

You can substitute yeast with equal parts lemon juice and baking soda. So if a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of yeast, you can use half a teaspoon of lemon juice and half a teaspoon of baking soda. Keep in mind that the bread will not need the typical proofing time and the dough will begin rising right away.

The baker's yeast is commercially produced on a nutrient source which is rich in sugar (usually molasses: by product of the sugar refining). The fermentation is conducted in large tanks. Once the yeast fills the tank, it is harvested by centrifugation, giving an off-white liquid known as cream yeast.

Prior to the introduction of these “commercial” yeasts, the primary yeast source for bakers and housewives was the yeasty foam or dreg waste collected from completed beer fermentations, and were sold directly by breweries (Frey, 1930).

As a general rule, 100g of sourdough starter can be used to replace one packet of yeast (a packet usually contains 5-7g of commercial yeast).

Let your starter rest at warm room temperature for 12 hours

Your starter will wake up more quickly than it might have.

Why won't my yeast starter start fermentation? ›

In most cases, too low a temperature is the cause of a stuck fermentation, and bringing the temp up is enough to get it going again. Open up the fermenter, and rouse the yeast by stirring it with a sanitized spoon. Sometimes putting the yeast back in suspension will get it going again.

There's absolutely nothing stopping you (and certainly no sourdough shaming). However, if you do add some commercial yeast to your starter, it will then have that strain of yeast as part of it's established colony which would mean that it won't be a "true sourdough starter".

The wild yeasts bakers talk about are 'wild' because they are in the air of the bakery and present on the grain. Commercial yeast, by contrast, is a single strain of yeast which was isolated because it proved to be a particularly excellent rising agent.

Some bakeries do still keep a real sourdough starter on hand, however, you may find that the price you pay for their bread is much more at a bakery, and still quite a bit at a grocery store.

Making a starter at home today is relatively easy when using active dry yeast. Plan to prepare your starter a few days before you wish to bake so that it has ample time to develop.

You can also use instant yeast (also known as rapid rise yeast). Use this starter to make any of the traditional sourdough recipes in the Recipe Box. If you notice any hooch in your starter before you hit Day 6, you need to feed your starter sooner rather than later.

Mass-produced sourdough, or 'sourfaux', is often made using the Chorleywood bread process invented in 1961. Amongst other shortcuts, this process uses water with carbon dioxide to create bubbles in the crumb that would normally be produced during the proofing stage of sourdough.