Sorta Wild Yeast Bread

Well, it's finally done! My starter lived for 5 days and managed to make a batch of real(ish) wild bread. So how did it turn out? And why is that ish on the end of real?

So the bread came out very tasty. But to be honest, you would have a hard time finding a bread that I did not enjoy (for the record, I'm still looking for it). But back to this loaf. It had a slight tang, good crust, some nice bubbles inside and most of all, it had a week of my time! It also had.....commercial yeast. What??!!?! Why in the world would I go on and on about making my own yeast just to add commercial yeast in? Simply put, this was my first time using wild yeast and I wanted to try a "safer" recipe before I fully got my wild bread on. This bread would not have been the same without my wild yeast, so having my young batch of starter gave it some height and that sourdough tang, but the bit of commercial yeast cut down on the time. Because the one thing I learned about fully wild yeast bread is that it is time consuming! Most recipes average 20-22 hours of rise time and that is with ideal conditions!

So why even bother with the wild yeast? Well, as I mentioned, I got a unique flavor to the bread that no commercial yeast could ever give me. Next, I've now done the ground work for wild yeast and have my fed starter chilling in the refrigerator until I feel the call of wild bread again. Lastly, I've given myself a little confidence boost that I can not only grown my own yeast, but can successfully cook with it which means that I am darn sure going to set aside 2 days and make fully wild yeast bread soon! For me, it is so gratifying to know that I don't have to rely on instant products to turn out a quality product and I am perfectly happy to take steps in that direction and not jump in all the way. Too much too soon leads to burnout (ask me how I know this ;)

So my wild yeast experiment was a success, my bread was a success and I have wild yeast set up so that all I need to do when the call of the tang hits is to take it out of the refrigerator, bring it to room temperature and give it some food. Below you will find the recipe I followed, which was adapted from a recipe on the King Arthur Flour website (great stop if you need some bread specific info!)

Sorta Wild Yeast Bread

Prep Time: 20 min (plus 1 week for starter) | Total Time: 4 hours | Makes: 2 loaves

Ingredients

• 1 cup sourdough starter
• 1 1/2 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 2 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 cups all purpose flour

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, mix well and then knead for 2-3 minutes or until a loose dough forms
2. Cover and allow to rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size
3. Punch the dough it the center to deflate and divide dough in half. Shape into 2 loaves or rounds (your preference here!) and place on a parchment lined baking sheet, cover, and allow to rise again for 1 hour
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
5. Gently sprinkle water on the risen loaves and using a bread knife or sharp blade, slash lines diagonally across the bread (about 3 per loaf)
6. Bake in the oven for 25-30 min or until deep golden in color. Cool on a wire rack and serve