Notes from Bishop's Breadmaking Class

WHY USE A YEAST STARTER?

Wheat has several components in it, including phytic acid and phitase--chemicals that are not digestible by humans.  In order to make wheat more consumable, it needs to go through the correct process of soaking and reaching the correct pH balance.  A wet yeast starter helps make wheat more consumable by treating it properly.  Rapid rise yeast makes bread rise faster and helps reduce bakery workloads but it overlooks the fact that the wheat is not given enough time to chemically change the phytic acid and phitase properly.

So if you have a hard time digesting wheat, it is probably the phytic acid and phitase that is making you sick.  Using a yeast starter and allowing the bread to rise for a long time will help you digest the wheat better.

HOW TO USE YOUR YEAST STARTER

The yeast starter that Bishop Sheneman uses (and distributed at the activity) was created from batches that stretch back to the original starter made in 1858 in the Midwest, maybe Chicago; it came across the plains!  The bishop named his starter “Harry” because you have to treat it like a pet and make sure to feed it every 4 days to keep it alive.  It needs to be “fed” every 2-4 days.  It will grow and double in size and then when it starts to go down and a little bit of water collects on the top, it is time to feed it.  If it still doesn’t look like it needs to be fed at day 4, go ahead and feed it.  Four days is the maximum for keeping it alive and healthy.  (Keep it cold in the fridge or you’ll have to feed it every 4 hours instead of every 4 days!)  You can go up to 9 days if you put the jar in the coldest spot in your fridge and accidentally forget about it, but you’ll have to pour off the hootch (alcoholish-liquid on the top) and feed it, and nurse it back to health when you get back.

The way you feed your starter is to estimate the amount of starter you have and feed it equal parts water and flour.  If there’s a ½ cup of starter in your jar, you’ll feed it ½ cup of flour and ½ cup of water.  If it’s a cup, then feed it a cup of flour and a cup of water.  Stir and put it back in the fridge. 

Try to keep at least 1 cup of starter in reserve in your jar.

You can use the yeast starter for any recipe you like.  ½ cup starter = 1 pkg yeast.


You usually make yeast out of hungry starter, but it can be done both ways.  The bishop said to give it a full day after feeding to make bread.  Sometimes if you wait too long between feedings and bake bread from really hungry starter, the bread will end up a bit tangy, maybe on the sourdough side.  

Remember to keep 1 cup in reserve.

 SPECIAL REMINDERS

If you put the canning lid on correctly, it will make a yeast bomb.  So be sure to turn the seal upside-down and then screw on the ring.

The recipes came from the book “The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast” by Caleb Warnock & Melissa Richardson.  Caleb’s blog is calebwarnock.blogspot.com.

Stay away from bleached flour.  Get a good flour like King Arthur at Smith’s or Prairie Gold 100% Whole Wheat, or the hard white wheat flour from Lehi Roller Mills (at Costco).

Don’t use margarine or vegetable oil—they are so bad for you!  Acceptable fats to use in cooking are olive oil, coconut oil, butter or lard.

For the Honey: Use local honey that you can purchase at farmer’s markets.  It is better for you and also helps combat hay fever.  You could also use Grade B real maple syrup instead of honey.  You can use other sweeteners (like molasses or white sugar), but honey is the best. 

WAFFLE RECIPE

1 cup starter

2 eggs

1 Tbsp oil (or melted butter, coconut oil or lard)

¼ tsp salt

Pour into waffle iron.  Cook hotter and longer than usual.

NATURAL YEAST PANCAKE RECIPE

1 egg

¼ cup milk

3 Tbsp oil (or melted butter, coconut oil or lard)

¼ tsp salt

1 cup starter

Cook at a lower temperature than normal pancakes to cook evenly.

BREAD RECIPE

½ cup starter (make sure you stir the starter before measuring out the ½ cup!)

2 ½ cups lukewarm (room temperature) water

2 teaspoons salt

1 Tablespoon fat (olive oil, coconut oil, or butter)

¼ cup honey

5-7 cups flour

Note that this recipe needs to rise for a long time, so plan ahead.  It’s good to make it at night, let it rise overnight, and bake it in the morning.

Mix all but the flour together in a large bowl.  Add 2 cups flour at a time and stir with a plastic/rubber spoon.  When you can no longer stir it with the spoon it’s time to hand knead it.  Pour out some flour on a flat surface and dump the bowl into it.  Gather up the lumps of bread and work them into the flour by continuing to flatten them and fold them – adding more flour until it mostly doesn’t stick to your hands. 

Knead the bread for 9 minutes until it is thick and elastic.  If you take a small piece and stretch it until it is thin enough to see light through (called windowpane-ing) – then it’s ready.  (If you have a bread mixer, you can knead it 9 minutes in the mixer, adding flour until it stays in one lump and doesn’t stick to the sides).

Put the bread in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise overnight.  You want to let it rise a minimum of 6 hours to 14 hours.  This is the process that allows the wheat to soak, allowing the phytic acid and phitase to be eaten away or soaked into submission.  So – the 6-14 hours is the key to making the bread easier for your body to process!

After the bread has been left alone for 6-14 hours, then punch down the bread and divide it in 2.  Knead, fold, turn in for a minute to make it in a loaf shape.  Put in two greased bread pans.  Make a slit down the center of each loaf, about an inch or more deep.

Allow the bread to rise again in the loaf pans for 1 – 1 ½ hours.  Bake at 375 for 25 minutes—time is approximate.  What you really want is for the internal temperature of the bread to be 170 degrees.  So after 20-25 minutes, when it looks done and has baked long enough to not squash when you poke it, take the temperature with a baking thermometer. If it isn’t quite to 170 degrees, allow it to cook longer.  It takes about 3 minutes of cooking for it to rise another 10 degrees.  When the temperature is right, it’s time to cool a little and then enjoy!

This bread is better for you if you are diabetic, too.  A normal slice of white bread will spike your blood sugar 25 points, whereas 2 slices bread from this recipe will only spike it 6 points.

This Week's Challenge

Relief Society Challenge: Read your scriptures every single day this week. 

 Spencer W. Kimball wrote: “I stress again the deep need each woman has to study the scriptures. We want our homes to be blessed with sister scriptorians—whether you are single or married, young or old, widowed or living in a family. Regardless of your particular circumstances, as you become more and more familiar with the truths of the scriptures, you will be more and more effective in keeping the second great commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself.  Become scholars of the scriptures—not to put others down, but to lift them up! After all, who has any greater need to ‘treasure up’ the truths of the gospel (on which they may call in their moments of need) than do women and mothers who do so much nurturing and teaching?... No greater recognition can come to you in this world than to be known as a woman of God.”