Didja ever wonder what you’d do if you didn’t have access to Fleischman’s Dried Yeast?

I do.  It IS one of the questions which keeps me wondering.  So, being me, I researched it.  Turns out that before about 1880, most women made their own yeast!  Well…who’da known?  Then, of course, I had to try making my own.

I took:

• 1/2 cup gluten free flour (did you know they put flour into those yeast balls?  I didn’t…)
• a handful of raisins – think wine here people!  The yeast has to come from somewhere!
• the last tablespoonful of the container of Fleischman’s I had in the fridge, which, lately, hasn’t been rising my bread, by the way, hence my wondering…
• 2 heaping tablespoonful’s of sugar
• Enough water to make it all groovy and liquid – about a cup.

Tossed it all in a bowl, threw a towel on top of it and left it overnight.  We need to culture the yeast – to make it grow.  Doing so, that means we need to feed it; it wants flour, sugars and water and a warm environment.  Now, my kitchen, this time of year, isn’t the warmest room in the house.  So, the next day, I canned.  Yep, you got it, more beans.  (Really, who doesn’t need more beans?)

At the end of the day, I took a look at my bowl and was nicely surprised; I had foamy, yeasty goodness!   So I added more sugar..another two tablespoons full.

I let it sit for 48 hours longer total, until it had stopped foaming and was creating tiny little bubbles, and poured it out onto a baking sheet covered with Saran Wrap. 

Then, it dried for nearly a week.  (With only a couple of additional, helpful handprints from the baby.)

Once mostly dry, I peeled it off of the Saran Wrap and turned it over to completely dry.  When dry, it went into a bowl, by the expedient method of crumbling it as necessary to fit.  Then I took a meat tenderizer and pounded it into granuals.  The tenderizer is a wooden antique which looks like nothing so much as a kitchen club, but it fits nicely into my bowl.

At the end, I was left with 2/3’s of a quart jar of mealy looking yeast, which I’ve put into the fridge; yeast lives longer there.  I did use some of it to make bread, and it came out great!  This little thing is always asking for “Mommy Bread”!