How to make raisin yeast water

There are many ways to make raisin yeast water. I have tried many of these methods to figure out which one is the best.

I also tried so many kinds of yeast water and ended up making sandwich loaves with raisin yeast because it doesn’t have any typical (unpleasant) flavors.

Generally, it takes a week to be able to make bread, but with this method it takes only five days if you can get the right temperature to ferment your raisin yeast water.

This raisin yeast water is very healthy and makes good bread as well.

Ingredients:

1. 45 g raisins(* I use organic Thompson raisins. they are NOT coated with oil, I recommend to use organic one.) The oil will disturb the yeast to elaborate.
2. Purified water or Spring water. NO using tap water. (Chlorine will kill the yeast.)
3. A jar (I use emptied jelly jars all the time.)

 

Method :

Day1:

 1) Sterilize your jar: Put the jar in the boiling water for a few minutes and take it out. Leave it until they are dry.

 

2) Add the all raisins and the water as to 1:1 ratio like the picture below.

No chlorine water! It kills yeast!

3)    Shake the jar vigorously  * Tighten the lid

 Before shaking

After shaking vigorously

  Close up

4) Keep the jar at 82 F / 28℃.　* Tighten the lid

The right one with lid is correct. The left jar is the other method that I tried to compare with my original one. I will explain to you why the no lid method is not good at the end of this process.

5) 4-5 hours later :  * Keep the jar at 82 F / 28℃. Tighten the lid

  Before shaking

After shaking vigorously * The raisins are soaked with the water. Now it is the time to add more water.

6) Add some purified or spring water until double the raisins. 

 After shaking vigorously,

* Keep the jar at 82 F / 28℃. Tighten the lid 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 2 :

7)  Shake the jar vigorously as many times as you can. * Keep the jar at 82 F / 28℃. Tighten the lid

—-   I shook the jar vigorously around 6:30 am ～  8:20 pm – thirteen times. * Tighten the lid

*All the raisins stayed on top of the water.

    

 6:20 am

  Before shaking

 

 After shaking vigorously   * Tighten the lid

 

 

 

 

8) At night close the lid not too tight and not too loose. 

 

* I think that the yeast needs to get some oxygen to breath to activate for over night, therefore, No more close the lid tightly because the raisins stayed up to the top of the water for a half day.

Day 3:

9) In the morning, Shake the jar vigorously.     ＊Close the lid not too tight  and not too loose

 Before shaking

close up

 After shaking vigorously

Close up

10) Refrigerate the jar after you hear some fizzing sound.

  *Close the lid tightly after shaking vigorously. If you don’t hear the sound, keep the jar at room temperature at 82 F to do (9) process again.

Day 4:

11) In the morning: *Close the lid tightly after shaking vigorously and put it back in the refrigerator .

 Before shaking

Close up

 After shaking vigorously

Close up

Day 5:

12) In the morning : Shake the jar vigorously.   Tighten the lid and put it back in the refrigerator.

   Before shaking

* I smelled a bit strong alcohol which means fully fermented, but she needs more rest before baking bread.

  After shaking vigorously

* The smell of alcohol has weakened after shaking.

13) At night (Approximately 12 hours later)–  IT IS READY TO BAKE!

To make *levain for my sandwich loaf with raisin yeast water.

*Levain is a mixture of water and flour that has been converted into a leavening agent through the process of fermentation. This method gives  a lot of benefits: The taste and rich volume to the bread.

Levain

• King Arthur all purpose flour   149g
• Raisin yeast water                      107g

—————-The day before———–

1. Pour 107 g raisin yeast water into the container.

The taste:  Sweet and little bit of alcohol.

The result of the PH level test

Between PH 5.5 and 5.75.

Added 149 g KA AP  and made the levain.

Viscosity: Hard. I had to knead the dough by hand.

* “Hard ” means that there is a lot of sugar in the dough.

——————————————————————————

Day 6: Next day— Final dough

•  King Arthur bread flour                       301g
• 1 egg yolk + Whipping heavy cream=58g
•  Water                                                            144g
• Sugar                                                                 13g
• Butter                                                                29g
• Salt                                                                    6.8g

Method

1.  Mix all the final ingredients and the levain except the butter and salt.
2.  *Autolyze 30minutes.   ( * The dough gets rest. Auto-rise.)
3.  Add the salt and butter and knead the dough until you pass a window pane test.
4.  Bulk fermentation at the room temperature until triples.
5.  Preshape
6.  Shape
7.  Bake  35 minutes at 410F until golden brown.    *Cold oven method:  Spray a couple of time  in the oven and put the loaf in.  Set up 284F for 20 minutes. increase the temperature to 410F for 10 minutes, rotate 180 degree the loaf pan and bake 10 more minutes until golden brown.

The levain rose tripled ( 9 hours later)

Bulk fermentation: The final dough rose almost tripled in 5 hours at 72-73F.

Final proof: The dough rose over the top of the tin in 2 hours at 82F.

Baked for 35 minutes at 410 F.

 I couldn’t use the ” cold oven method” because I was using the oven an hour ago before

When I ferment the final dough at colder temp, I can see the cracks.

          

It tastes good and the crumb is soft and very goo volume with fruity aroma, which came from the raisins, the scent was very limited and very pleasant.

————————————————————-

  Comparison:

5/26 7 :00 am–

   From left: No lid / Vigorous shakes/ my old one (generous shakes)

10:30 am–

  From left: No lid/ Vigorous shakes/ my old one(generous shakes)

5/27 5:50 am

  From left: No lid/ Vigorous shakes/ my old one (I just refreshed)

Comparison of the crumb:

   12 g sugar not 13g  used in the final dough.

Vigorous shakes

  No lid

* I don’t like the No lid bread because I smelled strong yeast (brewer or yeasty smell)when I put it in my mouth.

    

The No lid raisin yeast water itself  has no strong yeast smell neither taste which gave me a big surprise.

Our taste gives us more details than this PH test in my opinion.

 

For reference,  I want to mention about yeast water and other natural yeasts that I learned from books, online, and my experiments.

Good luck on your raisin yeast water!

Happy baking!