How to make baking yeast at home

How to make baking yeast at home? The process is very easy, interesting, and exciting! Your homemade yeast won’t delude you

Making homemade baking yeast is extremely easy!

Some people grow flowers, other people grow green onions, and I have yeast growing in my fridge. I am not talking about the sourdough (later on I will also write about two of its types, which I adore and use at least once a week). In the meantime, I will tell you about my process of cultivation, or rather multiplying a colony of classic fresh baker’s or baking yeast.

Why grow homemade baking yeast, if you can buy a ready-made one in the store?

Well, it’s not so easy to find a really good quality product, and it’s also very convenient to always have your own yeast on hand: if you need 25g (1oz) yeast for buns, just open the jar, take the required amount of yeast, and the rest will wait until the next bake.

I am neither a chemist nor a biologist, and in general, I know nothing about the intricacies of microorganisms and their life cycle, so in my experiments, I trusted the experience of people who understand this more than I do, I read various literature, watched a lot of videos and finally chose Chef Barbato’s method. Thanks to him, I learned how to make yeast at home, which is as flavorful (and maybe even more) and as active as the one everyone is used to buy ready-made in the store. You know, though, I find homemade yeast for baking much better than the store-bought one.

Be patient with homemade yeast 

Perhaps, on the second day after its preparation, your yeast will not be perfectly active and the dough won’t rise at the speed of a Japanese train, but starting from the third day you can safely proceed with baking.

With 25g (1oz) of fresh baker’s yeast or 10g (1Tbsp) of active dry yeast, you’ll get 100g of homemade baker’s yeast, which can then be multiplied again. It’s a kind of zero waste production. And it is also a surprisingly simple, interesting and exciting process. Mind that it’s very important to use a good quality yeast for the first preparation, it shouldn’t contain various additives (you can often find them in active dry yeast), because then, unfortunately, nothing will work.

Ingredients for homemade baking yeast:

• Fresh baker’s yeast or active dry yeast. Remember that it is very important that the dry yeast mustn’t contain any stabilizers or something like that, only dry baker’s yeast and nothing else should be in the list of ingredients.
• Boiled water at room temperature. It’s better to use plain filtered water rather than a mineral one – the various minerals and salts it contains slow down the formation of the yeast colony, or can even kill it
• Flour. The lower the protein content in the flour, the faster yeast forms, I use Italian type 00 flour.

How to make baking yeast

Dissolve yeast in water at room temperature (to dissolve dry yeast, just leave it in water for 5-10 minutes, then stir well)

Add flour (there is no need to sift it).

Knead the “dough” and roll it into a ball (you will not get an elastic consistency, and there is no such a need, the main thing is that the ingredients are more or less “connected” with each other). It is very important to knead with clean hands!

Put the yeast ball in an airtight container (a baby food jar was perfect for me). The jar or container should also be clean and wiped dry. Close with a lid to keep the air out and put it in the fridge.

After 24 hours, take the ball out of the fridge, crumple it (with clean hands), you will notice that the ball has changed its structure and has almost completely turned into regular baker’s yeast, the smell will also be characteristic of beer yeast. Put the ball back into the same container, close it tightly and leave it in the fridge for another 24 hours.

Here you are Congratulations! You have grown a live, flavorful yeast colony yourself! If your homemade yeast has a mold of black, gray, white, or any other color, it cannot be used, this means that the container was not clean enough and “bad” bacteria got into it.

How to use homemade baking yeast

It’s best to use homemade baking yeast from the third to the sixth day from its preparation. Then it’s the most active.

How to store homemade yeast

You can store it for up to 7 days in the fridge

Can I freeze fresh yeast?

Yes. You can store it up to 3 months in the freezer (divide the yeast into portions you need – I divide it by 25g (10z) and freeze. Then defrost it in the fridge and use as a fresh one).

Next time, take 25g (1oz) of the yeast you prepared, it will serve you as a starter to prepare a new homemade brewer’s yeast (adding 25g (1Tbsp + 2tsp) of water and 60g (1/4cup + 2Tbsp) of flour again). Enjoy baking!

The dough prepared with homemade yeast may be slower to rise than the one where a store-bought yeast was used. Here much depends on the quality of the “starter” that was used for its preparation. I usually knead the dough in the morning and give it the time it needs to rise, sometimes it takes 2 hours, but sometimes 3-4 hours are needed. The most important thing is that as a result you will have delicious fluffy buns and bread.

Do you like yeast pastry dough? Then be sure to try our Yeasted banana bread and Pampushky. They won’t disappoint you.