Out of my comfort zone

I am realising that blogging by it's nature of putting oneself on the interweb forces you to challenge your boundaries and try new things..... A blog would be a tad stale (bread pun intended!) if all it featured was the same regular loaf most weeks.... 

So following on from my brewing lesson I have attempted something never tried before by yours truly: making bread using spent brewing yeast. 

Returning home from my friends I carried in my bag a glass jar full of yeast dregs from the keg. 

I made starters using it: one with a whole meal flour and one with a white flour.

Left to right:

1. Original brewing yeast from keg
2. Starter made 10tbsp water, 5tbsp white flour, 2tsp brewing yeast
3. Starter made 15tbsp water, 10tbsp whole meal flour, 3tsp brewing yeast.

These then sat on the side overnight..... By morning the white flour mix had expanded so much it had made a dash for freedom. 

Good morning yeast! 

I then made a 500g dough using the white starter. I left it to prove for around 5 hrs.... It was showing signs of being active and so I tucked it up on itself until was a ball and then left it another hour or so. 

It was still a very weak (& quite wet) dough so it spread out a lot when I placed it on my baking stone. 

I sprinkled semolina all over it before slashing it so it came out looking quite traditional I think. It reminded me of sourdoughs I have had in Calabria in Italy. 

Overall it is only OK. The dough is a little dense, but the flavour is nice and the crust to die for. 

I dunked it in soft boiled eggs for lunch today: went down a storm with the kids. 

The natural next step for me is to get my own sourdough starter going.... Something that was on last years 'to do' list so I really should get it started this year!