Bread making

[DutchOmainapeartree]

My dh makes all our bread.(No machine) He likes using fresh yeast and up till know we have been able to buy this quite sensibly. Now the supply is quite erratic and I'm wondering whether you could keep a starter in the fridge as you do with yoghurt. How would you go about it? At what stage do you take the starter and at what stage to you add it back in? We haven't found freezing yeast very successful

yes, i do. hang on will look for instructions.

sort of but not quite. i got my original from king arthur book. if you look on internet there's loads about creating a starter. i just use white flour, refresh/use it once a week and keep in fridge. you can freeze it if not using regularly but i haven't tried. mine has been going for about a year no probs. i make a sort of boule with half wholemeal half white (or it is just too dense) for everyday bread.

First of all, I'm surprised you haven't had much luck with freezing yeast, I freeze mine all the time in 1/2 oz cubes. In the days I only made bread occasionally, it kept very well for up to 1 year, now I make it all the time so it doesn't last that long! I use it straight from frozen, it works brilliantly.

Secondly, you can indeed keep starters, there is loads of information out there on starters. Try the internet, but also have a look in your local library, mine has some great books on breadmaking, including 'Bread' by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno - this is such a good book I borrowed it for months then bought it!

You can also make bread from 'old dough' - you literally keep back a walnut-sized bit of risen dough from one batch, keep it in the fridge and use it in the next batch, again keeping a bit of that dough back. There are some recipes that combine the two methods, old dough and starters.