Colonies of Microbes in My Fridge

[gracedpalmer]

Intentional ones! In Champaign, I'd gotten used to being able to buy my yeast in bulk at the natural food store. None of the ones around here seem to sell it, so I wound up with some packets from the grocery store, which are damnably expensive, at least comparatively. So I decided to experiment, and have been yanking a chunk of dough off the bread each time I bake. I just toss that in some liquid and let it warm up for a few hours before I bake again, and so far, it's been a success. It may be much less elegant than a sourdough, but it seems to be a viable colony. Plus, if I forget and use up all my dough, I won't feel as bad, since a very similar colony can be purchased at the supermarket.

Unfortunately, all I have in the house is pastry flour. That's because the white wheat (as opposed to red - the standard type) I bought turned out to be soft white wheat, not hard white wheat, as I'd hoped. Hard wheat makes bread flour. Soft wheat makes pastry flour. That means I can't make bread till I use it up. Why not buy some bread or all purpose flour, you ask? Well, I have a very small kitchen, and a limited number of storage jars. So, in the meantime, it's going to be muffins and such. Which, I have just discovered, can be made quite nicely with yeast (had to keep the colony going, after all!)