Making sourdough with yeast water

[Major Nikon]

17. Another update

I tried a few different ways of using dried cherries. In all instances dough fermentation time to triple volume was quite long at around 20 hours. My last experiment was a much simpler method. 75g of dried cherries with 150g of purified water. No other ingredients were added and I did not stir or agitate the mixture for the total 4 day culture. The mixture was left in my homemade proofing oven and held to 80F. The method was pretty simple and other than the same 20 hour dough fermentation went pretty well. No mold growth was observed. Taste was similar with some nice cherry notes in the bread due to much more fruit used.

Now I'm doing some experimentation with raisins and the same 75/150g fruit to water ratio. The first try was a bust as I got mold growth 2 days into the culture. Lesson learned, you have to give it at least a daily stir when you use raisins as they are much more susceptible to mold.

2nd try with raisins is going much better. In the picture below the one on the right has been culturing for 3 days and the one on the left was started just today. I've been stirring once per day and I'm seeing a lot of yeast activity. I'll probably start a preferment tonight, then ferment, proof, and bake tomorrow.