Mother knows best: how to start a bread mother for better bread
A bread mother is a leavening mixture of bread flour, water and wild yeast and, in my opinion, it's the basis of really good bread.
Airborne yeasts bring your bread mothers to life; and then they perpetually bubble. I started two mothers more than 10 years ago -- one with white flour and spring water (for white bread) and the other using whole rye flour. You can use just one at a time for either a white or a rye bread, or mix them together for a mixed grain bread.
How to use bread mothers
Bread mothers have a complex and mildly sour taste (the rye is substantially more sour and robust). I use them as the bases for all my bread starters (levain) for naturally risen bread (pain au levain).I also use the white mother as a flavour enhancer for simple yeast-risen breads and rolls. A little adds a lot of depth. You can simply stir in 1/4 to 1/3 cup/60 to 75 mL mother into a single bread dough. If you only make one mother, you can start it for the first two days with a half-half mixture of white and rye flours. Then continue it with white flour only, adding a sprinkling of rye flour every month or so.
Starting your bread mother
You can try to make a mother with ambient air-borne yeasts alone, but it is easier and more reliable to give the mother a head-start with either the addition of just a few grains of store-bought yeast or by adding raisins or currants, which are likely to have yeast on their surfaces.
Some bread-makers let the bread rise in a porous wooden bowl without any added yeast. Others keep a wooden cooking spoon in the mother at the beginning, because it's likely to have yeast spores on it.
My 10-year-old bread mothers
My mothers have thrived for a decade and I started them without anything but flour and water, so take your pick. All methods work well and achieve similar results. The added yogurt in the recipe on the next page offers a head-start on lactic acid production to help give the mother a nice flavour; it, too, is optional.
How to tell if your bread mother has gone bad
If, at any time, your mother develops a bad, un-fresh smell, it stops bubbling at all or it turns a dark colour, discard it and start over again -- these are signs that the yeast is dying out.
Click to continue for instructions on how to start your own bread mother...
Page 1 of 2
Airborne yeasts bring your bread mothers to life; and then they perpetually bubble. I started two mothers more than 10 years ago -- one with white flour and spring water (for white bread) and the other using whole rye flour. You can use just one at a time for either a white or a rye bread, or mix them together for a mixed grain bread.
How to use bread mothers
Bread mothers have a complex and mildly sour taste (the rye is substantially more sour and robust). I use them as the bases for all my bread starters (levain) for naturally risen bread (pain au levain).I also use the white mother as a flavour enhancer for simple yeast-risen breads and rolls. A little adds a lot of depth. You can simply stir in 1/4 to 1/3 cup/60 to 75 mL mother into a single bread dough. If you only make one mother, you can start it for the first two days with a half-half mixture of white and rye flours. Then continue it with white flour only, adding a sprinkling of rye flour every month or so.
Starting your bread mother
You can try to make a mother with ambient air-borne yeasts alone, but it is easier and more reliable to give the mother a head-start with either the addition of just a few grains of store-bought yeast or by adding raisins or currants, which are likely to have yeast on their surfaces.
Some bread-makers let the bread rise in a porous wooden bowl without any added yeast. Others keep a wooden cooking spoon in the mother at the beginning, because it's likely to have yeast spores on it.
My 10-year-old bread mothers
My mothers have thrived for a decade and I started them without anything but flour and water, so take your pick. All methods work well and achieve similar results. The added yogurt in the recipe on the next page offers a head-start on lactic acid production to help give the mother a nice flavour; it, too, is optional.
How to tell if your bread mother has gone bad
If, at any time, your mother develops a bad, un-fresh smell, it stops bubbling at all or it turns a dark colour, discard it and start over again -- these are signs that the yeast is dying out.
Click to continue for instructions on how to start your own bread mother...
Page 1 of 2
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