Hi, My experiment with water kefir baking GF bread was done yesterday. The result: successful only in the sense of baking a cake, not a bread; also very satisfactory in the tasting as wonderful flavor (due to the water kefir?) cast in the loaf and crumb texture silky and moist; failed in rising and airy structure though. I had used many ingredients for this “cake” including 5 GF flours plus other special dietary substitutes (coconut cream for milk, flax seed for egg, psyllium husk for gruten, and water kefir for yeast and baking soda). Will continue to refine/revise the recipe for any further improvement. Also appreciate your suggestion and advice. The pictures of my GF “cake”:
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Hi, Pictures are not showing in my post. I wonder how can I upload picture files to my post? Any help?
see if this helps:
New to bread making but been brewing awhile. Pulling yeast off fruit is something Brewers do all the time to make sour beer. I’m on a quest to use some of my Brewers techniques in beer.
I have started using starter, fermented raspberry water, and spring water to make my sourdough every weekend. Some friends claim they taste the sweet raspberry hint, but I can not. My pallet is not that sophisticated unfortunately. The sourdough is tasty and amazing.
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I’m resurrecting my yeast water baking, inspired by @anon44372566 suggesting I try making Jeffrey Hamelman’s Swiss Farmhouse Bread. Also resurrecting this thread of instructions and info in case people want to read about it.
Here’s day 1 (after taking the photo, it’s going to a darker part of my kitchen)
It’s supposed to be 70g raisins and 180g water, but I used a combo of apricots and (ancient) prunes. The key being that they’re not treated with sulfur dioxide, which would kill any yeast on the skins of the fruit.
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I once tried to make Yeast Water with dried apricots not realising they had been treated with sulfur dioxide. Well all I can say is that you can see how effective these preservatives are. Absolutely no life detected (makes one wonder how healthy it is). Left it in a warm place for over a week and… nothing! So started again with organic dried apricots and within 24 hours one could see the beginnings of fermentation and within 5 days it was ready. So thank you Melissa for pointing that out. Very important information.
I love this bread, hope it goes well and that many people join in. Its fun to make with delicious results.
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Almost ready. Fruit has expanded a lot. Once you have that fizz when you hold it up to your ear its good to go. Are you gonna stick to the recipe or give it your own twist? With the first build you often see a modest rise. Can be a bit under whelming but you’re looking for expansion and doming in that 6 hours. The second build is often the more vigorous and the dough will rise a lot. But it all depends on your yeast water. YW doughs need more warmth than sourdoughs I think.
I’m going to stick with the recipe in terms of all the builds but I still don’t have raisins, so I’ll use the same weight of chopped dried apricots. Also I’m doing what @titanpilot2004 taught me and retaining some of the liquid, and adding fresh water and fruit – for another batch in the future.
Here are photos of the even bubblier yeast water this morning (day 5) and of the first build and re-fed water (apple pieces).
Build One after 12 hours
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I’ve kept mine in the fridge. Didn’t use it up and while the fruit is floating its fine to refrigerate. If I use up a lot of liquid I would refill and replace some of the fruit, wait till fizzy then into the fridge it goes. If its been a long while I’ll replace all the fruit, most of the water and wait till activated before refrigerating. Takes very quick to mature when using a little if the yeast water as starter.
I think cutting up dried apricots is a nice touch to the recipe. Nice substitution. Can’t wait to see results and for the taste report.
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Build Two (12 hours between photos) It could have gone longer but I needed to get it going
Prep Dried apricots are hard to chop! I toasted the walnuts.
Mixed
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Builds went well! Yeast Water looks like a success. So far so good.
Nice idea to toast the walnuts. Something for me to try next time.
Day 8 Swiss Farmhouse Bread
Divided – very nutty and fruity 
Does this look right or did I measure my additions wrong?
Planning two different bakes
Yeast water and dough are both going into the refrigerator. The water is thriving. The dough needs to rise more… tomorrow
I baked the loaf pan bread – too soon. I kneaded and reshaped this and plan to let it rise all day.
I am very much enjoying eating my mini slices of the pan loaf!
Here is the second loaf that fermented much longer and baked freestanding at a higher temp. It smells amazing.
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My goodness those doughs are choc full of additions 
Must say in my experience the first build usually goes OK. The second build is really active and surprises me and the final dough is relatively quick with good oven spring when baked.
Let’s reserve judgement after they both have been baked and tasted!
So glad to find this thread. A lot of useful information so freely shared.
My successful SD breads have only been Rye using a Rye starter from a KAF class 5 years ago. It is stellar. HOWEVER, most other SD breads are way too sour for our tastes.
I would like to obtain some of the Claimed benefits of SD breads but without the excessive sour tang.
The prospect of various fruits for all sorts of background flavors sounds exciting.
I am into day 4 of my first Fruit Water, just basic raisin, sugar, filtered water and already it fizzes like a soda pop that has been shaken. The recipe I’m using calls for a second 4 day period using additional fruit, sugar, water and a small amount of SALT. Then finally I can try it as a replacement for a good portion of the water in other bread recipes.
Are there any fruits to AVOID in this process?
Do people just keep feeding this sugar after it has matured or removing/adding a new load of fruit to an existing fruit water solution?
Thank you!
I’ve used half the water for dough, added fresh water and fresh fruit to the remaining half and kept it going. Apples, raisins, dates, apricots… I’m sure many other fruits would work.
The yeast comes from the skins of your raisins – I’ve then added peeled apple purely as a sugar source to multiply the existing yeast.
You’re getting a nice slow ferment with yeast water, and I suspect there are health benefits from that, but maybe not the same benefits that are purported to come from lactobacillus fermentation.
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What a pretty loaf. Outstanding. You’re enjoying the pan loaf which has great flavour… I can only imagine how that beautiful loaf has turned out with a perfected ferment time.
Lovely, Melissa.
I know this was a very old post but that article was fantastic. Thank you.