Since the time when humanity learned to process grain into flour, bread and bakery products have become one of the most popular and vital food products, occupying a special place in the daily diet of most of the inhabitants of the Earth.
In the article, we will look at how to make it yourself from an ingredient such as hops, yeast. The recipe for hop bread sourdough will also be presented to your attention.
Which bread is healthier - yeast or yeast-free?
In recent years, you can often hear discussions about which bread is the most healthy. Supporters of baking without baker's yeast are convinced that yeast gradually accumulates and multiplies in the human body, destroying the beneficial microflora of the intestines and stomach, undermines the immune system, causes tumor processes and much more. Therefore, fans of a healthy diet offer to give up yeast bread and bake yeast-free pastries, for the preparation of which self-made starter cultures are used. Cooking them is quite simple and easy. To do this, you will need the most ordinary and familiar products for all, which are available in almost every kitchen.
How did yeast in Russia?
In the old days, bread was always baked in sourdough. All components were exclusively of plant origin. Such yeast was prepared from hops, wheat, barley, rye flour, oats, straw with the addition of raisins, sugar or honey, and malt. Today, many deaf villages still have many recipes for making yeast-free bread. It was precisely such starters that the human body was enriched with vitamins, organic acids, enzymes, fiber, minerals, biostimulants, pectin substances, saturated it with oxygen, etc.
Over time, the technology of baking bread has changed, but the raw materials remained almost always the same. From century to century used water, flour, salt and yeast. But if yeast was used only as needed, the yeast was constant. With the growth of the population and consumer needs of bread, “capricious” hop yeast began to be used less and less.
Hop sourdough bread
Homeless bread made with hop yeast is considered by many to be very useful. It is best to use wild-growing hops for baking, which is harvested in the summer, in the last decade of August or in early September, during the period of technical ripeness, and dried in the shade. However, a pharmacy can also work.
Today there are many recipes and tips on how to make yeast from hops at home. The main ingredients of such starter cultures are flour, a decoction of hop cones and sugar (honey can be used). Sometimes boiled potatoes are added.
Hop yeast at home: benefits and harms
Those who believe that yeast are just the key to lush baking and the “provocateur” of excess weight are mistaken. In fact, they are a real storehouse of necessary and useful substances. Homemade hop yeast is rich in vitamins, minerals and trace elements. They contain:
- valuable protein that is easily digested and absorbed;
- carbohydrates (up to 30% of the total composition of the starter culture);
- B1, B2, B5, B6, PP and D vitamins;
- Minerals: calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc and manganese.
As for calories, then 100 g of homemade yeast contains 50-70 calories, which is not so much for a slim figure.
Bread with hop leaven has a positive effect on the entire human body, is better absorbed and greatly facilitates the digestion process. This is due to its density and rudeness: in a food lump, a dense crumb improves the intestines, due to which the work of the muscles of the digestive system is activated, food is better absorbed, and there is good for the intestines - it trains and becomes healthier. Moreover:
- bread that uses hop yeast is more resistant to potato disease;
- it contains less extraneous microorganisms that do not participate in fermentation;
- hop bread has a pleasant aroma and good taste;
- such bakery products are better stored;
- hop yeast contains medicinal components.
So hop bread is an excellent product of yeast fermentation, healthy, tasty and high-quality.
Harm
Bread, for the preparation of which hop yeast is used, is an amateur product, since not every person who is accustomed to the taste of the loaf will like pastries with a sour taste and additives of bran and herbs. In addition, the yeast-free bread has a denser and firmer texture, therefore, in volume it is smaller than the yeast, which has the same weight and softer crumb. Also a minus can be considered the complexity of the preparation. Baking bread with hop yeast requires a little more time and effort than preparing a regular one, since the dough with the sourdough rises longer, and the sourdough itself must be prepared. With ordinary baker's yeast, it’s much simpler: they added the powder, waited until the dough rises, and baked.
How to make hops yeast?
Home-made yeast is almost as good as its factory counterparts. Since they are prepared with their own hands, the risk of not taking the test due to the low quality of the components is completely eliminated. Shop products are often stale or frozen, which always negatively affects baking.
So, in order to get homemade yeast, you must:
- First of all, learn how to make hops yeast, learn in detail the cooking process.
- Then purchase the necessary products.
- Know exactly where they will be used.
How to collect hops for making yeast?
For collecting, only those hop cones that are in a state of technical ripeness are suitable. This can be determined by several signs:
- Hop cones become closed and seemingly smooth.
- Their color becomes lighter, for example, golden green or yellowish green.
- To the touch, the cones become more dense, sticky, the scales adhere tightly to each other.
- If they are slightly squeezed, they should be resilient, rustle, spring and easily restore their original shape.
You can’t be late with hops. Cones very quickly turn brown, and their properties deteriorate. However, you should not rush with the collection either. Cleaning begins selectively, with the most ripe cones, tearing each of them separately. Branches or clusters do not collect hops. To preserve the integrity of the cones, they are torn off together with the petioles, which must be at least 2 cm long. It is impossible to crush, ram or compact the harvest, as this worsens their quality. After collection, you should immediately start drying, since the collected raw materials begin to deteriorate quickly.
Hops Yeast Recipes
There are many recipes for baking homemade bread for hops, and they differ not only in the type of flour (rye, wheat, etc.) or their combination, fillers (bran, malt, seasonings, etc.), but also directly in the form of the starter itself. As a rule, it can be liquid or dry, as well as in the form of a piece of the remaining finished dough.
Before making hop yeast at home, carefully read the recipes, recommendations of people who share their personal experiences, and choose the most suitable option for yourself.
Recipe number 1
The standard recipe is a liquid hop yeast, which is prepared from hop cones. In the evening, ripened and well-dried cones are poured with boiling water in a ratio of 1: 2 (for example, cones 1 cup and hot water 2 cups), boiled for 20 minutes, wrapped in a towel and left overnight. In the morning, filter through cheesecloth. To the broth add sugar (or honey) and flour in the ratio: for each glass of hop decoction - half a glass of flour and 2 tbsp. tablespoons of sugar. The resulting mixture is well wrapped and put for two to three days in a warm place for fermentation. Every day it is heated in a water bath, while continuously stirring. If this is not done, the fermentation process may stop. Ready-made yeast has many bubbles and a characteristic bitter taste. Ferment is stored in the refrigerator, in bottles or jars with hermetically sealed lids.
In the dough, the consumption is as follows: 1 cup of prepared liquid yeast per 2 or 3 kg of flour, plus wheat flour for mixing. If baking will be added to the dough (for example, when baking apiaries), it is also desirable to add 0.3-0.5 cups of starter culture to improve the convergence of the dough.
Recipe number 2
Consider how to make yeast from hops and bran. Bran is added to the strained broth made from hop cones instead of flour. The mass is well mixed, then put for 3 days in a warm place and stirred occasionally. Dry yeast from hops and bran is ready if a characteristic, sour and not very pleasant smell has appeared. Fermented bran sprinkle with a thin layer on a table or baking sheet for drying. The dried hop ferment is placed in a hermetically sealed container. In this form, it is suitable for long-term storage, without a refrigerator. Before using it overnight, pour warm water at the rate of - 1 teaspoon per half a glass of water, add a little flour, stir until sour cream is thick. In the morning, water, salt and flour are added to the foaming mass, and the dough is kneaded.
Recipe number 3
Ready-made hop sourdough is a small piece of dough that has been prepared previously using hop sourdough. Usually it is left after making bread, placed in a resealable container or bag and sent to the refrigerator. Moreover, the lump can be even very small, about 1 cm 3 . Before use, the yeast is placed in a container for making dough, poured with a small amount of warm water, mix well, add a little flour and put in a warm place. Every 1.5-2 hours, add water and flour, bring to the desired volume. Bread prepared on such a sourdough tastes a bit more acidic than on a fresh liquid hop sourdough, and sprouts a little longer.
For sourdough No. 3, it is better to cook rye and bran bread, and muffin and white for fresh liquid sourdough according to recipe No. 1 and No. 2, since the taste and convergence of the dough are best.
There are many other recipes, for example, how to make home-made yeast from hops and raisins, etc.
And one more important moment - to make the bread rise better, put the dough in greased forms no more than on the floor of their volume, cover with a towel and leave for 1.5-2 hours. Bake bread at 200 degrees C for 50-60 minutes. The finished product is taken out of the mold, sprayed with water and wrapped in a towel so that it becomes soft and fragrant.
Hop kvass yeast
Homemade kvass, thanks to its special composition, perfectly quenches thirst, gives the body energy, and improves performance. In addition, this wonderful drink improves performance, restores the balance of fluids and salts in the body, and improves the digestion process.
Making hops yeast for kvass is very simple and easy. Hop cones can be collected independently or purchased at any pharmacy.
Essential Ingredients:
- half a liter of water;
- 3 tablespoons of hops;
- 1 tablespoon of sugar or honey;
- flour.
Making yeast from hops for kvass:
Pour 3 tbsp. tablespoons of hops half a liter of boiling water. Put the pot on low heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Then strain the hop broth and cool to 38-40 degrees. Add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sugar (you can) honey, mix well. Pour flour so that a mass of sour cream is obtained. Cover the container with a napkin and clean for 1-1.5 days. Ready sourdough can be stored in the refrigerator.
How to make moonshine with hop yeast?
Making moonshine with your own hands is a rather complicated process, requiring close attention and constant monitoring of temperature and time conditions. There are a lot of different recipes for its preparation, but we will consider how to make moonshine using hops.
Preparation of raw materials for mash
First of all, you need to make yeast from hops for moonshine.
To do this, take a saucepan (preferably enameled), fill it to the very top with freshly picked hop cones, fill it with warm water, then cover with a lid and cook for 1 hour. Next, filter the resulting broth through cheesecloth (about 2 liters will turn out), add 250 g of sugar (a full glass) and 2 cups of flour. The resulting mass is mixed well and then put in a warm place for 1.5 days. Take 2 potatoes, grind them and add to the sourdough. Once again thoroughly mixed and returned for a day to a warm place. Cooked yeast is bottled, tightly closed and kept already in the cold.
If you don’t have fresh hops at hand, then you can take dried hops and fill them with water (1 part of hops and 2 parts of water). Bring the mixture to a boil. After reducing the amount of water by half, remove from heat, filter and add sugar (1 tablespoon is put in 1 cup of broth). After the sugar has dissolved, carefully pour in the wheat flour (0.5 cups are needed for 1 cup of syrup). Cover the container with the cotton cloth with the composition and put it into heat.
Now you need to cook directly the mash itself. For the production of quality moonshine, the desired component is sprouted grain (malt). It is endowed with high enzymatic activity. They take coarse grinding dried malt and pour water at the rate of 1 to 3. Also, 200 g of sugar and 50 g of hop yeast are added to 1 kg of grain (how to make home-made yeast from hops is described above). Cover the container with Braga with a clean cloth and insist for about two weeks in a warm place until the end of fermentation. The contents must be periodically mixed and the resulting foam removed.
Fermentation process
This is the main stage in the preparation of moonshine. At the beginning of the process there is an intensive release of carbon dioxide, the sugar concentration decreases, the temperature of the mash itself increases by 2-3 degrees. The duration of this process is about 30 hours.
Then a large number of bubbles appear on the surface of the mash, turning into foam. The temperature rises to 30 ° C, the alcohol content also increases, and the sugar concentration drops to 2-3%. This lasts from 15 to 24 hours. Now it is necessary to overtake the mash and clean from impurities.