How to Make Bread With Wine Yeast

You can use the wine lees as yeast for bread.

If you are a wine enthusiast and have tried making your own brew, you know about the lees left over when you filter your wine. It is a mixture of the grape sediment along with a bunch of yeast cells. You can use this to make a fine loaf of bread. The yeast normally used in bread is a form of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the bakers' and brewers' yeast which gives off a good amount of carbon dioxide as it proofs. Wine yeast is also a form of Saccharomyces but it will give off more ethanol as it grows and reproduces.

Things You'll Need

• Wine lees
• Mixing bowl
• Wooden spoon
• Salt
• Flour
• Baking pan

Instructions

1. Pour the lees into a measuring cup and add enough water to make 1 cup. Mix it slightly and pour it into a large mixing bowl.

2. 

   Add enough flour to make a shaggy dough.

   Add about 3 1/2 cups of flour as well as 2 tsp. of salt and mix well with the wooden spoon. The mixture should be a shaggy mess of dampened dough.

3. 

   The dough should be round and soft after kneading.

   Pour the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead it for 8 minutes. It should be a smooth round ball when you are finished.

4. 

   Cover the rising dough with a damp kitchen towel.

   Place the dough in a warm place to rise. Cover it with a damp kitchen towel. The wine yeast will rise slower than bread yeast, but as it does it will impart earthy flavors in the bread. Allow it to double in size.

5. 

   Bread can rise in a warm cupboard.

   Punch the dough down and form into a loaf. Place it on a lightly floured baking sheet, cover with the damp towel and let rise until double. This might take as long as 8 hours or overnight.

6. 

   Fresh baked wine bread has an earthy flavor.

   Bake the bread in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees F. It will take 20 to 25 minutes to cook through. It will sound hollow when thumped, have a nice golden crust and will be much lighter than when you put it in the oven.

References

• Wisconsin University: This month's fungus is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the bakers' and brewers' yeast