Posted by In Covid-19 lockdown, our supermarkets shelves are empty of yeast amongst other things, and I am down to my last half jar of active yeast. So I have embarked on a journey of discovering how to keep a yeast starter growing. I am going to try two methods. One is a wet yeast starter, feeding it once a week, and the second is saving dough and working it into a new batch of bread. I just wish I started this last week, before getting close to running out!
This is part 1 of 2 – this one is all about how to make Pâté Fermentée – which I quickly learned is a ball of dough saved to be reworked through the next batch. See this link for a great thread of comments – http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/59429/reserve-piece-dough-starter). The only downside is the shelf life in the fridge could only be about 3 days. So today I was making hot cross buns, and so for a laugh I saved a small ball of dough, wrapped it in cling film and popped it in the fridge. Next time I make pizza dough or bread, I will save a regular ball to try making a whole loaf from.
So a couple of days later, here I am making hot cross buns again, but this time I did a half batch just in case my little yeast friends didn’t cooperate. I cut up the ball saved from the other day, and added it to my dry ingredients, then added the warm milk and whisked egg. I mixed it all up, and then did a workout kneading the dough for a good 5 or more minutes. Now it is in a warm place, and I am hoping it will rise. The dough feels right, so we will see if we can breathe life into it!
This is an interesting thread about using bread dough as a starter for your next batch, with no extra yeast needed. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/55656/my-first-steps-beauty-pate-fermentee
I saved a ball of dough from a pizza night, and the following day I worked it into a loaf of regular bread. I cut it up and added it to all the other regular ingredients and kneaded very well…lots of kneading…family-taking-turns kind of kneading! It took a very long time to rise, (a good 3-4 hours in a warm place) but made a nice loaf of bread. Not as springy as a loaf made with fresh yeast, but still very nice with butter, sliced tomato and salt and pepper!
Dough 
Cooked loaf 
Ready for butter, tomato, salt and pepper!
To keep the chain going, I saved a ball of dough from that loaf, and a couple of days later tried to make another loaf, it was slightly less springy and took much longer to rise, and so I figured the life of the yeast was dwindling. It was a great experiment however! In conclusion, I think if I was making bread every day or even every other day, I would have had better success at keeping the yeast alive.
Life by the Word 