Yes, Linda, that is how sourdough and naturally leavened bread is made. The problem is that the yeast isn’t active enough in the dry flour to make bread right away (the dough would spoil before it would rise enough), so you need to make a starter with flour and water first. After a few feedings, the yeast in the starter is active enough to make bread with. Click on the link in my answer to LG above to go to my sourdough column, including links to recipes etc.

The Grand Central stuff is also available at some local grocery stores. Pretty sure I’ve seen it at New Seasons and/or Whole Foods, and Zupan’s is a good bet too. It’s a great product.

Everyone should have a Tim Tam story. E.g.: We went to Australia for our honeymoon in 1999 and the taxi driver who was taking us to the airport to come home asked if we’d tried Tim Tams during our stay. When we said “no” she couldn’t believe it, nor deal with it, so she stopped at a convenience store and left us alone in the idling car while she went in to buy us a box to take home. We were laughing our asses off. The other day I saw them for sale at Target here in Oregon! (Must be them Pepperidge Farm imports)

Shouldn’t you have to change the name of your column now? False advertising!

Thanks for the correction, MRW. Of course there are acid-base reactions that don’t make CO2. It was an incorrect generalization.

I said 3-4 times per WEEK. It might still be worthwhile to maintain a starter if you were baking once or twice per week. You can make pancakes, waffles, crackers, flatbreads, pizza, etc. - you don’t just have to crank out loaves. But like you said, the feedings aren’t free. I keep a very small amount of starter (like 100 grams) to keep the feedings small.

Sometimes I take the “discard” starter, mix in enough flour to make a dough, and throw it in the oven for a quick snack after it rises - it makes one roll. This only makes sense if I am already baking/roasting something else later that day.

Recently though on Chocolate & Zucchini I saw the ingenious idea of using excess starter to make sourdough crumpets. They look awesome. I haven’t tried it yet as my starter is napping in the fridge right now.

Hi LG, there is no need to “capture” yeast - there is wild yeast (and symbiotic bacteria) in the flour, as I wrote about here. It used to be the only leavening technology - today it’s known as sourdough (or levain in French bakeries). Modern store-bought yeast is a crossover from the beer brewing industry, and it’s much faster and more active than the wild sourdough yeasts, so it quickly takes over when added to a dough.

Anon, I don’t think Sullivan claims to have invented the “no-knead” method. However I haven’t seen a previous reference to cooking a wet dough in a covered pot. Cool idea, whoever came up with it.

Anon, Lahey is clearly mentioned and linked in the column. Thanks for reading (sorta) though!