I made bread with cider lees. It was not terrible.

[Dhelderman]

Subject says it all. Used lees after racking 5 gallons of cider that fermented with Belle Saison yeast. Approximate recipe was 1 cup lees, 1.5 cup AP flour, 1 cup coarsely blended oats, 2 T sugar and 1 T salt.

Turned the lees into a sort of a sourdough starter by feeding it with sugar and flour, let it sit for a couple hours to restart fermentation. Mixed dough, let it proof for an hour and a half, punched it down and let it rise another 30 minutes. Could've baked for another 10 minutes but I got impatient.

Not the greatest loaf of bread ever, but really pretty darn good. This was a total experiment and I just kind of threw it together. With a little serious experimentation I can make a good loaf of bread with this! Please feel free to comment with your lees baking experiences!

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448338186.401849.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448338203.033639.jpg

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

What does not terrible bread taste like? Looks successful in the picture, just wondering about any "different flavors" you may have noticed.

 

[Dhelderman]

What does not terrible bread taste like? Looks successful in the picture, just wondering about any "different flavors" you may have noticed.

I would say it was successful. I probably should've left the oats out and just went with straight flour. Much to my disappointment, there were definitely no discernible apple flavors present. It was really yeasty and savory, despite only using a little salt and more sugar than I'd normally use in this recipe.

As an aside, Belle Saison is an absolute monster of a yeast.

 

[OldManKapinski]

Inspired by your post, I tried cider lees for bread. First batch didn't rise at all. Second batch I added yeast and it rose only somewhat. I baked it anyway. Dense but very tasty. The lees add a deep and satisfying flavor. (We've also used lees for salad dressing and braising "country-style" pork ribs. Both delicious. Highly recommend)

 

[Dhelderman]

Inspired by your post, I tried cider lees for bread. First batch didn't rise at all. Second batch I added yeast and it rose only somewhat. I baked it anyway. Dense but very tasty. The lees add a deep and satisfying flavor. (We've also used lees for salad dressing and braising "country-style" pork ribs. Both delicious. Highly recommend)

Cool! I'm going to feed my starter tonight and bake bread tomorrow. That way I'll have a long time to let the bread rise and should get a more "normal" texture. Will post the results!

 

[brisboy]

I went the other way and for my first batch of juice based cider I used baker's yeast (before I had any idea what I was doing). It was super terrible!

 

[Dhelderman]

I went the other way and for my first batch of juice based cider I used baker's yeast (before I had any idea what I was doing). It was super terrible!

I always hear this is a really bad idea!

 

[brisboy]

I always hear this is a really bad idea!

I can confirm that what you heard is true.

 

[bembel]

First off. kudos for the efforts, but let my mistakes be your advantages. I've been on this ride a while. Let me share insights

Bread is all about weight. Your measuring cups are worthless. Get a $10 scale from Amazon.

Also You are using too much lees. Search my posts here on lees / cider bread or google poolish / no knead bread. Or try this, it's the culmination of 20 attempts

Mix 50g flour and 100ml lees in a Mason jar to make a slurry and let that sit overnight with a loose top. The volume should double/triple if the yeast is any good. Then take another 350 grams flour and appx 300 ml water and 8 g salt and mix it with the slurry. It will look like dough that is too wet. This is perfect. Let it rise overnight. This is all you need to develop the gluten. The next morning it will be 3 times the volume. Scrape it down to a ball and let it rise another 2 hours. The plop it in a Dutch oven you preheated to 500. You get this

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1449723925.305604.jpg

I do this every 5 days and the lees from a 5 gallon batch stay viable in the fridge for a month. IF your lees are getting old. Add a pinch of bakers yeast to the poolish (slurry)

This reuse of lees ( cider) really works best. I have tried it with trub ( beer) but the hops make it too bitter.

It's even better with dried cranberries and pecans.

 

[Dhelderman]

First off. kudos for the efforts, but let my mistakes be your advantages. I've been on this ride a while. Let me share insights

Bread is all about weight. Your measuring cups are worthless. Get a $10 scale from Amazon.

Also You are using too much lees. Search my posts here on lees / cider bread or google poolish / no knead bread. Or try this, it's the culmination of 20 attempts

Mix 50g flour and 100ml lees in a Mason jar to make a slurry and let that sit overnight with a loose top. The volume should double/triple if the yeast is any good. Then take another 350 grams flour and appx 300 ml water and 8 g salt and mix it with the slurry. It will look like dough that is too wet. This is perfect. Let it rise overnight. This is all you need to develop the gluten. The next morning it will be 3 times the volume. Scrape it down to a ball and let it rise another 2 hours. The plop it in a Dutch oven you preheated to 500. You get this

View attachment 321638

I do this every 5 days and the lees from a 5 gallon batch stay viable in the fridge for a month. IF your lees are getting old. Add a pinch of bakers yeast to the poolish (slurry)

This reuse of lees ( cider) really works best. I have tried it with trub ( beer) but the hops make it too bitter.

It's even better with dried cranberries and pecans.

I've got a scale. I may not have explained properly, but I did make a slurry, or starter, from the lees. It was essentially a sourdough starter, I just used cider lees as my source of yeast.

Thanks for the heads up though. I'm planning on using the cider lees starter again after the holidays (until which time I'll feed it to keep it healthy)--but I'm going to allow it to rise a long, long time like you recommended. I realized you just don't get the crazy CO2 production and resulting rise of the dough with brewing yeast. An hour long rise doesn't cut it!

 

[bembel]

My experiments with this is all about using the small amount of yeast you get from less, which you are right, is not enough for traditional bread rising, and incorporating into the NYT No-Knead recipes ( and their 1000s of variations )

In the original NYT recipe,

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread

You only use 1/4 t yeast, but since it free rises overnight, or even better, 18 hours, the yeasts actually get a chance to do in the wet dough what they do in the first 18 hours of pitching a beer or cider, they multiply like crazy.

Since you cant add 1/4 t lees, I adjusted the recipe to use a 100% hydrated poolish instead, which is sort of like a sourdough starter, but its not sour.

Since baking is all about proportions, You just subtract any amount of flour you use in your poolish from the total flour that the normal recipe calls for.

The ONLY thing extra to consider is the amount of solids and liquids in the lees, which I estimate at 50-50%, so my 50 grams flour, and 100 ml lees, and then usually another 50 grams water going into the poolish accounts for 100 grams of flour and 100 ml liquid.

Happy baking!

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Dehelderman, I occasionally add lees to make bread and often add grains from which I have mashed and extracted all the sugar (a great addition to bread!) . Your photo tho' does suggest that your bread is under-cooked. About half way down the bread looks quite moist... and I agree with bembel that the secret of really good bread is time... and weight (rather than volume of ingredients) - although my own technique is less about weight and more about feel...

 

[Dhelderman]

Hi Dehelderman, I occasionally add lees to make bread and often add grains from which I have mashed and extracted all the sugar (a great addition to bread!) . Your photo tho' does suggest that your bread is under-cooked. About half way down the bread looks quite moist... and I agree with bembel that the secret of really good bread is time... and weight (rather than volume of ingredients) - although my own technique is less about weight and more about feel...

My original post says "could've baked for another 10 minutes but I got impatient."

It was undercooked.

 

[OldManKapinski]

Bembel... Thank you for sharing details. I'm looking forward to making the next batches.

 

[(Evan_Loves_U)]

Thank you for posting this recipe. I can't wait to try it out. I have about a half gallon of lees in my closest that I don't want to throw away. Me an the family don't eat gluten anymore so I have been looking for recipes to make my own bread that is organic and healthy. I'll definitely let everyone know how my batch comes out, as soon as I make it