The yeast is all gone. The yeast has been all gone for over a month now. Where is all the yeast?

There has been a lot of panic buying during this pandemic. I think there have also been a lot of people who are suddenly doing a lot more home cooking, so there's a bit of increased demand right now. This is all understandable. And, given that, I was expecting a few things to become grocery store rarities for a little while: frozen veggies, toilet paper, rice, beans, maybe even milk and eggs. (Eggs have turned out to be even more in demand and harder to get than I had guessed, but I was at least expecting some increased demand. Also, we have chickens, so not being able to get eggs at the grocery store really isn't an issue for me.) What caught me completely by surprise was the sudden run on flour and yeast. And the yeast part of the equation, in particular, has been especially problematic.

Flour has been in stock (at admittedly low levels) intermittently since this whole thing started. Yeast, on the other hand, just flat-out vanished pretty much immediately and hasn't been seen since. During my first pandemic grocery shop I saw that all but two industrial-sized packages of instant yeast had gone. I thought about grabbing one but concluded that a) even I don't need to buy my yeast in bulk quantities quite that large and b) I really prefer "traditional", non-instant yeast. I figured I'd just grab some in a week or two once they'd restocked. My yeast supplies were getting a little low, but they weren't critical yet, I'm sure it'll be fine, right?

Fast forward a few weeks and now I'm almost completely out of yeast and there's still none to be had at the grocery store. Uh-oh...

This bread was my stop-gap solution. I made bagels on Monday. I made enough dough for 12 bagels, but I only baked 11. I mixed some water into the remaining dough, plonked it into a mason jar and let it ferment overnight. The next day I made what was supposed to be an unleavened/naturally fermented seed bread. But I dumped my faux starter in along with the other liquids and mixed it into the dough. I then proceeded to make bread as normal.

The resulting bread definitely isn't a sourdough, but it is distinctly flavourful. It's a hearty loaf, to be sure. Not as light and fluffy as many of the breads I've made, but it's decidedly lighter than other unleavened/naturally fermented loaves I've experimented with in the past. I'd say this is a nice middle ground. And I was able to pinch off a bit of the dough and pop it back into the mason jar with a bit of water to ferment and get ready for the next batch of bread!

Semi-Sourdough Seed Bread

Adapted from the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 430g hard whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 100g of bagel dough mixed with 100mL of water and left to ferment overnight
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 3 Tbsp. sunflower seeds
• 2 Tbsp. everything bagel topping
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds

Directions

1. Combine flour and salt and mix thoroughly.
2. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the reserved dough mixture and 1 c. of water.
3. Mix the flour into the liquids working from the centre outward.
4. Pinch off ~1/4 c. of the dough and combine with 1/4 c. of water in a mason jar. Set aside for your next batch of bread.
5. Turn the rest of the dough out onto the counter and begin kneading. Work in additional water as you knead. You may not need the full 1/2 c.
6. Once the dough has taken up enough water, begin kneading in the seeds. Aim to knead for a total of 20-30 minutes.
7. Shape into a ball and set in a covered bowl to rise. It will likely need 2-4 hours for this first rise.
8. Once the dough no longer rebounds after a wet finger is pressed ~1cm into it, knock it back. Knead for a few strokes if you wish.
9. Shape into a ball and allow to rise again. This rise will probably only take ~2 hours. Maybe less.
10. Knock the dough back again and shape it into a loaf. (I chose a round hearth loaf for this one.)
11. Allow to rise for an hour or so.
12. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F) and place a pan of boiling water on the bottom rack once the oven is preheated.
13. Spritz the loaf with water and slash the top.
14. Bake at 230°C (450°F) for ~10 minutes.
15. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) and remove water pan.
16. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for another 30 minutes.