Wild yeast vegan plum cake

Would you believe me if I said you could make a nice yeast cake using no yeast from the store, just fruit instead?

Czy uwierzysz, jeśli powiem, że możesz zrobić smaczne ciasto drożdżowe bez kupnych drożdży, tylko dzięki owocom?

Over the summer and recently I’ve mainly worked with yeast water – water carrying wild yeast from fruit that ferment in it. The fruit is the source and food for the yeast. I’ve made it in summer a year ago and then used it every now and then. The idea is quite intriguing, so I recommend reading more on it in another post, Yeast water. I feed my water with dates, but you can use any type of fruit. Just imagine: you can bake a plum cake on plum yeast water, no commercial yeast needed.

I tried making a cake with it before, but it didn’t work out. This time I changed my approach a bit. Also, I had a bit of a challenge as one of my colleagues is on a vegan challenge month and I did want to share at work. I started with a recipe from the Jadłonomia blog, then adapted it to my requirements:

• replaced yeast and the plant based milk replacement with yeast water
• measured ingredients in grams

For fruit I used plums since it’s the right time to have them.

Yeast water plum cake

Planning

It will take long. I had to wait about five or six hours for the dough to double in volume before baking.

A baking tray, baking parchment and cling film will be needed.

Ingredients

This is enough for a small tray of cake, around 20×30 cm

The dough

• 640 g plain wheat flour
• 100 g sugar
• pinch of salt
• 400 ml yeast water
• 120 ml vegetable oil
• 24 plums – I aligned them in three rows of eight, each split in half and opened

The crumble

• 100 g plain wheat flour
• 80 g sugar
• tiny pinch of salt
• 40 g coconut oil, cold and solid
• a pinch of cinnamon

Yeast water plum cake

Preparation

1. Mix yeast water with sugar and a pinch of salt
2. Add flour and knead the dough. I use a kitchen robot with a dough hook
3. When the dough is well kneaded, gradually add oil and wait till the bit gets incorporated before adding another one
4. Cover the bowl with the dough with cling film and leave for 60-90 minutes. It should double in volume
5. Stretch the dough to desired size and place on a baking parchment in a baking tray
6. Line the plums on the dough and gently press them into it
7. Cover with cling film and set aside to rise to approximately double the volume for about five to six hours (this is how long it took in my case, check on yours from time to time)
8. In the meantime prepare the crumble. I recommend using a food processor with blades as it is much faster this way. If making with hands, combine the dry ingredients first and then add the oil and work it into them until you get a nice crumble
9. Set your oven to 180 C degrees. Know your oven
10. Sprinkle the cake with crumble and bake for 25-35 minutes. Keep checking on it so that it doesn’t burn

It did take quite long to make it but it was worth it. It’s the first time that I made a cake with wild yeast and I am happy with the results. I think I wouldn’t have to wait so long if my yeast water was more active – after feeding it regularly I was able to bake with it every twelve hours and get quite rapid rise on the loaves.

Have a read on the yeast water – I’ve reviewed that post recently for your convenience and removed a lot of pointless words.