People are buying all the flour and all the yeast across stores in Hungary (and elsewhere, just check the first comment in this post written by SteevC. That is why it can be really hard to find such ingredients, and of course, toilet paper! But, before the great misery started, I purchased quite a lot of flour, and because of that, I can still make delicious bread, without yeast!
In other words, don't feel sad if you couldn't buy yeast in the store. If you have some flour, you can still make sourdough, and later this can be used to create awesome bread, waffles, pancakes, and other delightful courses for your coronavirus quarantine!
My first sourdough bread
Making the sourdough!
Don't consider this to be a full recipe. If you really want to make a sourdough, you should probably do a quick search for it on Google or somewhere else instead. But, in short, I added some honey, raisins, flour (wholemeal), and water. I mixed these together, making it look like a thick pancake dough. I put it in a glass, put a lid on the top, and left it there. Every day I stirred it a bit, and I also added some water, and some flour every day. After 4-5 days, it started to get bubbles on the top, and it started to smell like alcohol. Well, the sourdough is alive.
It continued, and after a few more days, I took half of the sourdough and used it in my first sourdough bread! I added more water and flour to the glass of sourdough, making sure that I have more ready for the next bread!
My first sourdough bread
So, I took half the content of my sourdough glass and mixed it with water. I then added the flour and rest of the water needed for the bread, added some salt and oil, and mixed them together. After a few hours, the dough had risen, and I formed it in the shape of bread. I covered it up, left it for 12 hours, and after 12 hours, placed it into the oven.
Now it is finished and it is full of air bubbles, and tastes really good! Who needs yeast, when you can make bread with sourdough?
This was just meant as a help to those in need of bread in a time when there is no yeast in your local store. You can also use baking soda if you have that, but I cannot give any comments on how well it works and its taste, as I have no experience in baking bread with baking soda so far.
I believe the coronavirus will give many of us an excuse to develop skills we haven't used before and to learn things that we have dreamt of learning, but haven't had the time to earlier. Read my article on the importance of having goals for your coronavirus quarantine, and make the most out of this time which is experienced as a tough and challenging time for most of us!