Instructions: Yeast can feed perfectly well on flour, and do not "require" refined sugar. They like Barley Malt very well; you can use the gooey crap or you can buy Barley Malt as Malted Barley flour. It is a dark-cream colored powder because it is an unrefined flour made from the sprouted (malted) barley grain. I use about 1 tsp. per loaf, pitched in right on top of my dry yeast. (However, I also use honey, so you may wish to experiment with more of the powder.)

If you are concerned about your yeast becoming sluggish and not lifting the heavier whole-grain loaves because they are working without the "supercharge" of sugar, you may find it effective to begin to experiment with "sponge" cookery. Take about 1/2 c of your water and about 1/2 c of your flour, (plus 1/2 tsp. of your barley malt, if desired) and stir this into a sponge-a separate "starter" for your bread. Inoculate this sponge with about 1/2 tsp. of your total intended yeast. (Most of my loaves use 1 or 1.5 tsp. TOTAL). Let this sponge work for an hour or 4 in a warm draft-free place, such as your oven with a pilot light, or with the electric bulb turned on. This will give even the most wimpy yeast a nice "head-start" on a heavy-grain loaf.

A special note, I have explicitly stated that you should not use ALL your yeast in your sponge. This contradicts the "old-fashioned" methods of sponge-making. I have done so because I have found that the newer yeasts, which have been recently created to respond to the comparatively brief rising times of bread-machines, will sometimes exhaust themselves before they have done their "real" work of raising the actual loaf in the machine. Again,
*Sometimes*, but not always.

By holding back some of the yeast and adding it to the machine along with all the remaining ingredients-after your sponge has developed-you work your machine-cycle from a "known" starting point. The yeast are working from two different starting points. The new yeast work with their customary explosive vigor, while the slightly older yeast have moved into a "steady-state" population which is reproducing constantly, but perhaps not explosively. Your newer yeast give the required ABM "shove" but the older yeast give you a larger basic yeast population and a more even distribution of the CO2. If you arent using an ABM, my method is unnecessarily complicated.

I recommend sponge cookery over the simple expedient of adding more yeast because the flavor of the two sorts of loaves is very different; less yeast grown over more time gives a nicer texture and a richer flavor to the bread, while more yeast pitched in suddenly tends to give a flatter flavor with a distinctly less pleasant "yeasty" or "musty" taste and smell. I suspect that if you are eliminating refined sugar, the flavor of your loaves is going to become more important to you very soon.

Some folks keep a sponge going in the refrigerator all the time, and use that as a "helper" but you may not wish to do this. Yeast mutate rather quickly, and move away from the lovely basic strain we now know as commercial bread yeast. Also, wild yeasts can creep in (contaminate), and then you must basically have the luck of a lottery winner to have a good taste. This is the foundation of sour-dough cookery, and not all wild strains are equally desirable. So, if you start your sponge fresh every time, and give it an hours "head-start" you can accomplish much of what is desirable in a starter without the difficulties of what is not desirable in a starter.

I also strongly recommend you experiment with varieties of yeast. I find SAF yeast (available through King Arthur) is very different from Fleischmanns or RedStar. It gives me a much better rise. This may be because they have already added ascorbic acid. If I cant get SAF I will take RedStar over Fleischmanns every time. I experimented with these and several other yeasts, and found Fleischmanns had a tendency to fail completely more often than I will tolerate. It just plain arrives dead from the grocery store-if you proof it side by side with other yeasts you see it has a very different vigor.

Increasing the gluten content of your loaf may improve structure and so, give you a better lift on a heavy loaf as well.

Finally, if you still find that your yeast must be stimulated more than barley malt will provide, add some lemon-juice (1/2 to 1 tsp.) to give them ascorbic acid, and add just a pinch of ground ginger. Both of these are well-known as yeast stimulants.

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