16 hours ago, keychris said:
If I was in your position, but with my longer experience, I would make a sponge. Take the full amount of water and half the flour. Add maybe 1/2tsp of yeast, mix it together. Leave it at room temperature for a while, until it starts to show activity (starts to bubble - it will be very wet, so it probably won't rise) then put it in the fridge overnight. The next day, let it warm back up to room temp for an hour or so, then dump it, the rest of the flour, yeast, salt, whatever else is in the recipe into your machine and away you go.
The idea of using preferments (what this is) is that the yeast starts acting on the starch in the flour, breaking them down and creating a bunch of extra flavour with the longer cold ferment in the fridge than you would get from the short ferment you have in the bread machine.
Okay so you are luring me in with the sexy promise of a "bunch of extra flavOr" 
, but like rotuts alluded to, there's the time & hassle factor to consider. But then, there's the promise of "a bunch of extra flavor", so... hmm....
How much "extra flavor"?
So thanks for the suggestion of a "sponge" although I don't see a connection between that word and the mechanics of the suggestion. Also you included the word "yeast" in the list of ingredients that get "thrown in" to the bread machine the next day. I assume mentally you were just running down the list without considering that we just spent 12+ hours growing all the yeast a person could possibly want in the refrigerator.
Do we add yeast after growing a "sponge"?
I'm going to try this suggestion, just to know how much "extra flavor" is involved here. But for daily, routine purposes I need a method to produce a loaf of bread every 1 or 2 days, that doesn't require me to use 2 t. of yeast every day, when I could "grow my own" instead. Although I'm also getting the idea that 4 lbs. of yeast from eBay is going to be the easiest way to have long-term yeast, but since the whole point of the thread was to explore a workable method (for me) to make and continue to use "starter yeast" for my daily bread-machine produced bread, I'd like to at least complete the purpose of the thread, i.e. get a workable method of daily "starter yeast" and make bread with it for (maybe a week) before I (probably) decide it's not worth the hassle and drop $20.00 on 4 lbs. of yeast, which (doing calculations now...)
Here's an online "pounds of yeast to teaspoons" converter I just found:
http://www.traditionaloven.com/culinary-arts/baking/dry-yeast/convert-pound-lb-to-tea-spoon-tsp.html
Which says I get 640 teaspoons from 4 lbs. of yeast.
At 2 t. per loaf and a loaf every 1.5 days, 4 lbs yeast = 640 t. yeast / 2 t. X 1.5 days = 480 days / 365 days in a year = 1.3 years worth of yeast, at the rate I am currently making it.
For $20.00.
GOD I LOVE the internet. Who would have thought that someone online would go to the trouble of making a "pounds of yeast to teaspoons of yeast" converter????
Anyways, those are my variables, and my thoughts. Probably not worth the hassle of doing "starter yeast" in order to save less than $20.00 a year, but part of my identity is to make what I need to the greatest extent possible. I have a strong streak of "prepper" in me, and even if I don't actually do it day in and day out, I'd like to at least know that, if necessary, I could make a "go" of things without relying on a daily supply of yeast.
So, with all that said, I assume that there will some variation on the "sponge" method in order to use half the "sponge" for today's bread, add more water and flour for tomorrow's bread. Is this something I'm just going to have to figure out on my own? Can someone give me a rough idea to start with?
