I am right with you, Anna. I have heard of 'yeast starter' - primarily in conjunction with beer brewing - and I have definitely heard of 'wild yeast'/sourdough 'starter' but not the term 'starter yeast' so otherwise, right now, I am totally confused.
Barney - you are determined to use your old bread maker, correct? And you are equally determined to make a complicated bread with a lot of sugar and butter in it, right? And yet you also want to essentially make a sourdough bread I am guessing (though you may not realize that) if you want to use a 'wild yeast' starter. In a bread maker. Why? You can make no-knead dough so why do you 'need' the bread maker, if I may ask? And you seem frustrated by having to activate yeast that the instructions didn't tell you needed to be activated, but, was that recipe that didn't say to do that the exact recipe you listed in your first post - or have you modified it? Are you using instant yeast or yeast that must be activated?
We have had threads here (and there are many on the web) where people talk about making yeast from the air essentially - and it is a delicate, often frustrating process but it can be done. If you make yeast 'from the air' successfully though, for as long as you can keep it alive after that, you have what I might term the 'starter yeast' for any bread (but, no, it will not be a 'dough-like' consistency - it will be brown and gloopy most probably - and should be kept refrigerated and 'fed') - but, because the process for making wild yeast starter involves a form of fermentation I think whatever bread it is used in probably would be called a 'sourdough' bread - and probably have a slightly different flavour as a result - a bit of 'tang'. And I am not certain it would work well with your particular recipe (most sourdough breads are simple - flour, water, salt, 'yeast') - but then I am no expert in that department.
At any rate, people here want to help you but I would bet I am not the only one more than a bit confused about exactly what it is you really want help with. Do you want to know how to make yeast 'from the air'? Do you want to know if that kind of yeast will work with your specific bread recipe and/or when made in a bread maker as opposed to an oven, with or without kneading? Do you want to know why you have to activate yeast that is not instant (in fact, I would bet you wouldn't except that the results you got when you didn't could be because your recipe is so full of butter perhaps it requires the extra oomph that one might get from using more yeast than many of us use these days or what a prolonged activation in advance of adding to the mixture might provide)? Are you determined to only learn how to make THIS particular recipe or are you trying to learn more about bread making in general? Is this the only recipe you have tried? And if so, why? Have you ever baked bread any other way than in that bread maker? And have you ever baked relatively simple bread (just yeast, flour, water, salt) before? How much bread making experience do you actually have? If you could answer these questions perhaps we could better point you in the right direction.
I have many questions. It appears you do as well. But, it seems as though this thread is wandering off what I thought your question was at the start and frankly, I am really lost. Was all you really wanted to know was how to save a teaspoon or so of yeast every time you make this specific bread recipe?
I apologize but two things come to mind for me right now: Penny wise, pound foolish. And. Begin at the very beginning ... it's a very good place to start.
