Hi, I am brand new to this site and fairly brand new to bread baking. I have a French bread recipe that I've made several times with reasonable success (I'm assuming this is true since my kids circle like sharks around the table while it's baking:) but I would like to do something that would add depth to the flavor of the finished product. I wondered if I could extend the fermentation time of the sponge from 2-3 hours to perhaps overnight without negative consequence, and if this is possible, would it produce an improvement in the depth of flavor, which is what I am seeking. The recipe is a very basic one that calls for bread flour, salt, yeast and water only.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have. I'm posting the recipe below for more detailed information:

French Bread

Sponge:  1 tsp. active dry yeast, 10 oz. bread flour, 1 1/2 cups warm water (approximately 80 - 90 degrees F)

Dough:  1 tsp. active dry yeast, 1/4 c. warm water 80 - 90 degrees F) 14 oz. bread flour, 2 tsp. salt (preferably kosher)

Method

1. Prepare sponge: In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly mix sponge ingredients. Cover and let rise at room temperature until the mixture looks bubbly and is at least double in volume (see video). Approximately 2-3 hours.
2. Make the dough: In a small bowl or measuring cup, stir one teaspoon yeast into the ¼ cup of water and let sit for a few minutes until softened (dissolved).
3. Add the softened yeast, 14 oz. bread flour and salt to the sponge. Stir with a spoon to incorporate ingredients well. If dough feels dry, add a bit more water. If it feels too wet, add a little more flour. Make adjustments, if necessary, in small increments (one tablespoon at a time-or less).
4. Empty dough onto table and knead for 8-10 minutes, using as little four as necessary to prevent the dough from sticking. This may be done using a heavy duty stand mixer and mixing on speed two for 5-6 minutes or speed one for 10 minutes. Use the slower speed if your mixer sounds as if it is straining.
5. Round the dough and place back in the bowl. Cover and let rise until double (usually between 1-2 hours).
6. Divide the dough into four pieces and round each piece. Cover and let rest for about 10 minutes. .
7. Follow the video for the shaping, rising, slashing, and baking of the loaves with steam.
8. Loaves will bake in approximately 20-25 minutes at 425°F. There should be a hollow sound when the bottoms are tapped. Be careful - bread is very hot!
9. Enjoy!

So, I'm pretty new to bread making and I need to tweak a recipe that calls for instant yeast. All I have is active dry yeast. How will this change the rise time and process? The recipe says to mix all the ingredients, turn out on a floured surface, knead for 5 minutes, let rise in an oiled bowl till doubled in size, turn out and put in two bread pans, let rise until doubled again, and then bake.

The ingredients are water, instant yeast, honey, butter, salt, rye flour, wheat germ, whole wheat flour, and all purpose flour.

I will also be switching sugar for honey, oatmeal for rye flour, flax meal for wheat germ (all of which my boyfriend has done before with no problems) and bread flour for all-purpose (which I've done before with no problem).

Hi

I wanna know can i proof yeast without using sugar or honey but proof yeast using mashed banana puree instead???

Hiya,

I'm a bit of newbie when it comes to baking bread and I've always stuck to using dried yeast (simply because I've found its more easily available), but I was wondering whether people had a preference when it came to using dried yeast over fresh yeast? Does fresh yeast produce a tastier loaf? 

Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated!

Kate(katescakesandbakes.blogspot.com)

Hello all,

I came across this site a few weeks ago and I really am interested in trying a few of the bread/pizza dough recipes. I am just your average person who likes to bake and cook. I do have a few questions.

1. What is the difference between fresh yeast and instant yeast? and is instant yeast the rapid rise? ie. feishmann's

2. Generally should i use instant yeast vs active dry? Based on my experience, i found that the active dry was much better than the rapid rise.

3. Any good recipes for a pizza dough that has flavor and that is worth making again and again?

I may have to order some of the bread baking books online bc my barnes and Noble may not carry them. but for now, i have been lurking and see some great accomplishments. All of these look so good and so rewarding.

thank you in advance

That will teach me to rush...

I just went to make Reinhart's hoagie rolls and accidentally poured the liquid into the flour without dissolving the yeast first- so I dumped in the yeast anyway and mixed as directed.

Do I need to throw this out and start over or should it work?
Thanks!
Beth

I have recently tried my hand at baking bread. I've started with a couple of easy ones; no knead artisian and english muffin bread. My question is: both such recipes (and all the variations on them that I have seen) say to wisk the dry active yeast in with the other dry ingredients and then add the warm wet ingredients. Doesn't the dry active yeast have to have a chance to bloom before everything gets mixed together?

I wonder about this because with both of the above-mentioned recipes my bread, although it looks and tastes pretty good, always comes out more dense than I think it should, at least based on the pictures that accompanied the recipes. At the same time, the dough does not seem to rise consistently (all other factors being equal).

Thank you in advance for any advice.

JMP

This is mostly for amusement's sake.

Every so often, I want to make a recipe that calls for fresh yeast and I don't have fresh yeast. Of course, I have nothing against using fresh yeast. It's just not that easily found around here. Instead, I use the active dry yeast we always have on hand. (Why do I always choose active dry yeast? Because that’s what my mother always uses.)

In the past and quite recently, I have gone through various books and the internet looking for this conversion information. Here are some of the various formulae I have come across in my travels:

for every cup of flour in the recipe, use either of

    3 grams compressed fresh yeast
    2 grams active dry yeast
    1 gram instant active dry yeast

-Maggie Glezer, "Artisan Baking Across America"

_____________________________

Substitute twice as much (by weight) fresh yeast for the amount of dry yeast called for in the recipe.

-Daniel Leader, "Local Breads"

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1 g fresh = 0.5 g active dry = 0.4 g instant

-Susan (Wild Yeast), wildyeastblog.com

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2+1/2 tsp (one package) active dry yeast = 18 gm cake fresh yeast

-Carol Field, "The Italian Baker"

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A .6-oz [17gm] cube of cake yeast is roughly equivalent to 1½ to 2 tsp. instant yeast or 2 to 2¼ tsp. active dry yeast.

-Sydny Carter, Yeast: The Basics, allrecipes.com

_____________________________

One .6 ounce [17 grams] cake is equivalent to 1 envelope [.25 ounce/7 grams] of dry yeast.

-Fleischmann's Yeast FAQ, breadworld.com

_____________________________

yeast, compressed . . . . 1 cake, 3/5 oz . . . . 1 package active dry yeast

-Irma S. Rombauer, Know your ingredients, Joy of Cooking

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1 packed tablespoon of fresh or cake yeast=21 grams which=2-1/2 [8gm] teaspoons active dry (so for 100 grams fresh yeast use 1/4 cup + 1/2 teaspoon or 40 grams active dry)

-Rose Levy Beranbaum, realbakingwithrose.com

_____________________________

If you are substituting active dry yeast for instant yeast in a recipe, [...] add about 20 percent more yeast to the recipe than what is called for. [...] If you encounter a recipe that uses fresh yeast, divide the weight by 3 to calculate the proper amount of instant yeast to use.

-Yeast FAQ, thefreshloaf.com

_____________________________

Some years ago, with mixed up logic, I managed to work out the following formula. Remarkably, the bread I made rose beautifully.

2½ tsp (8gm) active dry yeast = 50gm fresh yeast

-me, my house

Depending on whose formula I use, to replace 50gm fresh yeast, I should use anywhere from 8 to 32.5 gm active dry yeast. (I think I have the arithmetic right with the various formulae: 32.5gm, 25gm, 22.5gm, 20gm, 17.5-20gm, 17gm, 8.3 OR 8gm active dry in place of 50 gm fresh yeast)

So. After all these contortions? I've decided that I'll use the higher amount of active dry to replace fresh yeast if there's lots of sugar in the recipe, but the lower amount if there's little sugar in the recipe.

-Elizabeth

Here is a nifty javascript that one of my sisters created after hearing about this:

• javascript conversion chart (this is a link)

edit: Ooops!!! I hit "save" by mistake. I MEANT to hit "preview". I think I've finished fixing things now. Have fun with the conversion chart!

Also may be of interest:

• Fresh Loaf: Yeast FAQ
• Fresh Loaf Forum: Fresh Yeast Question
• Fresh Loaf Forum: Using Fresh Yeast?

Hi everyone.  I need some help via understanding of the difference between Active dry yeast and instant yeast.  The recipe I am making called for 1/4 tsp instant yeast, all I had was active dry yeast and I add that (2 1/4 tsp) to water with sugar for my pizza dough.  I am attempting to make the no-knead Ciabetta bread which said use 1/4 tsp instant yeast added to the dry ingredients, then the water and mix.  Can anyone help me with this question of quanity and if they are interchangable and if they are how would I adjuct the amount to use.  Thanks you so much, I sure will appreciate your input.  Karen

At the risk of committing heresy, I wonder if instant or dry active yeast could be the basis of a good sourdough starter. Here's my reasoning:

I'm told that dry active yeast has been 'engineered' to be very active and supplies a very high concentration of yeast to make bread rise quickly and consistantly. Intant yeast is very easy to use but works so quickly that it sacrifices the depth of flavor one gets with a long, slow ferment.

Can instant yeast be slowed down enough by using less of it? Is it possible to use a SMALL measure of instant yeast added to a water/flour mixture, and let it slowly ferment, feeding daily and end up with a viable sourdough starter? After all, isn't it the bacteria and acids that give the flavor to a loaf of sourdough? If those bacteria are provided (mostly) from the flour, then it would seem logical that instant yeast could provide a fool-proof beginning to a very strong starter for a beginner. Could that same instant yeast be used to revive a neglected starter, overwhelmed starter?

Am I out in left field here?

Phxdog (Scott)