The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Does anyone else here ONLY make yeast breads?

Samin2016's picture
Samin2016

Does anyone else here ONLY make yeast breads?

I’ve tried doing sourdough multiple times.

im obviously challenged and can’t get it down.

it kinda makes me feel terrible but honestly ...I think I’m giving up (I’ve literally tried so many times).

does anyone else here ONLy bake breads where you add commercial yeast?  

I almost feel like a fake baker (even with yeast I always follow a recipe) and need some validation lol....

Floydm's picture
Floydm

I think a lot of people use commercial yeast most if not all of the time, but admittedly sourdough is the hot thing right now. Also, learning how to maintain a starter and bake with sourdough is much more unpredictable, so those folks end up asking a lot more questions here, which makes it look like everyone is doing it. 95 percent of the time commercial yeast just works, whereas with sourdough it's like 10 or 20 success until you know what you are doing.

yozzause's picture
yozzause

Always following a recipe is good especially if its proven to be a good one. Baking with fresh and dried yeast are as Floyd says more likely to give consistent results, and  nothing breeds success like success. I think its a good idea to do a bit of an apprenticeship with commercial yeasted  doughs  before tackling the more difficult Sour Doughs. The last thing we want is for people to give up before they've even got going.  I like to engage all the  different fermentation agents   dried yeast,  compressed fresh yeast,  beer barm and even with these play around with long and short fermentation times as well as cold overnight  retardation. I guess S/D is often considered the Holy Grail, but at the end of the day we all want something decent to show for our time and efforts.

kind regards Derek

BernardH's picture
BernardH

In general I dislike sour tastes and for that reason sourdough doesn't appeal.The way I see it is that so long as I bake a loaf more to my liking than those I can buy in the shops I'm doing well. Yeast is simply an essential ingredient, unless you are making soda bread. I choose to use commercial bakers yeast rather than sourdough yeast, brewing yeast, or wine making yeast.

According to  Wikipedia S. cerevisiae has been cultivated for baking bread since the late 19th century to give bakers better control over the behaviour of their yeasts. Later on technologists learned how to dry the yeast to improve its shelf life. I'm grateful that all this work has given me reliable instant dried yeast that I simply weigh into my bread mix to get (mostly!) consistent results.

I always follow a recipe, maybe sometimes tweaking it a bit, because otherwise I don't know what I'm doing.

Colin2's picture
Colin2

My last sourdough phase was a couple of years ago, mainly because my beloved doesn't like the sour flavor.  There's lots to keep me busy in commercially-yeasted breads.

I frequently come back to Reinhart's books or to Hamelman's _Bread_ and follow one of their recipes to the letter.  It's a great way to get out of a rut and try something new.

And ... while this is controversial, I suggest there is something to be said for starting your bread education with commercial yeast.  This is because it's so easy to control, and lets you focus on learning dough development and shaping and dealing with the oven and a lot of other things that then transfer over to sourdough.

zachyahoo's picture
zachyahoo

I almost exclusively bake with sourdough now, but I absolutely recommend that new bakers start with commercial yeast!

There is just soooo much to learn about baking without having to worry about the sourdough part!

I do think that if you’ve “mastered” (relative term of course) baking breads with commercial yeast, sourdough is not *that* much harder. The time scale will be lengthened, perhaps considerably. But that’s a good thing! More flavor is great!

I think many think that sourdough is more difficult than it actually is. And also, many seem to have an association with SD that it’s always super sour. I’d push back a lot on that stereotype. 

If you’re using mostly white flour, I‘d say (hopefully not too controversially) it’s easier to end up with a loaf that isn’t sour than is! I overfermented a SD loaf a couple days ago due to so much heat in my kitchen, and so I baked it the same day. Absolutely no sour flavor– it was very buttery and delicious.

idaveindy's picture
idaveindy

Sam,  at what point were you hitting the road-block?  In creating the starter?  Or, after having created the starter, at getting a decent loaf?

If your road-block was getting the starter going, have you tried obtaining a dehydrated starter culture and re-activating it?     carlsfriends.net sends out dehydrated starters for just a S.A.S.E and a suggested $1 donation.  

Amazon.com and breadtopia.com sell dehydrated starters for about $11.

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Another possible source is asking friends/neighbors on Facebook or nextdoor.com for wet/fresh starter that is already going strong.

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Also, plenty of artisan bread cookbooks have plenty of formulas for 100% commercial yeast, including Reinhart, Forkish, Lahey, Hamelman, Leader, Carol Field, and Hertzberg/Francois.  

Bon appétit, amigo.

t.mauery's picture
t.mauery

I only use commercial yeast, mainly for two reasons.  1) I don't really like the taste of sourdough, and 2) my schedule is too irregular to be able to baby the starter and levain like it needs.

I like my bread.  My family likes my bread. 

The best bread is what you make.

Meat5000's picture
Meat5000 (not verified)

Made a starter when there was no yeast in the shops. Now I use mostly starter then a little dried yeast to counter the sour taste. The dried yeast lasts longer then.

Starter takes longer to rise so if you bake for the family every day, dry yeast is better; faster.

At the moment I have Dried, dried instant, Fresh, Starter and raisin water.

Im using the Fresh yeast first as it has closest expiry. Next in line Ill use Starter with a pinch of dried for savouries and Ill use raisin water and a pinch of dried for sandwich loaves.

Raisin water is superior to Starter in that it apparently doesnt build brewing yeast. A 200ml culture provides ~24 loaves from just 50g of raisins.