August 8, 2009 - 11:59am
Osmotolerant & active dry bakeoff
I made my fruitcake recipe with SAF Gold (osmotolerant) and Fleishmann Active Dry to see whether osmotolerant yeast makes a difference. The recipe has 15-18% sugar in it. The results are literally like night and day. I used 2% of the SAF Gold, vs 3% of the active dry. SAF Gold was ridiculously fast, in fact I've to cut down to 1.5% next time, bulk ferment was done in barely 1.5 hours, vs 4-5 hours with the active dry yeast. The difference was amazing. I did a bit more research on this, and it seems like below 10% sugar levels, it doesn't really matter which yeast you use (i.e osmotolerant or regular instant/active dry). But once sugar levels go above 10-12% it begins to make a difference. And now I can vouch for it..