The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

fresh yeast

The Egg Lady's picture
The Egg Lady

fresh yeast

Does anyone know where I can buy fresh (cake) yeast.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

It might help If we knew where or in what city you are looking. 

Fresh yeast is kept in a refrigerated area. Ask at your favourite market.

Abe's picture
Abe

I'll pre-empt her reply. Some supermarkets that have a bakery section may sell it. But even if its not on display one can walk into bakeries or any of the bigger supermarkets which have a bakery and ask for some. 

The Egg Lady's picture
The Egg Lady

Sorry, I should have said where I am. I am in Snohomish, WA USA. I've been to every grocery store, asked at the in store bakery, business costco, even the bread lab in Mt. Vernon, WA. The only place I find online is for one pound for $72, shipped from New York. I think I need a connection through some business that can buy from the big wholesalers. It's getting really frustrating.

alcophile's picture
alcophile

You might inquire at ethnic specialty grocers. They may cater to bakers that prefer to use the cake yeast.

idaveindy's picture
idaveindy

Food wholesalers who cater to pizzerias might have it.  From some youtube videos I've seen, some independent non-chain pizzerias still use fresh yeast.

Because of the pandemic, some restaurant suppliers started selling to the public. Call around and see what their terms and minimum order might be. You might have to also buy a 25 or 50 pound bag of flour, or a 10 pound bag of mozzarella cheese, along with a pound of fresh yeast in order to make the minimum order.

There are at least a couple such where I live.  Both require that the individual customer go and pick up the items at their location. They don't ship or deliver to non-businesses, or rather the minimum for delivery on company trucks would be in the hundreds of dollars.

HTH.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

near you. 

Abe's picture
Abe
The Egg Lady's picture
The Egg Lady

Wow, this is great! It looks like QFC and Fred Meyer have fresh yeast. I'm going shopping tomorrow, so I'll see what I can get. Thank you so much, all of you, for some great ideas.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

be fresh yeast?  

The Egg Lady's picture
The Egg Lady
  • Yes, I had a request from a friend in Canada to find a recipe to make a bread that she buys from a speciality bakery that has become harder to get. She doesn't like sourdough, so that eliminated my first try. Her Austrian parents always used fresh yeast, he was a baker back in Austria in the old days. So that's what I was trying to work out for her. After several batches, I have worked out a good equivalent to "3 korn" bread. It's a rye bread with sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and flax seeds in it. She can't  find fresh yeast anymore either, so I gave her the amount of active dry to use. AD Works fine, but it would be fun to have fresh again. I love the aroma of fresh yeast. It's what I used as a teenager, and also in baking school, so I miss it.
  • By the way, fred meyer and QFC didn't have it after all. I'll keep searching a wholesale opportunity. In the meantime, I also love my sourdough.
Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

the local Italian super market Ferraro Foods carried it.  It was only a few years ago.  Many locals still bake with fresh yeast. It looked more like cut up chunks of cheese unlabled except for the weight and price sticker.

Abe's picture
Abe

So to make your own fresh yeast: 

https://youtu.be/f0LsLMS5DYM

P.s. Italian 00 flour is very weak flour and not any flour finely ground. 

wonner's picture
wonner

I can find fresh yeast at a few different pasty shops and one grocery store that has a bakery. Each has been happy to sell me a pound whenever I need it.

The problem is that the minimum purchase is a pound because that is how it is packaged. The last time I bought some it was about $7 per pound.

The problem is the 2-3 week shelf life. As a home baker, I can barely put a dent in a 1 lb pkg. And to be honest, I cannot tell the difference in the finished product versus using instant yeast.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

With a one pound package or block of fresh yeast, I would cut it into 21g cubes, wrap individually and pop into a freezer container to freeze for later use. Not a problem to freeze.   Each 21g cube can easily raise 500g AP wheat flour.