June 12, 2009 - 1:06pm
Questions About Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast
Hi everyone! I'm new to tfl and baking. I have Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast. Do I need to start puting it in water to activate it or is it ok that I just put it in my dry ingredients? Also, do average grocery stores sell cheaper yeast then Fleischmann's yeast?
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The active dry yeast needs to be dissolved as the granules are larger. Rapid or instant yeasts can be added directly to the dough. Dave
I bought one of those packages of Red Star over two years ago and it's still going strong for me. Keep it in the fridge.
I'm with Ken. Buy your yeast in large quantities and just keep it cold (I freeze mine, but the fridge is fine). And if you have the option use instant yeast, not active dry. The smaller granules dissolve more easily, which means you can add it directly to your dry ingredients instead of dissolving it. Much more convenient, and a little more flexible (you can, for example, autolyze your water and flour, then add the yeast later, and it'll work in just fine... good luck trying that with active dry! :).
I buy two kinds of Fleischmann's yeast (Ontario, Canada). I buy either 450 grams of Instant Yeast or 900 grams of Active Dry yeast. Those quantities are the cheapest I can find.
When I open up the package, I store about 150 grams in a container at room temperature and put the rest in the freezer. I pull out 150 grams or so at a time from the freezer.
You can add the Instant yeast to your dry ingredients. You do need to soak the Active Dry yeast for a few minutes to dissolve it. If you need your yeast to work promptly, you should let it hydrate for 15 minutes before adding your dry ingredients. If you do prolonged fermentations (slow) just dissolve it for two minutes and you will be fine.
When in doubt, dissolve your yeast in water - it does no harm to your recipes to dissolve the Instant kind.
I buy my active dry yeast in two pound (908g +/-) bags. I keep 1/3 in in the refrigerator for regular use and freeze the remaining 21 ounces (+/-) in two separate packages. I make sure it's never contaminated and test it every few weeks to see how much life it has left. It seems to last for ever.
I also, quite typically, mix my active dry yeast directly into the dry ingredients when preparing the dough. If a recipe calls for flour, yeast, salt, I whisk (sometimes sift) all of them together before adding the wet ingredients. It always works just fine without proofing the yeast in a water bath. I have found that proofing the yeast can produce little globs of yeast in the water (if it doesn't disolve completely) and that makes it even more difficult for it to be dsitributed evenly throughout the dough. As long as I know the yeast is alive and healthy I see no reason to proof it prior to including it in the mix.
Best buys in my area for y east are stores like Food For Less, Grocery Outlet, and the "big box" stores (COSTCO, Sams Club, etc.)
I found out by mistake that you do NOT need to dissolve Active Dry Yeast. I had made pizza dough when we had company coming, and used the absolute last gram of my King Arthur's Bread Flour. I had weighed out everything hours beforehand and put the yeast back in the fridge. You can guess the rest here... I made the dough and set it to autolyse, and then went in the fridge for something. Guess what I saw...
I quickly got the dough back out of the bowl and stretched it out into a fairly thin rectangle on my board. I sprinkled the Active Dry Yeast over the dough, gave it a few spritzes from my water bottle, and then folded it up neatly. I lightly kneaded it for about 3 mins, re-stretched and re-folded, then put it back in the bowl.
One of the best dough rises I've ever gotten from this recipe!
Needing to 'prove' or hydrate ADY is a wive's tale to me... It's good if your ADY is rather old or questionable, and you want to know for sure it's working first.
- Keith
We are visiting my sister-in-law and I brought some basic bread supplies and equipment to bake when the opportunity presented itself. Today I decided to make challah, but when I realized that my SIL's KA had no dough hook I decided to try autolysing to help with handmixing the dough. I'd never done it before and didn't really know what I was doing. I put all of the water and flour together, mixed it roughly, and then let is sit, covered, for 20 minutes.
I realized when I went to add the other ingredients that there was no water left to hydrate the yeast. And a bit worried when some of the grains of yeast sat in the corners of my dough bucket. I also realized that the oil and egg from the remaining ingredients might actually inhibit hydrating the yeast by coating it with fat. So I tried to knead the yeast in first before adding those ingredients.
It worked, everything rose beautifully! Hydration was not critical.
My SIL has limited freezer space, so instead of making 2 loaves I made cinnamon rolls with the second half of the dough which are retarding in the fridge to be baked tomorrow morning. They are the nicest looking cinnamon rolls I've ever made and I'm looking forward to tasting them.
The challah, BTW, was delicious!
Do ya think we should start a "Break withTradition" Club? ;-}
I finished my PR BBA Challah yesterday. We ate half the loaf for lunch today (made ham sandwiches out of it) and it was wonderful. I think I'll make another loaf this week.
yes, I agree as well. took me a while to figure out you need to dissolve it in water. until then, I used it straight in my dough. the only difference is that you usually get better yeast activity if you dissolve it.
Do I deduct water from the recipe to activate it?
Yes. Or, rather, you activate it in the water you will put into the recipe.
I purchase yeast at "big box" store Sam's Club. Two one pound bags are approximately $4.00. Can't beat that price. I place the yeast after I have opened a bag in a "Tupper Ware" type container and place in the freezer. Can last up to a year. the other bag I place in our kitchen cabinet. Seems to work out OK.