January 11, 2013 - 4:17pm
Storage of fresh compressed yeast
After searching all over the place for a store that sells indivdual packages of compressed cake yeast, I gave up and purchased a one pound o block of fresh compressed yeast from a local bakery. Is it possible to freeze the block to extend the shelf life?
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yes, Rennie, you can successfully freeze compressed yeast, but only in individual portions, because it doesn't keep well after defrosting.
Separate whatever you need from the block of the fresh yeast to last you about a month, and keep it in the refrigertor. The rest of the block of compressed yeast you portion is smaller cubes, not more than what you need for each portion of dough that you usually bake in one day. Wrap each cube of fresh yeast in saran wrap and deep freeze them (under -18C|0F). It will definitely keep well frozen up to a year this way.
Before using frozen compressed yeast, take a portion of frozen yeast and place it in regular refrigerator to slowly defrost for 24 hrs. It will then be exactly like fresh compressed yeast. The difference in fermentation rate between fresh 'fresh' and frozen for 1 year 'fresh' yeast is only 3%, you will barely notice it in practice.
source of information
Baker's yeast, article by Bernard Poitrenaud, Lesaffre International, France
in Handbook of Food and Beverage Fermentation Technology By Stig Friberg, Yiu H. Hui, 2004you can read this article in full here. It's in English, just wait a few seconds while it loads up.
http://wenku.baidu.com/view/15727d260722192e4536f662.html?from=related
I portion my fresh yeast into 15g pieces, wrap each in cling film (plastic wrap) and place them in a thick freezer bag before placing in the freezer. If your freezer is one with blown air cooling I would suggest that you place the bag out of the direct air flow. Each 15g raises 500g of flour in about the usual time referred to in most "standard" recipes.
Happy Baking