December 14, 2014 - 5:25am
Fresh Yeast
I have recently purchased my first block of fresh yeast. I am so excited to used it! I have never used fresh yeast before so I would appreciate any pointers.
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I have recently purchased my first block of fresh yeast. I am so excited to used it! I have never used fresh yeast before so I would appreciate any pointers.
I am a huge fan of fresh yeast. I made brioche with it a couple of weeks ago. I love using it with enriched breads.
...what you don't use - it keeps well for weeks.
Cheers
In the fridge. Im still using some I bought 4 weeks ago. Not sure how much longer though but still looks and smells ok.
If it begins to smell funny or gets any brown spots then it's bad. If it dries out a little then just cut the dry bits off. Otherwise should last you a while.
You can always freeze half and keep half in the fridge.
Fresh yeast smells great and is thoroughly reliable and consistent. It is cheap as chips (20p for 100g in UK) and stores many many weeks in the fridge. It has never gone moldy on me, but after 1-2 months it will seem damper than before and more like putty than a crumbly yeast. That's when I swap it out for new. Use twice the amount of fresh yeast as dry yeast in recipes.
Experiment with different quantities of yeast to achieve short or long fermentations as desired. e.g for a swift basic loaf made in 2-3 hours use say 4-5g in 500g flour. To make the same loaf with loads more flavour, just drop the yeast to 1g and leave the dough out at room temp overnight and shape and bake next day.
Enjoy.
Thanks everyone for the great tips. I can't wait to see how my first loaf turns outs!