December 1, 2020 - 8:19am
Bagels-Instant or active dry yeast
I have seen great recipes for using both. I happen to have both. Assuming at this time I don't plan on retarding the dough, just mix, bulk ferment, shape and boil. My own knowledge says instant yeast because it's fast acting but the recipe I'm following at the moment says to use active dry and the time from mixing to boiling is 1 hour and 30 minutes. Do active dry bagels made overnight have better flavor? Can I use them with the same result when making a quick(no poolish) recipe? Thank you for your time!
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I think instant would work better if you're doing this quickly in the 90 minutes you mentioned above - so use instant over active in that case. Instant doesn't require proofing and can be added directly to the flour/dough rather than in water first as it "instantly" activates - so it gets it moving faster. That said, both can be cold proofed (so long as you don't use too much). But I don't personally think you'll find the taste of one over the other will be different the next day as you would in a sourdough version. Why not make a dozen and cook six right away and leave six for the the neext day as a test. If you do, let me know. Hope that helps.
PS. If you happen to have or ever find yourself with some starter try this recipe: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/sourdough-bagel/ We made them a few weeks ago. They're very good and well worth the effort.
Thanks for taking the time to answer!
Hi! For what it's worth, I've tried both dry active yeast and instant - both SAF. I've had more success with instant. How did yours turn out?