The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Tip - Substitute IDY for Osmotolerant Yeast?

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Tip - Substitute IDY for Osmotolerant Yeast?

While preparing our next Community Bake featuring Babka (high in sugar) the thought that many bakers may not have Osmotolerant Yeast on hand comes to mind. Some claim that the percentage of Instant Dry Yeast can be increased to compensate for the high percentage of sugar.

Does anyone have experience and/or knowledge of this?

Thanks in Advance,
Danny

Here is the information that others have provided

  1. From WildYeastBlog -
    “ SAF Gold is available from a number of online sources. However, if you can’t get it and have recipe that calls for it, you can use regular instant yeast (SAF Red, for example), and just increase the amount by about 30%.”
  2. From Jeffrey Hamelman -
    ” I don't use osmotolerant (nor fresh any more), just IDY. If the sugar is above about 10%, I'd go with half the weight of the fresh.”
  3. From Martin Philip -
    ” Couple thoughts on yeast and conversions. 
    When converting from fresh to dry, in addition to the recommendations on the package, I consider some factors, including preferments (or lack, thereof), length of bulk fermentation, mix style, genre of product, and even production scheduling. And then I test. And test again. Sometimes .33 will work, other instances require .40, or even .45. As far as Osmotolerant vs. the standard stuff, I know there are people who swear by the Osmo—but there are others who’ve never used it and make great bread. And, there are people who swear by it for use with any yeasted breads which also include a sourdough preferment (Ciril Hitz, for example).“
Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

but this starter prep is interesting... and a comment further down about using yeast water.

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/399448#comment-399448

bblearner's picture
bblearner