Yeast Activity

[gjbingham]

Thanks Jim,
Good explaination. I've seen the bricks. Someow, I thought they'd have a consistency of Tofu. (yuk!)

[CanuckJim]

RC,

As a general rule of thumb, you use more ADY than IDY in a recipe because IDY is designed to have more active cells per measure than ADY, hence its "instant" designation. As well, if the dough will be retarded, less yeast (either kind) is used because of the long, slow, cold fermentation. I, too, have noticed the discrepancies in the yeast and salt measures in various places for Caputo pizza dough. My forte is bread, not pizza, so I'd hope the very active pizza guys would chime in so we can eliminate problems and correct the docs.

Jim

[Mojoe]

From the Fleischmann's ADY packet: "Stir 1 envelope contents into 1/4 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees F). To proof (foam Yeast), stir in 1 teaspoon sugar; let stand 10 minutes. If mixture doubles in volume, yeast is active. For non dissolving recipes: If yeast is added directly to a portion of the flour and other dry ingredients, heat liquids to 120 to 130 degrees F."

I always thought adding sugar to yeast was punishable by death, guess I should read directions more often. Same holds true for adding more water than what is called for... no foam.

[dmun]

Originally Posted by Mojoe

I always thought adding sugar to yeast was punishable by death, guess I should read directions more often.

Yeasts love sugar like cats love tuna. If you want fast yeast action, give them sugar. If you want slower dough development, making them work to convert the complex carbohydrates in flour into the sugar they need, they will give you a bonus of complex flavors, as other things are happening at the same time as the long rise. Hence the cult of flour-salt-water-yeast only.

That said, on Christmas I made my old white bread recipe I've been making since I was a teenager, full of sugar and butter and milk. That blast of sweet buttery-yeasty odor when you cut it open isn't going to please any bread snobs, but it's sure good eating.

[DrakeRemoray]

Originally Posted by dmun

That blast of sweet buttery-yeasty odor when you cut it open isn't going to please any bread snobs, but it's sure good eating.

There is room in my bread-snob-head for all kinds of bread...
At Thanksgiving, I made some of those potato-butter rolls from Bernard Clayton's book (I think they are called Lenora's rolls). They are a huge hit...
Drake

[Dutchoven]

We made yeast rolls for some of our customers here in the south for the holidays...simple, direct and very yeasty...they were really off our radar(to steal one of Jims lines)...made them at Thanksgiving and there was a higher demand for them at Christmas...go figure...and these are some of my best hearth bread customers
Dutch

[CanuckJim]

Dutch,

I've had a similar experience with plain, white pan bread, rolls and, believe it, biscuits. I'd use the biscuit flour available in the South (forget the name), but it's not available here. There's plenty of room, as Drake points out, for all types of bread so long as it's real. I'm sure we've all had a yen for a Mars Bar, Almond Joy, Pepsi and whatnot.

Jim

[Dutchoven]

Jim
I so agree...some things are just sooo good...tried something quite interesting in the past few days in the modern oven...bavarian pumpernickel...the one that is really dense and moist and uses cooked rye berries...flavor was great but have to work on technique as the handling is quite different than that of what I am used to
Best
Dutch

[BrianShaw]

Originally Posted by CanuckJim

I'd use the biscuit flour available in the South (forget the name), but it's not available here.

White Lily? or Martha White? A long, long time ago when I did business in the South I'd bring an extra suitcase to bring back a supply of these flours. Oh, what I'd give to have a local source!

[BrianShaw]

Originally Posted by Mojoe

From the Fleischmann's ADY packet: "yada x3"

The "rules" are in my opinion a bit more flexible than they say. The jar (an old spagetti sauce jar) full of ADY in my freezer has been there 2 years and it is still quite vibrant. I use it directly out of the freezer and most often don't melt/proof it - it just gets dumped into the the flour pile and activated from there.

Sure, ADY is cheap enough to throw out... but there is a bit of Scottish/Yankee thriftiness left in me that compels me to keep using it if it still works... and it is still working into its third year in the freezer.

Thanks to all for the confessions re: white bread - that was my only bread-baking accomplishment over the holiday break. To kill the curse, I rolled cinnimon sugar into it and make what my wife characterized as "just as good as what comes from the store shelf". I suppose that is a compliment.