There are basically five brands of baker's yeast in the US - Fleischman's, Red Star, SAF, Bakipan and Fermipan. Most supermarkets carry only Fleischman;s and Red Star, and if there's a difference in the two, I've never been able to detect it. Red Star, SAF and bakipan Yeast are owned the same company, LeSaffre, and I haven't noticed any difference between it and the supermarket brands.
The difference between active dry yeast and instant yeast is the instant yeast has smaller particles that activate more quickly, and thus dough rises more rapidly, sometimes cutting rise times up to 50%. Youo can't easily adjust rise times in a bread machine, so you want to use 2/3 as much instant yeast as active dry. Refrigerated dough expect some of the rise to happen when the dough warms, so it's better to use active dry for them
Like active dry yeast, you proof it in water that's 110-115F. That's slightly warmer than body temperaturre, but by no means hot. You can put the yeast in with the flour instead of proofing it, and liquids that are 130F are best. Bread machines expect liquids about 80F. Thermometers are cheap; ingredients (including your time, energy and reputation) are not.
A packet of yeast is 0.25 ounces, so a pound is equal to 21 3-packet strips of yeast, saving you about 85% on your yeast costs. The two pound size costs 50% more than this one-pound size, so if you use a LOT of yeast, buy it instead. (If you have a septic tank, flush a teaspoon once a week for a "green" alternative to Rid-X.) When using this yeast, measure out 2.25 teaspoons to replace one packet of yeast.
Yeast is best stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer, but it should be used at room temperature. The yeast expands to about 3 cups when you break the vacuum, so fill a pint glass jar with yeast and stash it in the freezer, and use a glass one-cup container in the refrigerator as your "working" supply. When you are making something, remove the jar from the fridge, measure out what you need, and immediately reseal the glass jar and return it to the fridge before moisture can condense. An opened package is supposed to last 4 months in a tightly sealed, refrigerated bottle, but it lasts a year or more for me by doing that.
Proofing tells you whether the yeast is still active. Dissolve a teaspoon of table sugar into a half cup of 110-115F water, then stir in 2.25 teaspoons of yeast until none of it floats on top. In 10 minutes, the bubbles should reach the one-cup line on the measuring cup. If it doesn't, you need to replace your yeast. If it's close, you can use extra yeast, but you need to order more yeast right away, because too much yeast gives dough an off taste.
I have a Salvation Army store tablespoon I've dented up so it holds just that much, used only as my "yeast scoop", much like people have coffee scoops, Miralax measuring cups, measuring cups in the lids of their laundry detergent, etc. Some would call me lazy; I call it efficient.
To use this yeast in a recipe that calls for cake yeast, you need to know what size cake is called for. Currently, yeast cakes are 2 ounces, but different sizes were made by different companies in the past. As a rule of thumb, one packet will leaven up to four cups of flour. Using bulk yeast, that means at least 0.6 teaspoons of yeast per cup of flour.
Yeast has a love/hate relationship with sugar. Too much sugar competes for the water, and stressed-out thirsty yeast doesn't work very hard, resulting in a heavy product. Sweet doughs (more than a half cup of sugar to four cups of flour) need extra yeast, perhaps as much as double. Yeasts eat sugar, though, and when you have only the wheat sugars, no added sugar, as in pizza crust, you get the chewy crust of a pizza.
Fat gives your baked goods more moistness, but it slows rising and too much will stop it entirely. High protein flours, such as bread flours, have the structure to rise high, but if you knead it too long, the dough is too stiff to rise properly. Cake flour made Colonel Sanders' original chicken finger-licking good, but it hasn't enough gluten to build a strong loaf twelve ways. Self-rising flours have baking powder and baking soda in them, both of which are unhealthy for a growing yeast. And you want to be careful not to use too much salt, and to blend it thoroughly with the flour before adding liquids, because it will slow or stop rising.
I live in seniors housing, and the first week I was here, I brought fresh hot dinner rolls to a potluck dinner, and ever since, I get called "Steve, the bread baker". Great homemade breads and other baked goods will open a lot of doors, socially, and it mostly required *bread* flour, good yeast, and (especially if your hands have become acquainted with "Art Ritis" as mine have), a good stand mixer with dough hook.
I used to have a small baking business. I still bake a fair amount of bread, all with my own personal recipes. I use only quality ingredients, and raw honey for the sweetener. Saf is the best yeast, better than the other two major companies. This is granulated yeast, and you measure it by the teaspoonful. I keep mine in the freezer in a tight plastic container, and use it directly from the freezer, putting the container right back in. I used to buy this yeast from the big famous baking catalog, but I'm so happy that it's available on Amazon. I buy everything from Amazon! At this point in my life, I just use the Zo bread machines to bake my bread. They tell you to put the dry yeast granules on the top of all the other ingredients, but I don't follow those directions. I always "proof" my yeast, which gives it a head start, by letting it sit for 10 minutes or so in the warm liquid with a little bit of honey, before adding the other ingredients. If you're going to go to the trouble of making homemade bread, please use good yeast.
NOTE: It seems that people reading this did NOT find my review helpful. I want you to know this is the best yeast there it. Keep it in the freezer, and it lasts for at least a year. Amazon ships really fast. Hope this helps. :)
This yeast is perfect for no kneed artisan bread (see picture of artisan bread made in 5 qt lodge cast iron pot). This yeast is made to add to dry ingredients. This yeast does NOT need to first proof in warm liquid. Recommend you not add it to liquid. Add it to your dry ingredients or add it to your autolyzed flour/water. After opening I placed half in the freezer in a zip lock bag and half in an air tight container in the refrigerator. Update: 06/26/2016 I have been using this instant yeast almost weekly for several years now. This yeast does a wonderful job of raising dough and making no knead bread. I use it for no knead bread, pizza dough, cinnamon rolls, dinner roles, kaiser rolls, fougasse, ciabatta, bagels, babka, rye bread, sourdough bread, raisin bread, etc. I have taught about 12 friends and neighbors in my kitchen how to bake no knead bread and always give them some SAF yeast in a container to get them started when they go home. Highly recommend.
I have used up my first pound and reordered, meaning, this stuff is great.
Primarily, I bake my own bread:
1. I don't have to run to the store
2. I know what's in the bread
3. get rewarded with freshly baked bread that tastes great.
Since I started to use this yeast, all my projects turned out to be as good, if not better, than the recipe promised.
I used it for regular white bread, german rye (which reminds me, to make a sourdough starter), made a raisin bread, baguettes and more.
I haven't bought bread from the store for a while, only if time doesn't allow me (very hungry) and coincidentally I am in the store, have I bought bread. Sometimes, I regret to have done this....
I am a German and Germans eat bread, hi, hi.
I've been baking for decades and this is the most reliable, best yeast I have ever used for home baking. If kept cold, it has a shelf life beyond the expiration date as I learned by accident. I had neglected to re-order this yeast and discovered after starting a loaf that my refrigerated package had expired four months ago! No time to go to the store, I used what I had and the loaf of bread rose perfectly. I typically start any yeast dough in my ancient bread maker on the dough cycle and this yeast works exceptionally well for all types of flours and breads. It's also good to use on a monthly basis in septic tanks.
Feature Product
- Safe Instant Yeast is one of the top selling yeasts in the world
- Comes in a large, 16-ounce (1 Pound) vacuum-packed bag
- Store in an airtight container; for 6 months at room temperature or in the fridge; or for a year or longer in your freezer
- Fast acting and long lasting
- Saf Instant Yeast is one of the top selling yeasts in the world
Description
SAF is easy to use (no proofing or pre-dissolving); it's fast-acting and long-lasting, continuing to work for hours longer than "rapid" yeast. It's absolutely reliable.
Store in an airtight container: for 6 months at room temperature or in the fridge; or for a year or longer in your freezer.
I've been baking bread for 45 years (with a 25-year break), starting out with fresh "cake" yeast .... And I've tried just about all the different brands of dried yeast granules. This is less than half the price of its competition but seems to do the job better and more consistently than any other yeast. It works great for both hand-kneaded bread and in my Breadman bread machine. Don't waste your money on anything else!
This is a great product at a great price. If you normally buy yeast in the little jars or, gods help you, those silly little condom-sized packets, STOP NOW! You're getting robbed. This is a POUND of high quality yeast--the same kind my friend, a prosperous artisanal baker uses in his fancy bakery--at a very reasonable price. I keep mine in a cheap crock with a rubber seal in the freezer and it is as good at the end as when it is fresh--and we make bread 1-2 times a week, plus our own pizza crust. If I was using those little packets it would cost me $100 a year on yeast alone, maybe more.
I tried many other shelf brand in the supermarkets in bread machine but all failed, I thought it was the way we store yeast to made it fail, but no matter how we store the yeast, room or fridge, those brands ALL fail, finally I gave up making bread.
Recently, we found the SAF Traditional yeast in Trader Joe's, we tried again and put it into our Panasonic bread machine, IT WORKED, however, Trader Joe's no longer carry those Traditional Yeast and also they are expensive, and I started looking for alternatives in SAF brand. I was suspicious if anything other than SAF Traditional Yeast will work in our bread machine because we failed too many times, we even bought again the "blue" brand from local supermarket and give it another try. Failed, period.
Finally, I decided to give this SAF INSTANT Yeast a try. Boom! THE BREAD WAS RISED TO A POINT I'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE! THIS YEAST IS AMAZING! Now everytime I put this SAF Instant Yeast into my bread machine it gives PERFECT rise to the dough.
Now it proved that it's THE TYPE OF YEAST, not everything else! Don't waste your money and confidence by purchasing the wrong type of yeast. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS SAF INSTANT YEAST!
Great quality yeast at a really cheap price.
Who am I to judge, but I'm a bit suspicious of reviews that state that the yeast didn't work (It worked fine for 50 other reviewers, but not for them? Go figure...)
If you buy this from Amazon you get 16 oz. of yeast for about the same price as 4 oz of yeast in those strips you buy at the supermarket. I just tossed the whole one-pound package into a zip-lock bag and keep it in my refrigerator.
Make SURE you understand the difference between the different types of yeast (which can be confusing!) This product is INSTANT YEAST. Here's some great info from the amazing folks at Cooks Illustrated:
Instant Yeasts: Also called "Instant," "Rapid Rise," or "Bread" instant yeasts are also processed to 95 percent dry matter, but are subjected to a gentler drying process than active dry. As a result, every dried particle is living, or active. This means the yeast can be mixed directly with recipe ingredients without first being dissolved in water or proofed. It is in this context that the yeast is characterized as "instant." We prefer instant yeast in the test kitchen. It combines the potency of fresh yeast with the convenience of active dry, and it is considered by some to have a cleaner flavor than active dry because it contains no dead cells. (In our months of testing, we found this to be true when we made a lean baguette dough but could detect no difference in flavor when using the two yeasts in doughs made with milk, sugar, and butter.)
To substitute active dry for instant (or rapid rise) yeast: Use 25 percent more active dry. For example, if the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of instant yeast, use 1 1/4 teaspoons of active dry. And don't forget to "prove" the yeast, i.e. dissolving it in a portion of the water from the recipe, heated to 105 degrees.
To substitute instant (or rapid rise) yeast for active dry: Use about 25 percent less. For example if the recipe calls for 1 packet or 2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast, use 1 3/4 teaspoons of instant yeast. And you do not need to prove the yeast, just add it to the dry ingredients.
To substitute fresh yeast for active dry yeast, use a ratio of roughly 2:1, i.e. use one small cake (0.6 ounce) of compressed fresh yeast in lieu of 1 packet (.25 ounces) of active dry yeast.
Note a packet of active dry or instant yeast contains about 2 1/4 teaspoons (.25 ounces) of yeast.
I ordered this for my mom after her latest bread failure from using grocery store yeast packets. I switched to SAF many years ago am so glad it is easier to find now. I found out about it when telling a professional baker that i could never get my bread to rise and was tired of wasting all the ingredients on failures. She informed me that the problem was not using good yeast and told me about SAF. With SAF, I make wonderful breads without failures. And it keeps years after the date when stored in the refrigerator. I do not bake yeast breads without SAF yeast.
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