My stand mixer came with a small cookbook that includes a basic white bread recipe. Makes good bread, but I’m really wondering if two packets of active dry yeast are really necessary in a recipe that yields two loaves. Might one packet work if I allow longer rise time?
I make our bread by hand. Two loaves(6 cups flour) and 1.5 tsp.(packet is 2.25 tsp) of yeast. I don’t use packets, I buy the jar.
The rise times are longer.
Yeast reproduces. More yeast brings results faster, though I have read that the more time you give the yeast, the more flavor it imparts. I myself find that if you give the yeast more time you get a chewier bread, though this is not necessarily bad.
So, there’s that. Based on my experience, I’d only want to use two packets if I was pressed for time.
Also, frankly I find the price of yeast by the packet to be outrageous, when Kroger sells a jar of 113 grams of yeast for $2.50. But if you’re not making bread often, it probably doesn’t matter much.
I believe you generally can, but it does affect the flavor. Lower yeast / longer rise bread will be, I believe, less sweet and have a harder crust. There’s a limit to how much you can reduce it by, obviously, but I would bet you could get away with halving it (a full packet per loaf does sound potentially high).
I use dried yeast at a pinch (and when I’m using the breadmaker and delaying the start) but if I have chance I ask the bakery section of the local superstore for some of their fresh yeast. I always offer to buy but they end up bagging it up and giving it to me for nothing anyway.
When I use that, my bread is noticeably tastier and more “open” with a stronger beery smell whilst rising. yum.
I buy my yeast and flour in bulk at Sam’s Club or Costco. You can buy a couple pounds of dried yeast for about $5. I use 1 T of yeast for 2 loaves of bread per this recipe for white sandwich bread from Julia Child.
2.5 C warm water (about 105 degrees. I have an instant read thermometer - great investment)
7 C bread flour
4 T Butter, softened
1 T sugar (I use honey for a little extra flavour)
1 T salt (I use kosher salt)
1 T yeast
In a bowl mix warm water, sweetener and yeast. I use a tupperware type plastic bowl with a lid so I can shake it up to mix it. Let sit for 5 minutes to proof the yeast. Put the rest of the water and about have the flour in a mixing bowl and combine A stand mixer is your friend. Add the rest of the flour and the yeast mixture. When the dough comes together, add the butter one tablespoon at a time. Mix again until the dough comes back together. Add more flour if the consistancy warrents it. The flour/water ratio is roughly 3-1, but humidity and other things can change it. Knead about 10 minutes with your mixer, then put it on a floured surface and knead by hand until you get the dough right. You’ll know it when you feel it, but you can do the window test and take a walnut-sized ball of dough, flatten it out and pull it until the dough has a membrane, rather than just bbreaking apart.
Rise your dough until it’s doubled. When putting the dough in the bowl (or whatever) to rise, grease the bowl and turn the dough around in it so it is coated with the grease. That way it won’t dry out. I always had a hard time figuring out when “doubling” had occurred, because bowls have flared sides and it just doesn’t tell you. Now I use Alton Brown’s trick of rising my dough in a cylindrical plastic food starage container. I put a rubberband around at the level of the dough, and another at twice that height. When the dough reaches the 2nd band, your dough has risen enough. Turn out your dough and knead it a bit to get the air bubbles out. Divide it in two. Shape into loaves and let rise again in the bread pans, covered with plastic wrap.
Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 35 minutes or until the internal temp of the bread is between 190-200 degrees. I use my instant read thermometer to check it. Cool on a wire rack. They say that you shouldn’t cut into it when it’s still hot, because chemical reactions are still gong on. I can’t resist warm bread with strawberry preserves.
StG
I was actually posting this very thing, when I noticed your post above mine (we were about to do a simulpost).
Anyway, if you really need to conserve on yeast, look up no-knead bread. IIRC, it’s like 1/8 tsp yeast to 3 cups of flour or something like that, along with an 14 hour or more rise/fermentation step.
I personally prefer using less yeast with longer rise times (up to a day or even two) for flavor.
I’m not super-worried about conserving yeast, but it did seem to me like 1 packet per loaf might be a bit much.
Next run, I’ll have to try some of the suggestions here.