Spur of the moment, I decided to try baker's yeast (aka brewer's yeast, aka compressed yeast) in my breadmaker bread instead of Surebake.

I sourced it through New World supermarket deli section (they sold me some of their own supply because the shop didn't stock it).

For each loaf I used 10g (2 tspns).

The loaf size remains the same. Colour is slightly nicer. Exterior is slightly more crisp initially, but softens later as per all breads.

However, the thing that really matters is that the loaf doesn't dry out. It's texture remains soft and moist after the day of making. So if you're sick of dry stale-seeming bread the day after, try using baker's yeast instead of Surebake.

One thing, as far as I know, baker's yeast is only viable for 1-2 weeks. It's made with live yeast cells mixed with a carbohydrate (usually cornflour?) and after 1-2 weeks the yeast has eaten all the carbohydrate so it runs out of food and dies. Has anyone ever tried sprinkling more cornflour (or sugar, or...)on baker's yeast to see if they can keep it viable for longer?

Back in the old days, I kept my compressed yeast in the freezer and it worked fine. I used to buy up bulk lots in supermarkets whenever I left Nigeria for civilisation, then put it into the freezer once back there. It still worked fine, but needed to be thawed out carefully to reactivate with sugar and flour squashed into it to make a runny liquid.

Compressed yeast made a far superior and tastier bread, and the smell of the baking lingered longer for some reason.

I totally agree with you about the difference yeast can make. I cannot stand Surebake or even the Tasti breadmachine yeast. Another alternative if you can't get hold of compressed yeast or don't want to mess with it is instant yeast. The Edmonds sachets are instant yeast, or if you are a member of a Gilmours/Moore Wilsons type place.. Bakels brand. The latter is seriously economical too - I use 0.75-1.5 teaspoons per batch (versus often 2-3t of surebake) and a 500g packet costs all of $3.75. I find the texture of the bread is quite different and I agree about the freshness aspect. I regularly am using a loaf 3 days after baking and it is completely edible and only just starting to dry.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2010 08:56AM by Jenna.

The more yeast you use the quicker the bread goes stale. I find that many recipe books tell you to use more yeast than is really needed. I use 1 1/2 tsp of active yeast (not Surebake) to 2c water and 750g flour to make a 1.5kg loaf but many books say to use 3 tsp for a 1kg loaf.

Penny, if you use so little yeast, does it mean that the only difference is in the rising time, which would be longer?

Thanks for your comments, they've been really helpful.

As you mention Jenna, my bread is now into the third day and still as fresh as the day it was made. Quite a relevation!

I always use the wholewheat cycle on my machine - it is a bit longer than for white bread. My machine beeps before it starts baking and if you think it hasn't risen enough you can delay the baking to let it rise more but I very rarely need to do that. In fact, sometimes my bread rises so much that it sticks to the top of the lid.

I decided to use the Edmonds sachet of instant yeast in my bread I'm making in the breadmaker this morning. The bread rose well but then dropped, I'm guessing this happened when the bread started to bake. I have used my breadmaker every second day for almost 10 years and have never had this happen before. The bread is still baking so not sure how it will taste but can anyone tell me what I did wrong. I used one sachet to four cups of flour and used the basic white bread setting as I was making a white loaf this time.
Thanks for your help.

Further to my previous post, the bread has a very crumbly texture and I feel that the surebake yeast gives a better result.

Kayc, maybe try some baker's yeast instead? My loaf of bread is now five days old and it's been in the fridge for the past two days. Usually putting bread in the fridge makes it dry and awful but this bread made with baker's yeast is still far more moist and fresh seeming than my bread made with Surebake (which was always dry and stale the next day whether I'd put it in the fridge or not).

Kayc - maybe try using only half of the sachet, about 1 teaspoon, and seeing how that works. I think the sachets hold about 2.25 teaspoons, and, from my very limited understanding, I think that's considered quite a lot of the instant variety. Personally I use 3/4 - 1 teaspoon and have good results. Different machines are going to produce different results too though.

Jennifer - I bought a brick of it from Gilmours yesterday after being inspired by your success! Unfortunately, all their stock had a best before date of this Friday... so I'll be tossing out a good portion of the 500g. Thankfully it was only $3, so I'm not feeling quite so bad about it going unused. I'm going to try and make a couple of loaves per day this week though and pop them in the freezer. I look forward to seeing what differences there are

Jenna, if you put the yeast that you bought into the freezer it will last beyond the "best before" date. i buy my yeast as a brick also and only ever keep it in the freezer.

Lynette - thanks for that. Is there any particular method for defrosting before use or just bring it to room temp?

Yes, that's something else in baker's yeast favour - it's miles cheaper than Surebake. Thanks Lynette, also, for your tip about freezing it and I too have the same question as Jenna.

Maybe we're talking different yeasts. I buy a "brick" of yeast but when I open it, its granules. I guess it has been vacuum packed and tightly sealed so that it appears solid. When its frozen it still is granular so I just spoon it straight from the freezer.

Ahh.. yes, we're talking different stuff. The normal instant yeast I buy is in a vac pac brick too. I also freeze the excess of that. What Jennifer and I now have a large quantity of is fresh/compressed yeast, which is sort of the consistency of thick putty

Ah, well then, yes. Actually I only have 40g of baker's yeast because that's how much I asked for from the helpful guy behind the deli counter at New World. So that might be the way to continue buying it - small quantities to last a couple of weeks. I think I'll try sprinkling extra food on it though and I'll also try freezing it (I guess the poor little things will die though...I dunno, internet would tell me no doubt but I'm tired...)

I know that it's okay to freeze raw bread dough and it doesn't kill the yeast so I can't see why you can't freeze the compressed fresh yeast also. I would just pack or wrap it in single loaf amounts so that you only need to defrost what you need.