How to use dried active yeast

foreign_correspondent

any luck with the bagels yet?

Pablosmummy

I failed again!! this time they werent so yeasty but they didnt rise so I'm thinking maybe I didnt use enough this time. I give up, my attempt to save money has made me use almost a whole bag of flour!!!

I'll try making normal bread rolls instead but I think its just me and the stupid yeast!! I cant do itttt!!

foreign_correspondent

How frustrating for you!! I had problems with my old bread machine not getting hot enough and I wasted a load of bread flour, convinced I was doing something wrong!

What strikes me is that both times your recipe didnt rise!! - I have only made bagels once but they worked fine!

We have established that your yeast is ok...
so, that leaves us with the sugar, salt, temperature and time to eliminate...

does your recipe include some sugar? how much?
How much salt? (maybe you should just post your recipe here!!)
How long did you leave it to rise? Once or twice? - did the dough rise at all?
Where did you put it to rise? how warm was it?

perhaps we can solve this through a process of elimination! - it might be your recipe that is wrong - I will try and dig out the one I made sucessfully and post it if I can find it.

foreign_correspondent

just another thought - what sort of flour are you using - is it strong/bread flour or not?

studentgirl_2

Please help my DH has come back from the supermarket with dried active yeast rather than the usual little packets I use. He pointed out that you get more for your money.

But how do I use it?? is it the same as the packets?

I only use my bm to mix the dough, please help.

Pink.

Hi studentgirl,

There's an earlier thread that should help so I've added your thread to it.

Pink

overlykeensaver

Hi, I use this yeast and one thing you have to remember is that it is not fast/quick etc yeast.

The reason you get a yeasty taste is that you added it straight to the flour. I use about half a tablespoon for about 500g of bread flour. First dissolve a teaspoon of sugar in warm (luke warm) water then add the yeast. You now have to leave this somewhere warm for about 15 mins to activate the yeast. On a day like this, the windowsill will be fine!

You then add the yeasty liquid to your flour and the rest of the liquid in the recipe
and carry on.

I read the keeping it in the fridge helps to keep it active for longer so I do this too.

magn0lia

I use dried active yeast for bread making.
To activate the yeast I dissolve a teaspoon of honey in hot water, then let the water cool to hand heat. I then sprinkle a tablespoon of the yeast into the water. Make sure that you stir the water as you do this or the yeast will just clump together and will be difficult to dissolve. After about 30 minutes there will be a foamy head on the top and it's ready to use.

andygb

magn0lia wrote: »

I use dried active yeast for bread making.
To activate the yeast I dissolve a teaspoon of honey in hot water, then let the water cool to hand heat. I then sprinkle a tablespoon of the yeast into the water. Make sure that you stir the water as you do this or the yeast will just clump together and will be difficult to dissolve. After about 30 minutes there will be a foamy head on the top and it's ready to use.

I do this as well, but use the following method. I boil the kettle, and then put 250ml of boiling water in a measuring jug (pyrex), then top up with 250ml of cold water, to instantly arrive at - warm water. I then transfer the 500ml of warm water to a pyrex bowl and stir in 2 x sachets of instant yeast and 1 x tsp sugar. I then leave to activate, as you have said, until the large head has appeared.
This gives me time to prepare the bread mix, which is usually 600g of white flour initially plus 1.5tsp of salt mixed in.