Hey guys it's Bettie from Baker Bettie.com and welcome back to another video.
Now today I wanted to try something a little bit different, a little more
casual and I wanted to sit down with you today and talk to you about a topic that
I get questions about all of the time. And that is the topic of yeast.
I feel like 9 times out of 10 when I ask my readers what thing intimidates them
the most about baking, they tell me that it is yeast. And I'm a huge believer that
arming ourselves with knowledge is the key to making something feel less
intimidating and to feel really confident with it. So I actually asked on
Instagram to ask me questions that you had about yeast and I wrote all of them
down here and I also added a few questions that I get all the time from
my readers. Now if you aren't already following me on social media you should
follow me @BakerBettie on Instagram and on Facebook. I do a lot of more
personal content over there and we have a lot of fun. So let's go ahead and dive
into the questions. I have my coffee here, I'm just gonna sit here in my kitchen
and answer these questions. And we're gonna dive into what yeast is, how yeast
works in baking, and how we can make sure that yeast is going to be successful in
our recipes. Okay so the first question is "what is yeast?" Now it's important to
know that yeast is a living organism. It's actually a fungus and it is quite
literally all around us all the time. So yeast is floating through the air, it is
living in the food that we eat and it's also on our skin and in our bodies so
it's quite literally everywhere. But when we think about yeast and how it works in
baking, yeast is going to feed on the sugars and starches found in our bread
dough and as it feeds it creates carbon dioxide gas and alcohol.
Now that carbon dioxide gas is going to make our bread dough rise and the
alcohol is going to help flavor our bread. So that's how yeast works in a
nutshell for baking and we'll get into a little more details as we
go through the questions. So the next question is "what is the difference
between dry yeast, fresh yeast, and natural yeast?" This is a great question
because these are the three forms of yeast that you are going to see in
baking. So dry yeast is the most common type of yeast you'll see in baking and
it's typically sold in these little packages like this. These are seven gram
packages but it's also sold in larger jars and also one pound block. Now dry
yeast comes in two forms. It comes in active dry yeast and it also comes in
quick rise yeast which is also known as instant yeast. Now these two types of
yeast are both in a dormant state. So yeast needs two things to thrive. It
needs moisture and it needs a food source. So dried yeast has had both of
those things removed from it, it has been dried out so it has essentially been put
asleep. And it makes it shelf stable so it doesn't need to be refrigerated when
it's not opened and it lasts for much longer in that state. Now the second type
of yeast is what is known as fresh yeast or cake yeast and this is yeast that is
in an awake state because there is moisture present in it. Now this means
that this also needs to be refrigerated and it has a much shorter shelf life
than the dried yeast. So it tends to be a little harder to find, it is usually
found in the refrigerated section near the butter, eggs, sour cream kind of in
that section in an American market at least. It might be different in other
countries but a lot of grocery stores don't carry it any longer because it
does have such a short shelf life. Now in order to use your fresh cake yeast you
just want to crumble it up and you can mix it in the dry ingredients of the
recipe or you can dissolve it in the liquid for the recipe. Now the third
type of yeast that you can use in baking is what is called natural yeast and you
might hear this referred to as a our dough starter. So this is my
sourdough starter. Her name is Millie and I keep her in a jar on my counter. You
can see maybe in there a little bit. I'll show you an up close picture of it but I
created this culture just by combining water and flour together everyday over a
period of time. Each day you discard some of that mixture and you add fresh flour
and water. Now what happens as you do this process of combining flour and
water and letting it sit and adding more flour and water is there are natural
yeast cells occurring in the flour as well as some good bacterias in the flour.
Now when those are hydrated and allowed to sit out they're going to start
fermenting and as you keep adding more fresh flour and water, that community of
bacteria and yeast gets stronger and more active and you can use this instead
of the dried yeast or the fresh cake yeast to leaven bread and this is known
as sourdough. Okay the next question is "when a recipe says one package of yeast
what does that mean? It it just a one packet or the entire strip?" So when you
buy yeast in these individual packets it usually comes in a strip of three and
each little package in this strip of three is seven grams. So when a recipe
calls for one package of yeast it's referring to just one of these three
packages. You don't want to use the entire strip you're just using one seven
gram package and that is very typical in a yeast bread recipe for it to call for
one package. Okay the next question is "how do you substitute active dry yeast
for instant yeast and when should you not substitute the two?" So active dry
yeast and instant yeast or rapid rise yeast can all be substituted for each
other in most any recipe. You can just do a one for one substitution. Now the
difference between active dry yeast and instant yeast is their rate of activity.
So active dry yeast is going to take a little bit longer for your bread
dough to rise and instant yeast is going to work much quicker. Now there are
benefits to both in baking with yeast time is just as much an ingredient as
the other ingredients in the recipe.So working with active dry yeast is going
to take a little bit longer for your bread to get going but it tends to
result in a final baked good that has a little more flavor because more time is
going to equal more flavor. Now the quick rise yeast is going to get your bread
going a little more quickly but it might have just a little bit less flavor
because it doesn't have as much time to ferment. Now as far as when you might
not want to substitute the two I typically don't recommend using a quick
rise yeast or rapid rise yeast if you are going to proof your shaped dough
overnight in the refrigerator and that's just because your dough could over proof.
So if you are going to proof your shaped dough in the refrigerator overnight I
would definitely suggest sticking with the active dry yeast. Okay the next
question is "what is the measurement difference between a jar of yeast and a
package of yeast?" So these packages that I showed you before are seven grams each
each little individual package on the strip is 7 grams and if you convert that
to a volume measurement it is going to be 2 and 1/4 teaspoon. So if you do buy
jars of yeast which are typically sold in about 4 ounce jars or if you do buy a
1-pound block of yeast you can substitute a package of yeast
with 2 and 1/4 teaspoon. So if your recipe calls for 1 package of yeast and
you do have a larger quantity just use 2 and 1/4 teaspoon in place of that or if
you do have a kitchen scale you can measure out 7 grams. The next question is
"some recipes give a specific temperature for the water and some say lukewarm-
which is best?" So this is a really great question because the number one thing
that will kill your yeast is temperatures that are
too hot. So yeast is going to begin dying around 140 degrees Fahrenheit and a lot
of times a recipe is going to specify a specific temperature because this
ensures that the liquid is warm enough that it's really going to get your yeast
active and moving. But that it's not too hot that it will kill it.
Now sometimes recipes will just say lukewarm and that's just because
possibly the recipe writer doesn't have a thermometer or it's assuming that
maybe the reader doesn't have a thermometer and this just ensures that
you're not using temperature that's hot, you want to use temperatures that are
warm. So you want your water to feel warm to the touch, you definitely don't want
it to feel hot for you. If it if it's too hot for you to touch it's definitely too
hot for your yeast. And you want to use typically temperatures around 120 to 130
degrees Fahrenheit. Now if your temperatures are much cooler than that
your yeast is still going to wake up it will still become active but it's just
going to move a little slower. So cooler temperatures slow yeast down. Warmer
temperatures are gonna speed east up and then too hot is going to start killing
the yeast. Okay the next question is "I always kill my yeast- what am I doing
wrong?" So I think we address this a little bit in the last question that
really make sure that the temperature of your liquid is not too hot but I also
think that sometimes our yeast is maybe just moving a little slower than we will
like and then we think that it might be dead. So you want to make sure that the
room temperature where you are letting your dough rise is warm. So if your room
temperature is very cool you want to try to find a warmer spot in your kitchen.
Sometimes in the microwave or on top of the refrigerator it sometimes will be a
little bit warmer. So a lot of times it's just that our yeast is moving a little
too slowly but just make sure that your temperatures are not too hot, you don't
want to reach 140 degrees with your liquids. If you don't have a kitchen
thermometer I would really recommend getting one they are
not expensive and that's going to really ensure that your yeast does not die from
liquids that are too hot. The next question is "what is proofing your yeast
and when should I do it?" So the process of proofing your yeast is when you pour
dried yeast into liquid to hydrate it and you add a pinch of sugar now that
liquid is going to wake the yeast up and the sugar is going to give the yeast a
food source to start feeding on. Now as this starts occurring you will start
seeing the mixture bubble up quite a lot and that's just an insurance policy for
you to make sure that your yeast is alive and make sure that your yeast
isn't old. If you're a little worried about it it's really good to proof your
yeast before adding it into your bread dough and also it can just be a way to
give your yeast a little bit of a jumpstart so that it's really really
nice and active when it goes into the dough. It can get the dough going just a
little quicker. Now if you do want to try proofing your yeast for your recipe you
want to use about a half a cup of the liquid from the recipe with one package
of the dried yeast and you're going to warm this to just about 110 to 115
degrees Fahrenheit. So you're going to mix that half cup of warm liquid with your
package of yeast and a pinch of sugar and you just want to let that sit for
about 5 to 10 minutes until it starts foaming up. And then you do want to
immediately put that into your recipe. Now if you don't see it foaming up at
all that's an indication that your yeast is old or inactive and you definitely
want to get some new yeast. So this question is "can I use more yeast to make
my dough rise faster?" So the technical answer to this question is yes but I
would HIGHLY advise against doing so. If you add more yeast into your recipe it's
likely that your dough is going to rise much faster but it can overdevelop your
gluten structure, it can over proof your dough and it can just lead to results
that are not desirable so I would definitely recommend
sticking to the amount of yeast listed in your recipe and don't try to rush the
process. Yeast bread does take time and that's just part of the process so you
definitely just don't want to rush it. Okay so the last question is "what is the
best way to store it yeast?" Now dried yeast can be stored at room temperature
as long as it is unopened and just make sure you're not putting it somewhere
very warm like near your oven. And once that dried yeast has been opened you do
want to remove it to your refrigerator or freezer for storage and make sure it
is in an airtight container. Now the fresh yeast does need to be stored in
the refrigerator at all times. It is highly perishable and it really
only has about a two-week shelf-life. Now fresh yeast does not do well in the
freezer it doesn't usually function very well after it has been defrosted so I
definitely don't recommend storing it in the freezer. Now I really hope you found
this video informative and enjoyable and if you did make sure you give it a
thumbs up. Now if there are any other questions you have about yeast that I
didn't tackle in this video go ahead and ask those in the comment section. I would
be happy to answer them and if you have any other topics or questions that you'd
like for me to answer in a Ask Baker Bettie video go ahead and also leave
those in the comments section and I will try to work those in. Now I will be back
in just a few days with another baking tutorial for you and this recipe is
going to use yeast so everything we learned today is going to be really
useful in this recipe and I will see you guys then.
Bye!