Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Different Types of Yeast

I was curious about yeast, so did a little bit of research, here is what I discovered about yeast.

Instant Active Dry: milled finer so it does not have to be dissolved, will also give 2 rises.  Can be used interchangeably with regular active dry, just skip the water activation.

Rapid Rise: Milled smaller so it does not have to be dissolved and also has additives, so you skip the first rise.  It does affect the bread texture.  Rapid rise can not be substituted for bread machine yeast.

Bread Machine Yeast: is milled finer so it does not have to be dissolved, is an instant yeast, but not a rapid rise. *It is also drier and hydrates more quickly than rapid rise. (*could not confirm this).

Fresh Compressed: solid block that commercial bakers tend to use and is more reliable and dissolves easily.  It has a 2 week shelf life compared to a 1 year shelf life of the granular yeasts.  Use 2x the amount of fresh yeast as granular yeast.

This is crazy...but it makes sense tip from King Arthur's web page:
"Keep in mind, also, the characteristics of your own kitchen. If you bake bread all the time, your kitchen is full of wild yeast, and any dough you make there will rise vigorously. If you seldom bake bread, or are just beginning, your kitchen will be quite “sterile;” your dough won't be aided by wild yeast, and will rise more slowly than it would in a more “active” kitchen."

I bake bread every day, so my kitchen is a wild thing, and I also use lots of yeast, which means it's always fresh.

I use my oven as a proof box on really cold days. Happy baking!

This page was helpful for how much yeast to use and rising:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/yeast.html
This page is very helpful explaining the different types of yeast:
http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-inst...
And this page for bread machine yeast:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-bread-machine-yeas...

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Free Christmas Recipe Card Blank

For my small cookie swap I decided to collect everyone's recipe and make a little book.  Since I couldn't find a nice, free, blank, Christmas recipe card template, I made one using www.picmonkey.com.


Sharing it here with you.  Merry Christmas friends and happy baking  :)
 
To Save to your computer:
Click on the image, then right click the image with your mouse.  From the menu, click on "Save Image As".  Name your file then click on "Save".