I’m a great cook, but only a so-so baker. Over the past few years I’ve been trying to get deeper and deeper into the worlds of doughs, breads, and cakes. Through this journey one question has lingered at my mind: Why do we still use dry active yeast?
It’s really sensitive to storage temperatures and requires activation in liquid before using, which only adds time and a ton more variables to the baking process. This has stuck with me because a superior product, which has existed for around 50 years, is sitting right next to it in the grocery aisle: instant yeast.
Instant yeast was created in the 1970’s, nearly a century after dry active yeast became commercially available. Right off the bat, using this older leavening agent would be like choosing to use one of those phones with the ear and mouth piece when you have an iPhone in your pocket.
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The folks who invented instant yeast improved on the process of drying and suspending yeast cells for use in baking. They did this largely by using a far more controlled, gradual heating process. This resulted in a powder that has a way higher concentration of yeast that withstands higher temperatures, and can then be ground into a finer powder for easier hydration.
What this translates into, practically for home bakers, is that the instant stuff is far less temperamental and labor intensive to use. It stores really well and, when making bread, you can simply dump it into your dry ingredients, confident the moisture of your wet ingredients will activate the yeast.
The one rebuttal I’ve gotten from my friends who are pro bakers is that the act of activating and seeing the yeast bubble and foam before adding it to the rest of your ingredients gives you confidence that your yeast is alive and will do its job.
I totally get this argument, however I’ve truly never had a bag of instant yeast go bad on me, whereas I’ve ruined plenty of baking projects due a dead pouch of active dry.
You can stick with tradition, but if you want to be like me, and move out of the Stone Age of baking, go with instant yeast.
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