Making bread.

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cautis, Jan 19, 1:03pm
Okay, when you make bread not in a bread maker, what kind of yeast do you use?The bread maker one or the one that looks like little balls?Thanks.

creeky1, Jan 19, 1:15pm
I always use surebake.

fester7, Jan 19, 1:20pm
I use supa bake from bulk barn but normal edmonds if you wish ( I don't like it personally)

cautis, Jan 19, 1:20pm
Thanks but which one?The one that looks like miniature rolled oats or the one that looks like little balls?

auntlb, Jan 19, 1:25pm
I use the Edmonds Surebake active yeast with the red lid - for both hand made and bread maker

cautis, Jan 19, 1:26pm
Red lid?Thanks!

auntlb, Jan 19, 1:27pm
There is a red lid and I think the other is either orange or yellow from memory - but I always get the red lidded one!

fester7, Jan 19, 1:30pm
most bread recipes would use the red top edmonds? is that what you mean? I know yellow top is active yeast used in some breads.Mine is similar to rolled oats consistancy...but I'm no expert on the different yeastssorry ! * waits for help hehe*

lilyfield, Jan 19, 1:32pm
just use red lid for everything yeasty-store it in the deepfreeze and use from frozen. It won't go off that way

lythande1, Jan 19, 1:33pm
In order of what I have found best: Fresh yeast. Edmonds yeast sachets. Surebake was crap.

bunny51, Jan 19, 1:40pm
I use the one with the little granules. I prove it (Is that the right wordlol) whether I am making it by hand or in the breadmaker (I had decided that i didn't like the taste of bread made with surebake or similar)

uli, Jan 19, 3:57pm
Anything but surebake.

Surebake is not plain yeast but a mix of dried yeast, baking powder, bread "improvers" (=extra chemicals you do not need), baking soda and whatever else.

It is called surebake because whatever you do wrong - it will still raise the dough - by one way or another.

If you want plain yeast then buy "yeast".

uli, Jan 19, 3:58pm
Because it is not really yeast - so it cannot taste the same.
See my post above.

buzzy110, Jan 19, 7:46pm
Where do you buy fresh yeast from? They phased it out long ago from supermarkets.

And to answer you question #1, I use my own sour dough, wild yeast, starter. Best yeast ever and the flavour of the bread is out of this world.

dezzie, Jan 19, 11:02pm
buzzy, I've been reading up on sourdough, and one site said that originally it was made by the wild yeast naturally occuring around grapes, which got me wondering, would wild yeast from different sources, say if you left your starter mix outside under a nectarine tree, or a plum tree, taste any different do you know?
I also found that one bakery in san francisco has been making sour dough from the same "starter" since 1840, thats pretty neat.

uli, Jan 19, 11:23pm
Yes depending on which "yeasts" you catch the sourdough is different.

However as you will be feeding it in your kitchen you will find that over the years it will adapt to your local yeast strains. So even the "San Francisco" strain will change over time in NZ.

I would suggest that you only use flour and water - and no other "additions" - as anything else will be super seeded by the grain based yeasts over time anyway.

cautis, Jan 20, 12:57am
I got Tasti cos it was cheaper than the surebake.I will trial it next week and see how it goes.Thanks all.

korbo, Jan 20, 3:18am
I use tasti or the red lid. depends which is cheaper, and i keep it in the fridge once opened. Have a red lid that expired in dec 09, still using it, and my bread rises well.

2215, Jan 20, 3:21am
i use the edmonds one as it is in idividual tinfoil packets, i find the other stops working after a while.

buzzy110, Jan 20, 3:40pm
That is an interesting question but one I wouldn't like to put to the test. Starters are, like uli says, best made in the kitchen under reasonably controlled and sterile conditions and then popped into the fridge, if it is being stored. It would go off fairly fast if left outside.

I think the authors of the site were being a bit ingenuous. Wild yeasts are found everywhere in nature. They are what a clever person uses to ferment foods for storage (sauerkraut, etc) because they are on the vegetable being fermented, or exploit for making vinegar, beer, wine and mead. They are also present in fresh, unpasteurised milk and cream and once upon a time cream was fermented before being turned into butter, and, if left alone, unpasteurised milk will make yoghurt all by itself. I've done that with unpasteurised bison milk.

The best yeasts for breadmaking are, naturally enough, the yeasts that come with the grains you make the flour from.

There is a school of thought that yeasts are in the air as well, but I wouldn't rely on those yeast alone to provide me with a healthy culture ,but they probably do add to the biodiversity of any fermenting project that is being undertaken in all areas of that endeavour.

horizons_, Jan 20, 5:17pm
I use fresh yeast, which I can buy at our local New World supermarket. The bakery packs it up. Much nicer than the packet stuff with a completely different flavour, if any.

elliehen, Jan 20, 6:14pm
From a very old book titled South Pacific Cookery, published in Port Moresby, Papua.This is from The Little Sisters, Mission of the Sacred Heart, Kerau.

WILD YEAST
"This is how we prepare yeast.Mix together three level tablespoons of sugar, three heaped tablespoons of flour, one cup of water to make a paste.Add a small quantity of potato peelings.If you can get lemons, use eight drops of lemon juice instead of the potato peelings.Pour the mixture into a bottle.Cork it and tie the cork on firmly.Leave it for twelve hours.Now empty the bottle, but do not wash it.Make up a new mixture of flour, sugar, water and potato peelings, pour it into the bottle and leave for another twelve hours.Now empty the bottle again and repeat the process for a third time.At the end of thirty-six hours the paste is ready to use.It should contain enough yeast to make ten small loaves.If you are going to make your own bread all the time, keep on using the same bottle and make up the mixture twelve hours before you need it."

buzzy110, Jan 20, 6:31pm
Thanks for that horizons. I have often wondered where to get it from. I'm surprised the Bakery dept has it, considering they do not really 'bake' at all. All their goods come in frozen from that big company in the Taranaki. To get different breads they use the long, rectangle loaf, knead it to the shape they want, add, salt or herbs or cheese or whatever and then give it a traditional name such as ciabatta, etc.

Still, who cares, so long as I now know where to buy fresh yeast from? That knowledge has been missing from my 'data base' for sometime.

I too, think that fresh yeast is better. Just a problem nowadays to find recipes that have it in the recipe. Would they also tell you how much to use for an ordinary loaf and give instructions for how to use it as well? (These things have long been forgotten by me and I'll need a refresher)

buzzy110, Jan 20, 6:32pm
Oh one more thing. Can you freeze it? I'm assuming you can but still want to check. Perhaps I should ask the baker from the shop I get it from.

dezzie, Jan 20, 7:48pm
Thanks for the answers uli and buzzy, I didn't intend to leave it outside forever, just had the thought of making the flour and water mix, and then covering it with muslin (to stop any major bugs and leaves getting in) and leaving it out under different trees overnight, well 3 or 4 mixes really, then seeing if I could notice any difference, it would be highly unscientific, but interesting.