HI,

I haven’t baked bread in a while and I usually use dry active yeast…
but since I didn’t have any left, I borrowed my friend’s instant yeast…she just used it a month ago
I proofed it the same way i would do dry active…
but i found that it didn’t really foam up
there was a very fine layer of foam and a bit of bubbles…and the yeast smell was there so i thought it might be ok

so i mixed the bread etc
i let it rise for an hour in the oven (i had preheated the oven when i was kneading….and opened the door to let it cool down so it doesn’t cook the dough before i put the dough in…so it was nice and warm…my house is only at 19degrees C)

it didn’t double in size at all…i thought there might have been a little bit of rising but when i punched it down to re-knead no air escaped
so now it’s sitting in my fridge while i look for solution :(

ehow claims that i can use proofed active dry yeast to fix the bread…but wouldn’t that increase water content so i would have to add more flour? >_<
any way to fix this?
i’m making egg bread…for Challah ....

btw should instant yeast proof the same way as dry active? like that amount of foam?

Thanks!!!

Aggie - 05 March 2011 11:59 AM

any way to fix this?

It isn’t necessary to proof instant the way you do active, but it will grab water from the dough to rehydrate itself.  I have added instant yeast after the dough was kneaded and it worked fine, although I haven’t added it as far along in the process as you are.  Depending on how dry your dough is, you might consider hydrating the yeast in a very small amount of water before adding it, so that wouldn’t affect your overall hydration much.

I think your yeast was just tired. Challah with its extra ingredients needs lively yeast. Buy some fresh yeast and try again.

Aggie, I experienced that a couple of times too. Instead of wasting the perfectly nice ingredients I divided the dough into 2 or 4 pieces and froze them. I defrost and mix it with the new bread dough next time I make bread