Recipe calls for instant yeast. I have a jar of bread machine yeast that I bought for a machine I no longer own, and I would rather use it than buy another jar.
Are these actually different things, or is the label doing marketing? And if I can use it, does anything about the method change, because the recipe tells me to proof the yeast in water first.
One real difference in behaviour rather than ingredients: instant types work a bit faster than active dry. So if the recipe was written for active dry, start checking your dough earlier than it tells you to rather than trusting the clock.
If you want better pizza out of the same jar, use a little less yeast and let the dough rise in the fridge for one to three days. Cold fermentation does more for flavour and crust than the choice of yeast ever will.
If the jar has been open a while, proof a teaspoon with a pinch of sugar in warm water. Foamy in ten minutes means it is alive.
And store the jar properly once it is open, which is where most of these questions actually come from. Airtight in the fridge or the freezer, not in the cupboard next to the hob.
A jar that has spent eight months warm is the reason people conclude that bread machine yeast does not work for pizza. It works fine. It was just dead.
@cold_ferment_three · last wk. · 3 replies
Bread machine yeast is instant yeast. Some brands put in a small amount of something like ascorbic acid to help a machine's rise, but for hand baking it behaves the same way: mix it straight into the dry ingredients, no proofing needed, works in pizza dough and rolls and ordinary bread.
So use the same amount your recipe asks for and skip the proofing step entirely. Mix it into the flour with the salt rather than letting the two sit in a concentrated pile together.
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@jar_of_machine_yeast · last wk.
And if a recipe asks for active dry instead, same swap or does the amount change?
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@cold_ferment_three · last wk.
Same amount works, and a lot of bakers use about a quarter less going from active dry to an instant type. Either way you can skip the proof. Fresh cake yeast is the odd one out: roughly a third of the fresh weight.
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