I saw that one ( original )

I don't think that little bit would matter , except for taste,
you might taste the yeast a little more ?

Why not use just what it calls for and save the rest in a small Plastic Zip Loc ???
Lou

As long as your yeast is fresh it won't matter at all. I usually just measure yeast in the palm of my hand and I almost always use less than what a recipe calls for.

Ann

Her hand is the size of a teaspoon and a half.

I agree with Ann T, I keep my yeast in a quart jar in the refrigerator because I buy it two pounds at a time at Sam's Club.

I seldom measure, I just dump it in. If you add more yeast than the recipe calls for you might get a slighty more "yeasty" flavor which most people wouldn't notice.

Too little? If you're even close, your bread will still rise. Heck, sourdough bread is made without any yeast at all. I've run out and made batches with whatever I have left and it still rises.

Plus, if you bake a lot of bread, your kitchen will have "wild" yeasts which can help out when you're baking bread.

Don't worry about it, bread is not an exact science. Ratios of wet to dry depend on the humidity, the brand of flour, how long you've stored that flour, lots of things.

The rate of rising for your dough depends on temperature, on the yeast, on the type of flour used.

Every day and every loaf will be a bit different, and it'll all be good!

Annie

A lot of standard recipes are "over-yeasted," so reducing the yeast won't do any harm at all. The most that will happen is the dough will rise more slowly. I routinely reduce yeast by 1/2 or more because I prefer the flavor of a slow rise.

Adding more yeast speeds up the rise (for convenience sometimes) and also increases the yeasty flavor, which some prefer.

So either way, as already mentioned, how much you use isn't critical. Bread is pretty flexible.

Carol

Yippeee! Great answers, thank you! I can now quit fretting about using those yeast envelopes when slightly less or more yeast is called for. I actually love that yeasty taste so adding slightly more will work great for me.

Lou - I know me well enough to know that storing a teaspoon or less of yeast in a zip lock bag would be futile. I'm better off throwing it out from the get-go. But now that I know it's ok to just throw it in, I'm a happy camper!!

I hope to bake this weekend. I wanted to make some fresh herb bread (to use up some of those fresh herbs my friend gave me) and if I get really ambitions I'm going to try making babka as well! Ya, this bread making thing is trippimg me out, I'm lovin it!

It's better to buy even the smallest jars of yeast than two or three packages of those little packets. I sort of measure but never exact. I just scoop it out in my little double ended spoon that I use for the salt, sugar and oil etc.

Another yeast dumper here....dump it into my palm and then into the dough.
1/2 tsp of yeast will raise bread made with 4 cups of flour...but will take longer than using 2 teaspoons of yeast.
I pay under $4 for 2 pounds of yeast...I give half away (sometimes!) and even if I throw away 1/2 of the rest or spill it...I am still money ahead over those little packets.
Lidna C

I love the taste of yeast, AND the convenience of quicker rising, so I often add more--up to double the amount called for.

Your recipe will be fine if you just add in that 1/4 teaspoon.

And yes, if you decide to get into baking more seriously, try buying your yeast in bulk--either a jar or a bag at the farmer's market. Then just keep it in the freezer. No need to defrost--being granular, it defrosts pretty much instantly, so when you want to bake, just take your jar from the freezer, measure out what you need and go right ahead with the mixing.