Sheesh! I typed this out last night and then got distracted. I hope I'm not too late to chime in. I use this recipe from King Arthur Flour quite often. It is a perfect blend of white & whole wheat flours and makes lovely soft dinner rolls or sandwich buns. I usually use white whole wheat flour instead of regular whole wheat. It calls for potato flakes & dried milk which make the rolls very tender. It also includes orange juice. The explanation is that the OJ seems to cut the bitterness often associated with whole wheat baked goods.I don't always have OJ on hand, so I came up with a solution. I keep a container of frozen OJ concentrate in my freezer. When one of my whole wheat recipes calls for OJ, I just combine equal parts frozen concentrate with water until I get the amount needed. I always make this in my bread machine, a Zojirushi. It does the kneading for me. Since the amount of flour is relatively small, I also let the dough rise in my machine. I make sure the dough is on the soft side and does not get too stiff or dense. Also I form the rolls on a Silpat. That way I don't add any more flour and they don't come out dry. I have found that with rolls or sandwich buns, I do not have to worry about additional vital wheat gluten. They are small and do not need the extra structural help that gluten provides loaves of bread. Honey Wheat Rolls 1 packet "highly active" active dry yeast, or 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast, or 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast 1 cup lukewarm water 1/4 cup orange juice 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces 3 tablespoons honey 1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 2 cups King Arthur Traditional Whole Wheat Flour or King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 2/3 cup instant mashed potato flakes 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk 1) If you're using active dry or "highly active" yeast, dissolve it with a pinch of sugar in 2 tablespoons of the lukewarm water. Let the yeast and water sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, until the mixture has bubbled and expanded. If you're using instant yeast, you can skip this step. 2) Combine the dissolved yeast with the remainder of the water and the rest of the ingredients. Mix and knead everything together��"by hand, mixer or bread machine set on the dough cycle��"till you've made a smooth dough. If you're kneading in a stand mixer, it should take about 5 to 7 minutes at second speed. In a bread machine (or by hand), it should form a smooth ball. 3) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise, at room temperature, till it's quite puffy but not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 90 minutes to 2 hours. Rising may take longer, especially if you've kneaded by hand. Give it enough time to become quite puffy. 4) While the dough is rising, lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan, or two 9" round cake pans. 5) Gently deflate the dough, and transfer it to a lightly greased work surface. Divide it into 16 pieces. 6) Shape each piece into a rough ball by pulling the dough into a very small knot at the bottom (think of a balloon with its opening knotted), then rolling it under the palm of your hand into a smooth ball. 7) Place the rolls in the 9" x 13" pan, or put eight rolls in each of the round cake pans, spacing them evenly; they won't touch one another. ) Cover the pans with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the rolls to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. They'll become very puffy, and will reach out and touch one another. While the rolls are rising, preheat the oven to 350°F. 9) Bake the rolls for 15 minutes, and tent them loosely with aluminum foil. Continue to bake until they're mahogany-brown on top, but lighter colored on the sides, an additional 10 to 13 minutes. 10) Remove the rolls from the oven, and after 2 or 3 minutes, carefully transfer them to a rack. They'll be hot and delicate, so be careful. Serve warm, or at room temperature.

I use both Active Dry Yeast and a Fast-Rising Yeast (SAF-Instant) in the bread machine and for recipes I make by-hand. These yeast products are, and they are NOT, interchangeable, depending on it's application - just to complicate the issue for you. I tend to respect the type of yeast called for in a recipe. I also know when a recipe calls for Active Dry Yeast and I use a Fast-Rising Yeast, I should also reduce the amount by 25% or it will rise too quickly. This is especially important in a bread machine because the rise is TIMED, and you can find your bread dough pushing the lid off the bread machine because you've actually added TOO much yeast. The Fast-Rising Yeast products were originally used to make bread quicker by: -Omitting proofing the yeast in water/sweetener. You can cut 10-minutes off right there. You can add the yeast directly to a portion of the dry ingredients. (Don't forget you need the liquid to be warmer than when you proof yeast in water). The water cools quickly when it's added to a bulk amount of dry ingredients, so the warmer temperature is necessary to activate the yeast because it cools during the mixing. Side note... Because yeast has developed over the years, you can also add active dry yeast directly to the dry ingredients, you'll find many recipes that do so. You don't ALWAYS have to proof the yeast first. It's just another option in the world of bread-making. Just remember the temperature of the liquid will need to be higher (125-130-degrees F) than when you proof the yeast in water (100-110-degrees F). -Using a fast-rising yeast you can also omit the first rise. After kneading, you cover the dough and allow it to rest for 10-minutes before forming the dough. After your dough is formed, you allow it to proof to "double" as usual. If you happen to have a Zojirushi Bread Machine, you'll notice in the recipes in the user's manual they suggest one amount of yeast if you use Active Dry Yeast, and another (smaller) amount if you use a Fast-Rising Yeast, when you use the regular cycle. The same information is included in Beth Hensperger's book, "The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook". As the others have shared, a fast-rise is a destination to get bread done quicker, but not necessarily BETTER bread. I have an old recipe for 30-Minute Hamburger Buns and they literally take only 30-minutes from start to baked burger buns. It's enormous amount of yeast in ratio to the amount of flour (6-tablespoons to 10-1/2 cups whole wheat flour = 4 dozen hamburger buns) is what makes it work in 30-minutes. While I've used this recipe when time was an issue, I wouldn't have put the finished product in the County Fair because they just wouldn't stand up to Judging Standards. But the recipe works well for a huge bunch of teenagers over for Sloppy Joes on the spur of the moment. Heck, they'll eat ANYTHING!!!(LOL) For bread in a bread machine that is made on the Quick Cycle in one hour, you MUST use the fast-rising yeast (SAF-Instant, Quick-Rise, Rapid-Rise, or Bread Machine Yeast - which are all fast-rising yeast products), in order to get a loaf in 1-hour. Active Dry Yeast won't work properly on the Quick Cycle. If you ever need to test your yeast (especially if you buy in bulk and don't use it all that often): Use a 1-cup glass measuring cup. Fill it to the 1/4-cup line with warm water and add 1 t. sugar and 1-1/2 t. yeast. Wait 10-minutes. If your yeast is active it should be up to the 1/2-cup line. And always remember... Your bread dough rises according to the strength of the yeast, ambient temperature, and moisture --- NOT according to a clock. The bread dough that rises in 25-minutes in the summer in my kitchen can take 45-minutes in a cold winter kitchen. -Grainlady

Most rapid rise yeast has Ascorbic Acid added to make it rise faster, it is basically vitamin C. I'm fine with that. I don't know if the funky smell and too rapid rise (for active dry yeast ) was from the additive or the new process they are using. I don't think they are adding corn syrup, but from the article Robin quoted above, it sounds like they are actually using the corn syrup to make the yeast. "Yeasts are grown in the industry in big tanks with sugary water in the presence of oxygen. When the desired amount of yeast is reached the liquid is pumped out, and the yeast is then dried. Nothing else is added in the production of yeast." I found this after searching on the Internet. So I would guess instead of using a sugar/water solution, Red Star now uses corn syrup to grow their yeast. I just can't understand why they felt they needed to add an emulsifier. I can't say I have ever had a problem with my yeast staying solid. If it worked for so many years I can't see why they would change it. I'm guessing the funky smell is from the corn syrup base they are growing the yeast from, and the undesirably rapid rise is from the emulsifier.

You might sacrifice a bit of flavor with the standard basic bread setting, the rises increase the fermentation, I think. I use instant yeast in a lot of my bread machine recipes on basic and see little difference. Instant has more yeasties sleeping in it so it has a faster rise, more rises means more flavor I'm told. Please note that it is difficult to get a fluffy oatmeal bread with any recipe and usually they call for more liquid than regular bread. Check your dough after about 5-8 minutes and add a couple tablespoons of water if it looks dry. Let us know what you find out.