jasdip, 4 tbsp with 7 cups of flour is about 4 times as much as I use, it is an awful lot of yeast. Wow. the Red Star yeast website says to use 1/2 tsp for each cup of flour, but it should be doubled for a one hour cycle, maybe that's what your friend is doing.

From a baking website, I found this explanation:

"Quick-rising yeast can also be called bread yeast, instant yeast, though you don’t get an instant rise, or rapid rise yeast. It looks similar to most forms of active dry yeast and comes in small packets. These packets have expiration dates, and you should be sure to take note of the date before you use it. Bakers note that the main difference between quick-rising yeast and active dry yeast, or other forms like fresh yeast, is that you can rise bread products in about one half to one third the time. Since bread making can be a lengthy process, this is often viewed as an advantage."

I don't buy the quick rising stuff or the bread machine yeast, I get two pounds of yeast at Sam's Club and use it for everything, including all the bread I make in the bread machine.

Annie

Thanks Annie!
Since it rises so quickly that's how she's able to have hers done when mine is still rising.

You buy just the regular granular yeast.....not the solid block of fresh yeast?

Yes, just the regular stuff. I get a two one-pound packages. One package I pour into a quart Ball canning jar and keep in the fridge, the other goes into the freezer. It keeps pretty much indefinitely that way.

Annie

Me too...
And you will find that a fast rise equals not as good flavor as a slower rise.
There have been a few times when I was in a toot to get bread made for dinner and I put it in the micro with a bowl of hot water and used a bit of extra yeast...It puffed up fast....but that good flavor that a slower rise gives wasn't there.

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

Wow, Thanks Grainlady!!

I like the recommendation of reducing the amount of instant yeast when subbing for active dry.

I'll try using both when making bread, in appropriate amounts.
Have to use up the instant I was given, somehow!

Oh, and as an aside, I NEVER proof yeast. I bake all my bread, dinner rolls, hamburger buns, everything, so I go through yeast so fast I've never had a problem with it getting too old or dying on me.

Annie

You put your yeast in dry, even when baking my hand, from scratch, Annie?
I just do that in my bread-maker. I was wondering if I'd proofed my yeast enough, when I used the KA mixer. It's highly likely, that I didn't.

I'm with Annie. I buy granular yeast in a 2 pound vacuum-packed package at Costco. It's dirt cheap (just a few dollars). I've transferred it into a plastic box and store all of it in the freezer, spooning out what I need when I need it. Since most recipes include some sweetener, I put a bit of it into the dissolving yeast. This accelerates the growth of the yeast so lengthy proofing is not necessary. You'll probably see it bubbling before it's time to add it to the dough.

jasdip, I have some significant carpal tunnel issues, so I seldom bake bread by hand any more, the kneading is just too painful.

When I do bake bread by hand, I have done both ways. I usually just mix the yeast in with the dry ingredients, add the wet stuff and knead away. It works, but I think it rises a bit more slowly. The "experts" at the Fresh Loaf say that active dry yeast should be dissolved because it has bigger granules, but the instant stuff is fine, toss it in. Because I'm so impatient, I've just tossed it right in anyway and it's always worked for me.

I think Ann T does not proof her yeast either (and neither of us sift, LOL), but I don't know how much of her bread gets done by hand.

Bread can be as complicated as you care to make it, or as simple. You can run the gamut from no-knead bread to bread made with poolish/biga/sponge/sourdough. Time is a bread's friend, longer slower rises add to the flavor, but my family actually likes the really fluffy, sweet and yeasty flavor of quickly risen bread. Elery and I like the longer risen stuff better. In spite of my very relaxed attitude toward bread, mine usually turns out fine. After all, people have made bread for centuries, without special yeast or bread machines or indoor ovens. It's all good. Taste is subjective, not objective, so it's all in what you like.

About the only real problems I have is when I get too many projects going at once and my bread overproofs and then deflates or I get too creative and start adding a bunch of heavy grains, like 10 grain cereal, flax seed, sunflower seeds, rye flour, wheat flour AND cornmeal, LOL. That can get a bit heavy. Even those are not called failures in my house, they're called bread crumbs!

Annie