You can form the rolls and freeze....but they will continue to rise as they chill down in the freezer, and when they thaw, they will have to come to room temp and continue the rise before you can bake. Commercial frozen dough places have access to super cold flash freezers that will arrest the dough in mid rise. As for baking partly, unless you get the centers of the roll cooked, they will fall and be mushy on the inside of the pan. By far, the best way I have found is just what you did...bake and freeze....but it's nice to have a whole pan....and not one with a sample missing! LOL! Linda C

I agree with "Yes" - sorta. Both will work fine, but I think active dry is more often than not indicated when the recipe simply states "yeast", but there are also other indicators. Because the yeast is proofed in water/sweetener, I would use active dry yeast. When yeast is added to the flour mixture and the liquids added to that, then it is probably a fast-acting yeast (Quick-rise, Rapid-rise, Instant-SAF, or Bread Machine). But as with all the rules for using yeast, they are just suggestions and not necessarily hard-and-fast - just general guidelines. I have recipes where I proof the fast-acting yeast, and I have recipes where I add active dry yeast to the flour mixture and omit proofing first. Modern yeast if pretty tolerant. In fact, the first Instant Yeast products would fail if you proofed it, but because you can't always teach old dogs new tricks, they reformulated so it could be proofed OR added directly to the dry ingredients. Another indicator that it would be active dry yeast is the rise after it's been kneaded. If I were using a fast-acting yeast, after the dough has been kneaded all it requires is a 10-minute rest before forming and you can eliminate the long rise. That's one of the benefits/characteristics of using fast-acting yeast products. Along with eliminating the proofing time by adding the yeast directly to the flour, these varieties of yeast were developed so you could make yeast breads faster by eliminating one rise. For long, slow rises choose active dry yeast. Yet one more thing that would direct me to using active dry yeast is the amount of yeast in ratio to the flour. If you use a fast-rising yeast, I would certainly reduce the amount in the recipe by 25% or expect a jet-propelled fast rise. -Grainlady

Tannabanana, I regularly freeze unbaked bread dough. I mix, let rise, form the rolls and then freeze. If they are used within a couple of months they will be fine. I take mine out the night before and let them thaw/rise overnight in the refrigerator, I'm talking about 8 pm the night before. I take them from the refrigerator in the morning, let them come to room temp and rise, then bake just like I would if they were fresh. It also works great for fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast! Annie

Lovemycorgi, those are good books. Linda is right about the instant yeast. There's one kind of yeast sold commercially (sourdough starter is a different organism). The differences are only in the handling of the product. I like ADY because it gives the baker the most control, compared to IDY or cake yeast, but it's all just yeast. :) IDY is just more likely to get played out if you want to do a longer rise, and will puff up faster than other forms of yeast. If you're following a recipe and use the recommended flour, you're unlikely to go wrong. This is where the madness starts. So long as you're happy with your bread, you have absolutely no need to go further, but King Arthur AP and Gold Medal AP will give you different results. :) Not hugely different, but different. :) Re the yeasty taste, professional bakers publish recipes that have extra yeast for the yeasty taste, especially for pizza, but also in other contexts. It may be that the extra yeast creates the equivalent of the over-proofing that Linda mentioned. I've only had over rises on bread a couple of times and it wasn't significant enough to taste yeasty, though I believe Linda that it happens.