I read the exact same thing. They are interchangeable. You need to "activate" active dry yeast in water to make sure it's still alive. You do not have to do that with instant yeast.

Truth is that before knowing this I used active yeast instead of dry yeast without activating and it still worked.

I keep my active yeast in the refrigerator and my instant yeast in the freezer. They are both still working and the active yeast has been there for minimum one year.

Thanks for this question and it's answer. I didn't even know that I didn't know there were different yeasts. Maybe that's why my last 2 batches of no knead bread weren't what I was expecting. I need to check which yeast I have.

I only use ADY. You can put it in the fridge or freezer, and if you plan to use it soon you don't need to vacuum seal, though it's never a bad idea. You do need an air tight/moisture proof cover, but a good zipper bag or food container will work. Do fold over the wrapper and maybe clip it.

Some say 1:1. Reinhart uses an extra 25% of ADY.

When you have a wet dough or long rise you don't really need to dissolve ADY first. An alternative process which is popular--I've done it, but not enough to compare accurately,--is to make a well in your flour in the mixing bowl, put the yeast granules in the well, and pour the water over it. Then use your Danish dough whisk, or wooden spoon, to distribute well. That gets the yeast activated by water without making a whole rigamarole out of it.

For all of the claims about baking as science (and it is), if you're not looking for an exact result for production work, you really don't have to be that precise. If your dough doesn't double in an hour because the dough wasn't wet enough to activate the yeast, immediately, wait another half hour. It'll rise. Really.

I've made a couple loaves of no-knead bread recently. I use active dry yeast and combine everything at the same time. You can keep the rest of the packet in your pantry, fridge, or freezer.

Which one is Fleischmann's? The one that come 3 packages to a strip.

Fleischmann's is labelled. It comes in ADY, IDY/Rapid Rise "highly active", and pizza crust yeast which is supposed to roll well and not rebound when stretched. I don't know how they do the last one. They also make an IDY labelled bread machine which is only sold in jars. The others come in the yellow packets, though each has a stripe of a different color, as well as the different name.

I use whatever I can buy....I believe I have both currently and any more I don't proof it by dissolving in water. The difference between active and instant is the size of the particles......and the difference in the timing of the rise is not enough so as you would notice....certainly not an hour
As for the leftovers, I would just fold the top of the packet over and put it in a zip lock or a small "tupper" or jelly jar and stick it in the refrig. It'll be good for at least 4 months.

I use the Fleischmann's that comes in the brown glass jars for everything — no knead artisan pizza dough (2 days in fridge); bread. I keep it in the fridge after opening it (I write the date first opened on it). Unopened jars get stored in a cold dark cellar.

I found this article very useful. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/baking-with-yeast/

I think I’m writing responses and failing to hit “Submit.” I thought I had posted this last night.

I made up the No-Knead dough about 5 p.m. yesterday, meaning the 18 hours will be up at 11 a.m. this morning. I dissolved the yeast in the water before pouring it in with the flour and salt. Our house is usually 70 - 72 degrees during the day, but while we sleep, we turn it down to about 68. My plan for the night time was to put the bowl of dough in the oven with the oven light on. Totally forgot. When I got up, the dough had risen. Nevertheless, I put it in the oven with the light on.

If the bread turns out to be tasty, I’m going to need to plan something with a well-seasoned buttery sauce to sop up!

Because I can over-think anything, I folded over the top of the yeast envelope, vacuum sealed it, and put it in the freezer!

I hope your bread is delicious, bbstx. I've used that recipe dozens of times over the years, but I've switched to the two I've linked here. They are much faster and every bit as good. I can't tell the difference between them or the nyt recipe.

We are going to have a boule of Steve's turbo bread for dinner! It's resting on the counter now.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I0t8ZAhb8lQ#

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gKTCYct_S0s&t=283s

Bread baking may not be my forte. I never could get it into a boule shape, although some of the videos I watched did. Mine was a shapeless mess. I would pull it into shape and as soon as I let go, it would ooze back into its impression of The Blob. As you can see from the photo below, it turned out *very* rustic. More like a Play Doh flying saucer made by a 5 year old!

I only hope it tastes better than it looks!

Sheesh, you really can't tell a difference from the longer rise? I'm going to have to try this method next time.

Tasted the bread. It’s pretty tasty. The crust is “sturdy,” which DH will call tough. The crumb is fairly open. The interior is done. There are no gummy spots, but it feels almost wet. When flour is more plentiful, I may try it again.

Zinnia, the bread is delicious. My husband must be on a very low.salt diet so I use about half the recipe amount of salt, so I can't really say if there is much difference due to rise time or low salt. The crust is incredibly crunchy, the interior is soft and has all the various size holes. It toasts and grills beautifully. I would like the bread to have the full amount of salt, but.....

Bbstx, you're on your way! Lovely color. I bet it's delicious. Keep it up and next thing you know you won't be able to tell yours from a bakery loaf.

I just saw your taste test, bbstx. About the crust - wrap what's left tightly in foil and tomorrow the crust will be much softer but not crunchy and still tasty. Toast it tomorrow!

bbstx: Did you slash the top of the loaf? i can't tell from the photo. I forgot once and my bread didn't rise properly.

I forgot to slash the top! Wonder if that is the problem? But now that I think about it, I don’t think I could have slashed the top, even if I had remembered. I’m trying to think of something that is similar in consistency to what I was dealing with. Maybe oatmeal? Maybe brownie batter? It lacked the body of commercial mayonnaise. It wasn’t so thin that it would run off the countertop, but it wasn’t thick enough to hold a shape either.

Interesting. I never once have slashed the top of bread. I like the irregular crack that occurs naturally.

Sounds like you needed more flour, bbstx. This is a wet, sticky dough, but much thicker than what you're describing. don't give up, next time add more flour until it is heavier. From what you describe, perhaps a quarter of a cup more.

Do you have a bench scraper? It makes all the difference in the world in how easy or hard it is to manipulate that gooey mess.

I keep trying recipes that are supposed to be that wet but they're not! (I've also done the slurry ones, but I don't enjoy it). Some people are after that glistening with water kind of crumb. I don't care for it. It really is wet. It's what happens when a crust forms before the water can escape.

Re fermenting times, a lot depends on your flour and yeast and water. So long as you're comparing measure to measure (as Sheesh said, it can affect the rise), if you're comparing the same ratio by weight of salt to flour in each loaf, it's not a variable in the rise. If you live somewhere that's particularly humid or dry, it can affect the absorption--or if your flour itself is wetter or drier than normal. The temperature and mineral content of the water can have an effect. How fresh and active the yeast is can have an effect as well. This is why most bakers learn to adjust the bread ingredients until it feels and smells right. My mother's challah recipe takes 7-9 cups of flour. Seriously.

In the case of a long rise bread, however, the yeast matters, but the rest doesn't so much. The gluten needs the time to develop since there's no kneading. Some stretch and folds help, and help to shorten the ferment time. Those are really just initial kneadings. The absorption and protein content of the flour starts to matter a lot, if they're not optimal for developing the gluten without kneading. A couple of months ago, with a new bag of KA bread flour, it started to get tight almost as soon as the flour got wet. It's pretty high in protein content, and sucked up the flour fast. The recipe from the bag said it would be soft and wet--it was the opposite.

You can generally rely on a cake recipe, but bread is more of an art. Keep at it and learn what works for you.

bbstx, that no knead dough is supposed to fill the botton of the covered pot you bake it in...that's how it get it's boule shape. When you dump it into the pan, it's just a blob and you dump it in and shake the pot to settle it. As for slashing....hard to do with aw et dough like that....If you want to be "artful" try snipping a bit on the top with scissors after you have dumped it into the dutch oven.

I make a lot of bread lately....a LOT...I use 2 pounds of flour a day at least. In the past 7 weeks I have baked 175 loaves of bread. Mostly I use a high protein bread flour....KA mostly. But when flour is short and bake i must, I use what I have....gold medal and supermarket brand...whatever. I never find any difference in how the flour "sucks up" the water. I use AP and bread flour in the same amounts and the texture of the dough is pretty much the same. The difference is in the rise and the "firmness" of the baked loaf.....I call it lack of the Wonder Bread factor.

Wow! 175 loaves! I have baked 3 loaves in the last 7 weeks.....

Y’all are so helpful and so knowledgeable, but I think this loaf was my swan song. I am not an artisan. I dislike anything were I have to guess at what’s right.

That’s why when I used to do needlework, I did needlepoint and count-cross stitch instead of smocking. The first smocking class I went to, the teacher said “put 3 stitches evenly between the 2 lines.” I knew immediately it wasn’t for me.

I’m in awe of you bakers who can tell by feel, smell, sight when your dough is right. I made the No-Knead Bread about 8 years ago and had the same results and the same frustrations. I don’t know why I thought it would be different this time. It annoys me that the recipe doesn’t say anything about adding extra flour to get to the desired consistency.

We have a lovely little bakery in town that is probably struggling. They are providing curbside pick up. I need to patronize them and leave the bread baking to those of you who enjoy it and are adept at it.

Lindac, that is a lot of bread! You and plllog need to live closer together since P has bought something in the range of 6 tons of flour!l

LOL!! No such thing. A six month supply, maybe a bit more, though I would share. ;) I don't know if you saw, but I had a semi-fail with the NYT recipe just now, too. I've been working on high hydration in general and haven't mastered it. I learn a lot more when things go wrong than when they're just right. That's how you learn to adjust. I don't need a recipe to make a cake, but for perfect I use a recipe, exactly. For challah, my mother taught me exactly what to look for to know when there's enough flour—it's not a guessing game. But for kneading, it's "well stretched glutenous lump" which is less precise. If you baked daily, like Linda, you’d pick it up fast.

I know the whole point of Lehey's NYT recipe was to make it easy for non-bakers—and the pot is brilliant—but it's not really all that easy and lots of people fail at it. I haven't tried yet, but the recipe 2ManyDiversions posted for Hokkaido bread, looks more "if you can follow directions" clear, and your husband might actually like it. It's not dump and run, however. Or try one of the simple, success oriented recipes from the KA site. If you have enough yeast.

I hate to see you give up! Though patronizing the lovely bakery is also a good idea. :)

Linda and plllog, KA bread flour (all bread flour, in fact) is very much more expensive than AP. If the difference is negligible, why use it? Though I used local bread flour years ago, I couldn't tell the difference when I had to sub AP, so I've used AP ever since. A friend gave me bag of KA bread flour recently so of course I made boules and sandwich bread with it. Except for perhaps a slight texture difference that I'm not really sure I could detect in a blind taste test, it was not worth the.expense, in my very humble opinion.

Linda, when you say "firmness" of the loaf, Do you mean bread flour makes a firmer loaf? I don't find that my AP breads are any different in rise, color, shape, taste, holes in the boules, or anything else.

@plllog, how wonderful that your mother taught you to make challah! The only bread my mother ever made was dinner rolls. They were delicious. Mother really hated to have someone in the kitchen when she was cooking, so Sister and I had to pretty much teach ourselves how to cook. Mom gave me the recipe for her rolls. I never quite mastered it, but XH did! And I was happy to let him make them.

Having enough yeast is no longer the problem. I’ve got 2 unopened packets and one with just 1/4 tsp gone. But after using 3 cups of flour yesterday to make The Loaf That Wasn’t a Loaf, I’m going to be conserving what flour I have.

DH loves cornbread and I have lots of cornmeal. In the time before coronavirus, I asked him to pick up a bag of cornmeal for me. I generally buy it in 1 lb bags. He brought home a 5 lb bag!

The great thing about all purpose flour is that you can use it for all purposes. There are a few different kinds of wheat that are our main supply. Other forms are usually given a separate name, such as einkorn, spelt, emmer, farro (which can actually be three different ones, but is usually used for the one with the biggest berry). For the full explanation of the wheat varieties, search on Grainlady and read her posts.

Basically, however, there are some that have 12-14% protein, from which gluten is developed, 8-10%, and 6%-ish. AP flour is a blend of high and low protein flours to make one that's around 10.5%, with some variation by company. KA AP is higher in protein than most other APs and very appropriate for many breads, but not so great for cake. Some bread flour is very high protein, and most is a percent or two more than the AP from the same company. Cake flour is usually about 8% protein and pastry flour is 6%. You don't want to develop gluten for cakes and pastries! That's why you're warned not to overbeat them.

You can't tell the protein content based on the nutrition label. It gets lost in the rounding error. KA and some others label their bags with the actual protein content.

So, the point of bread flour is that the higher protein content develops more gluten, making for a stronger rise. That's not necessarily a higher rise. For that, they often put malted barley in the flour, more often AP, because it's already a blend, as well as enriched (vitamins and minerals) if it's bleached. The stronger gluten will show in the crumb structure and texture.

Bread is whatever you want it to be. If you're making bread you like with the flour you have, then it's good! If someone else prefers another, that's good too. Some people prefer a stronger cake from AP, some like a flyaway light cake crumb from cake flour. Some people mix their own to get it just right. Unless you're in a competition with a particular standard sheet that it's being judged to, none of this matters so long as you and those you're feeding like what you're making, so don't let it get to you.