John Myers
You just wanted to bake a cake quickly and now you are unsure whether your fresh yeast is still usable. Find out here when you can still use your yeast safely and how you can recognize bad yeast.
What is fresh yeast?
Yeasts are unicellular fungi that are used as fermenting and raising agents in baking, among other things. Unlike dry yeast, fresh yeast contains water, which significantly shortens its shelf life.
Durability and storage
Fresh yeast has a shelf life of approximately 12 days. The packaging has a best-before date that you can use as a guide. However, the yeast can spoil earlier due to temperature fluctuations during transport and storage. Conversely, it may also be possible that it can still be used after the best-before date has expired.
After you have bought the yeast, you should therefore put it in your fridge at home as soon as possible. The door compartment is not ideal for this, as the regular opening and closing of the door cause the temperatures there to fluctuate more. Instead, find a spot further back in the fridge or in the crisper. It is best to store opened yeast cubes in an airtight container, for example in a plastic container.
If you don’t want to process your yeast within the next few days, you can freeze it for up to 6 months. The driving force decreases as a result but is usually not completely lost.
Identify bad yeast
There are different characteristics by which you can recognize bad yeast.
The longer the yeast is stored, the weaker its raising power becomes. This means your baked goods may not rise as much, but they’re still edible. You can easily test the raising power by adding some yeast to a glass of water along with a teaspoon of sugar. If after about 10 minutes it floats to the top and starts to foam, then you can still use it. On the other hand, if it’s at the bottom of the glass and hasn’t reacted with the sugar, there’s a high chance your baked goods won’t rise properly.
If the yeast smells bad or becomes moldy, then it’s spoiled. As soon as you spot green or black mold, you should dispose of the yeast immediately. Even if the yeast looks very dried out and has turned brown, you should not bake with it anymore.
White mold on yeast
It can happen that yeast is covered with white fluff. This looks a bit like white mold on moldy cheese. If you discover this on your yeast, then you have so-called wild yeast. You can continue to use them without hesitation.
Wild yeasts occur in particular with a fresh organic quality yeast. Conventional yeast uses chemicals that prevent the formation of wild yeast.
Wild yeasts are therefore a purely visual problem. If you still want to avoid them, then make sure to store the yeast at a constant temperature and use it promptly.
Facebook Comments