John Myers
How annoying: the fresh yeast in the refrigerated section is once again empty. You wanted to bake a delicious cake at the weekend. And you can too – with our ideas for yeast substitutes.
The right yeast substitute for your recipe
Yeast can be found in many recipes as a leavening agent for the dough and should not be replaced if possible to achieve the best possible taste. If you want to be on the safe side and independent of the availability in the supermarket, you can make your own yeast. However, preparing the yeast water takes time. Substitute dry yeast is another option, but not always available. With the following alternatives, your dough will be as successful as with yeast – if you pay attention to a few things and choose the right substitute for the recipe in question.
Baking powder and baking soda as a yeast substitute
Bags with these raising agents are usually in the house. Both allow dough to rise well and, above all, quickly: the usual waiting time that yeast requires is no longer necessary. Use one sachet of baking powder for 500 g flour or replace half a cube of fresh yeast with it. Take 5 g of baking soda or a teaspoon for this amount of flour and add 6 tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice – without acid, baking soda has no raising power. The two powders are suitable as a substitute for fresh yeast, especially for light doughs. You can also use them if you want to make pizza yourself.
Fresh Yeast vs. Dry Yeast: What’s the Difference?
In contrast to fresh yeast (also called block yeast), dry yeast has a much longer shelf life. Fresh yeast has a shelf life of approximately 12 days and must be stored in the refrigerator. However, refrigerated storage is also necessary for dry yeast.
Two packets of dry yeast, each with 7g per packet, correspond to the raising power of one cube of fresh yeast. It is said that one packet of dry yeast or half a cube of fresh yeast is enough for 500 grams of flour. For example, we dose the raising agent in our Focaccia Garden recipe. However, this can vary significantly depending on the recipe. For the Franconian yeast dumpling recipe, there are 30 g of yeast – three quarters of a cube – and only 300 g of flour.
Another advantage of dry yeast is that it is easier to dose than block yeast. It can also be better mixed with the flour.
Would you like to try out your homemade yeast dough in combination with a recipe? Then we recommend our delicious pizza rolls, for example. Our crunchy No Knead Bread is baked with fresh yeast – but without kneading! Because that’s practically not necessary with “bread without kneading”! For fans of sweet baked goods, we recommend our yeast plaited recipes.
Yeast beer
A good compromise between DIY and time is yeast beer. It only takes one night to finish. For example, if you already know on Saturday evening that you want to bake on Sunday, put 100 g of beer with 5 g of sugar and 10 g of flour in a glass or bowl and close the jar. The next morning you can use yeast beer wonderfully for all doughs that require baker’s yeast. Use about 100ml less liquid than the recipe says and let the dough rise a little longer. In terms of taste, the yeast substitute made from beer corresponds to the cube from the refrigerated counter. Those who eat no animal products can use it to bake delicious vegan cinnamon rolls, for example.
Sourdough and baking ferment
The alternatives mentioned are not very suitable as yeast substitutes for bread. Especially heavy doughs hardly succeed with it. Here it is better to use baking ferment or sourdough. The baking ferment, available in powder form, is obtained from sourdough that has been prepared with wheat, yellow peas, and honey. The yeast substitute is also available vegan and gluten-free. As a rule, 3 g of ferment are required for 1 kg of flour – follow the instructions on the packet. Sourdough is a perfect yeast substitute for baking tasty breads. Swap some of the liquid for the base in the recipe. Our recipe for rye sourdough bread reveals how to prepare sourdough. Those in a hurry should have ready-made sourdough in stock and also note on the day of baking that the dough takes longer than with yeast.
