Yeast is one of the ingredients of which I am a little low -- not about to run out, but I feel like I should conserve. For the past 3 types of bread products that I've made, I've experimented with using less yeast. The first was a batch of hot dog buns where I used about 3/4 the usual yeast. For the last two, a batch of French bread and a batch of half white, half whole wheat sandwich bread, I used half of the called-for amounts of yeast.
Lots of time, lots of attention
- Start early in the day to allow for maximum growth of a sponge
- Feed the sponge several times over the period of the day
I began with the water, yeast, sugar, salt, and enough good bread flour to make a sponge that was about the consistency of thick pancake batter. I did not add any fat at this point. Set it in a warm place, the oven with only the interior light on, and allowed it to develop for an hour or two.
Next, I added about one-fourth of the remaining flour. Stirred it for two minutes, the put it back into a warm place for another hour or two.
Then, I added another fourth of the flour, stirring well, and placed it again in the warm spot.
Repeated the above one more time.
With my dough now expanded quite a bit, I added the oil called for and the last of the flour, stirring well. Again, I placed it back into the warm spot.
When the dough had risen, I punched it down and allowed to stand for 10 minutes. I kneaded the dough thoroughly. I, then, divided it into loaves and put in pans (on baking sheet for the French bread), and placed in the warm spot until risen. Lastly, I baked the loaves.
I was somewhat surprised and pleased that my old recipes could work with half the amount of yeast. The original recipes for these breads come from different sources, written in various decades.
This method of mixing only a portion of the flour with yeast, water, and other ingredients is often referred to as a long-sponge method. The loose dough is the sponge. My method for using half the amount of yeast, but working on the sponge several times over the course of a day is almost like a condensed version of developing a sourdough starter, growing the dough by feeding the yeast over time. (Only, because I grew the dough over just one day, the bread did not have the usual sourdough tang.) I suspect that this method that I experimented with was used by many home bakers in times past, when faced with needing to conserve commercial yeast.
Different bread recipes call for different amounts of yeast. For reference: the 2 loaves of sandwich bread used 1 and 1/8 teaspoon of yeast for 8 cups of flour. The recipe in my 1957 cookbook calls for 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast for the 2 loaves.
Using less yeast may not be possible with some recipes, especially if they already call for very little yeast. But for my situation, I was able to halve my yeast use and still bake very light and fluffy bread.
