Yeast substitutes
Yeast substitutes — 5 options, ranked, with the exact amount
Also called baker's yeast, active dry yeast, instant yeast, rapid rise yeast, quick rise yeast, bread machine yeast, fresh yeast, cake yeast, compressed yeast, dried yeast
Use Instant or active dry yeast
1 ¾ tsp for every 2 ¼ tsp yeast
If you have any yeast at all, use it: instant, active dry and fresh are interchangeable with an amount change (1 packet = 2 ¼ tsp active dry = 1 ¾ tsp instant = 17 g fresh). If you have no yeast, be honest about what happens next — chemical leaveners make gas in minutes and cannot build a yeast bread's chew or flavour. Bake a soda bread or a baking-powder flatbread instead of converting a bread recipe.
- Verdict —
- Tweak it
- The tweak —
- Going the other way, use 2 ¼ tsp active dry per 1 ¾ tsp instant, and expect the first rise to take about 15 minutes longer
- Best for —
- when the recipe names one kind and you own the other
- Pantry —
- Likely in your cupboard
Checked 22 Jul 2026 · no sponsored swaps
But first: what’s the yeast doing?
Pick your caseDo you have any kind of live yeast in the house, or none at all?
This is the easy case and nothing about the recipe changes except the number. 1 packet of active dry yeast is 2 ¼ tsp or 7 g; the same rise comes from 1 ¾ tsp of instant, or 17 g of fresh yeast crumbled in. Instant goes straight into the flour; active dry can go in dry too, though proofing it in warm liquid first tells you it is alive.
Notes on instant or active dry yeast or fresh (cake) yeast
1 ¾ tsp per 2 ¼ tsp
It works, and the bread will be better, but the timings change completely: plan on 4 to 12 hours instead of 1 to 2. Use about 1 cup of active, recently fed starter per packet of yeast, and because a 100% hydration starter is half flour and half water, take ½ cup of flour and ½ cup of water out of the recipe.
Notes on sourdough starter
1 cup per 7 g packet
Do not try to convert the yeast recipe — change what you are making. Irish soda bread with 1 ¾ cups buttermilk and 1 tsp baking soda per 3 cups of flour is a genuinely good loaf that takes 45 minutes start to finish. Self-rising flour flatbreads and baking-powder pizza bases work the same way.
Notes on baking soda + buttermilk (as soda bread) or self-rising flour
1 tsp soda per 3 cups flour
There is no substitution route here at all. The pull-apart strands of a cinnamon roll and the chew of a bagel are gluten stretched slowly around fermentation gas, and no chemical leavener builds that. Wait until you have yeast; a packet is cheap and keeps for months in the freezer.
There are really only two questions. Do you have yeast of some kind? If yes, the answer is arithmetic: 1 packet is 2 ¼ tsp active dry, 1 ¾ tsp instant, or 17 g fresh, and a cup of active sourdough starter with ½ cup each of flour and water taken out of the recipe. If you have none, stop trying to convert the recipe. Chemical leaveners make their gas in two minutes; yeast makes it over hours, which is where the chew and the smell of bread come from. Bake a soda bread or a self-rising flatbread today and the yeast recipe tomorrow.
Yeast is alive, and that is the whole difference. It makes gas slowly over hours, so gluten has time to stretch into an open chewy crumb, and fermentation builds the smell of bread as it goes.
Aroma & flavor identityprimary
Fermentation produces alcohols, esters and organic acids that only form over time; they are the bready smell and the faint sourness, and nothing you can add in the last five minutes creates them.
Leaveningprimary
It releases carbon dioxide slowly over hours, so the gluten network has time to stretch rather than tear — this is what makes the difference between an open, chewy, irregular crumb and the tight even crumb of a quick bread.
Browning & colorsecondary
It uses up some of the dough's sugar and generates new compounds, and both change how the crust colours — an over-proved loaf goes pale because the yeast has eaten the sugar the crust needed to brown.
Every option, one card
Ranked · per 2 ¼ tsp yeast| # | Substitute | Instead of 2 ¼ tsp yeast | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Instant or active dry yeastwhen the recipe names one kind and you own the other | 1 ¾ tsp, whisked straight into the flourper 1 packet (2 ¼ tsp, 7 g) active dry yeastTweak it | Tweak it |
| 2 | Fresh (cake) yeastEuropean recipes written in grams of fresh yeast | 17 g, about one 0.6 oz cakeper 1 packet (2 ¼ tsp, 7 g) active dry yeastTweak it | Tweak it |
| 3 | Sourdough starterwhen you keep a starter and have all day | 1 cup of active starter, fed 4-8 hours earlier and visibly bubblingper 1 packet (2 ¼ tsp, 7 g) active dry yeastTweak it | Tweak it |
| 4 | Baking soda + buttermilk (as soda bread)when you want bread on the table in under an hour | 1 tsp + 1 ¾ cups buttermilk per 3 cups flour, plus 1 tsp saltper 1 packet of yeast in a plain bread recipeYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
| 5 | Self-rising flourflatbreads, naan-style breads and pan breads cooked on the stovetop | 1 cup, with the yeast and salt left out entirelyper 1 cup of the recipe's all-purpose flour, in a flatbread or biscuitYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
| Not a swap | Beer | not a yeast substitute — beer will not leaven a doughNot for this | Not for this |
| Not a swap | Club soda | not a yeast substitute — the dissolved gas is a tiny fraction of what a dough needs and it escapes while you mixNot for this | Not for this |
Instant or active dry yeast
no difference worth noticing
The same organism dried two different ways: instant is milled to finer particles that rehydrate in the dough, active dry is coarser and slower off the mark.
- Covers
- Aroma & flavor identity
- Leavening
- Browning & color
- Amount
- 1 ¾ tsp instant yeast, whisked straight into the flour for 1 packet (2 ¼ tsp, 7 g) active dry yeast
- Then
- going the other way, use 2 ¼ tsp active dry per 1 ¾ tsp instant, and expect the first rise to take about 15 minutes longer
- Best for
- when the recipe names one kind and you own the other, any bread, roll, pizza or sweet dough, when you want the result the recipe intends
- Taste
- no difference worth noticing; a longer rise builds more flavour, so slower active dry can even taste marginally better
- Texture
- identical if you give it the extra 15 minutes it wants
- Look
- the same crumb and the same crust
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Suits
- vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free
- Use about 25% less instant yeast than active dry: 1 ¾ tsp instant per 2 ¼ tsp active dry.
- Instant yeast goes into the flour dry. It needs no proofing and gets going faster.
- Active dry can also go in dry with modern strains, but if the packet is old, proof it first: ¼ cup water at 105-110F, a pinch of sugar, and it should be visibly foamy within 10 minutes.
- Keep the liquid under 120F. Above about 130F the yeast starts dying, and hot tap water can reach that.
- Do not tip the salt directly onto the yeast in a dry bowl. Whisk the salt through the flour first.
Most people searching for a yeast substitute actually have yeast — just not the sort the recipe names. This row is the answer for that, and it is the only kind of swap on this page that produces the bread the recipe was written for.
Not a licence to add more yeast for speed. Doubling the yeast gives a faster rise, a coarser crumb and a distinctly beery smell.
Fresh (cake) yeast
slightly rounder and more distinctly yeasty
Live yeast compressed into a moist crumbly block at about 70% water, which is why you need roughly two and a half times the weight of the dried kind.
- Covers
- Aroma & flavor identity
- Leavening
- Browning & color
- Amount
- 17 g fresh yeast, about one 0.6 oz cake for 1 packet (2 ¼ tsp, 7 g) active dry yeast
- Then
- crumble it into the recipe's warm liquid and stir until it dissolves before adding any flour
- Best for
- European recipes written in grams of fresh yeast, enriched doughs, panettone and stollen, when a bakery or supermarket chiller sells it and you like the flavour
- Taste
- slightly rounder and more distinctly yeasty, which many bakers prefer in a rich dough
- Texture
- the same, sometimes a touch softer
- Look
- the same rise and crust; it is a difference of degree, not of kind
- Pantry
- Special trip
- Suits
- vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free
- Use about 2 ½ times the weight of dry yeast: 17 g fresh per 7 g packet, or 50 g fresh per 20 g of dry.
- Dissolve it in the recipe's warm liquid first. Dry it will not distribute.
- Take 1 tbsp of liquid out of the recipe per 17 g of fresh yeast, since the block is mostly water.
- Use it within about two weeks of purchase, or freeze it. It should be putty-coloured and crumble cleanly; if it is browning, slimy or smells sharp, it is dead.
The number to keep is 17 g fresh per 7 g dry. The reverse trips people up: a recipe written for 50 g of fresh yeast wants about 20 g of dry, not 50 g, and using 50 g of dry yeast will taste of alcohol and collapse.
It is perishable. This is not the option for a cupboard you only bake from twice a year.
Sourdough starter
noticeably tangier and more complex
A live culture of wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria kept in a jar of flour and water, which leavens more slowly than commercial yeast and adds acidity as it goes.
- Covers
- Aroma & flavor identity
- Leavening
- Browning & color
- Amount
- 1 cup (about 227 g) of active starter, fed 4-8 hours earlier and visibly bubbling for 1 packet (2 ¼ tsp, 7 g) active dry yeast
- Then
- remove ½ cup flour and ½ cup water from the recipe, then allow 4-12 hours for the first rise instead of 1-2
- Best for
- when you keep a starter and have all day, rustic loaves, pizza and focaccia, when the tang and the keeping quality are what you are after
- Taste
- noticeably tangier and more complex, and the difference grows with the length of the rise
- Texture
- chewier with a more open irregular crumb, and it stays fresh a day or two longer because the acidity slows staling
- Look
- a darker, blistered crust and a less uniform crumb with larger holes in places
- Pantry
- Special trip
- Suits
- vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free
- Contains
- wheat
- Use starter that was fed 4 to 8 hours ago and has roughly doubled. A jar straight out of the fridge will not raise a loaf.
- A cup of 100% hydration starter is about half flour and half water, so take ½ cup of flour and ½ cup of water out of the recipe or the dough will be soup.
- Ignore the recipe's rise times and watch the dough instead: it is ready when it has grown by about half and springs back slowly when poked.
- Do not add commercial yeast alongside it hoping to hurry things. The yeast finishes first and you get a fast bland loaf with no benefit from the starter.
This is the only substitute here that is also alive, which is why it is the only one that reproduces both the slow gas and the fermented flavour. Everything below it changes what you are baking.
The timing is not negotiable. If you need bread in two hours, this is the wrong route however good the starter is.
Baking soda + buttermilk (as soda bread)
no bready fermented smell at all, and a faint tang from the buttermilk
A chemical leavening pair that makes its gas immediately, which produces a real and good loaf — a soda bread — rather than a version of the yeast bread you started with.
- Covers
- Leavening
- Misses
- Aroma & flavor identity — not covered
- Browning & color — not covered
- Amount
- 1 tsp baking soda + 1 ¾ cups buttermilk per 3 cups (about 375 g) flour, plus 1 tsp salt for 1 packet of yeast in a plain bread recipe
- Then
- mix for 30 seconds only, shape a round, cut a deep cross in the top, and bake at 425F/220C for 40-45 minutes
- Best for
- when you want bread on the table in under an hour, a soft-crumbed loaf for butter, soup and toast, recipes for plain lean dough, not enriched or sweet dough
- Taste
- no bready fermented smell at all, and a faint tang from the buttermilk; pleasant, and plainly not yeast bread
- Texture
- tight, soft, cake-like and crumbly rather than chewy and stretchy, and it goes stale within a day
- Look
- a pale, matte, floury crust with no blistering, a dense even crumb with small holes, and the split cross opened up on top
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Suits
- vegetarian
- Contains
- wheat, dairy
- Stop reading the yeast recipe and follow this ratio instead: 3 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 ¾ cups buttermilk.
- Mix for no more than 30 seconds, until it just holds together. Kneading a soda dough makes it tough — the opposite of yeast dough.
- No buttermilk? Stir 1 ¾ tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar into 1 ¾ cups milk and leave 5 minutes until it thickens and looks curdled.
- Get it into a preheated oven immediately. The gas is already being made while you shape it.
- Cut a cross about 1 inch deep into the top so the middle cooks before the crust hardens.
Written as a whole recipe rather than a ratio because a conversion is not what is happening: you are baking a different bread. That is the honest answer, and soda bread is a good bread, which is why this row sits above the ones below it.
Plain lean loaves and flatbreads only. Do not attempt this in place of yeast in brioche, cinnamon rolls, bagels, pizza you want chewy, or any dough you were meant to knead and prove.
Self-rising flour
flat and floury next to yeast bread, with none of the fermented smell
Soft low-protein flour premixed with roughly 1 ½ tsp baking powder and ¼ to ½ tsp salt per cup, so it rises the moment it is wet.
- Covers
- Leavening
- Misses
- Aroma & flavor identity — not covered
- Browning & color — not covered
- Amount
- 1 cup self-rising flour, with the yeast and salt left out entirely for 1 cup of the recipe's all-purpose flour, in a flatbread or biscuit
- Then
- for a two-ingredient flatbread, mix 1 cup self-rising flour with ½ cup plain yogurt, knead 1 minute, roll thin and dry-fry 2-3 minutes a side
- Best for
- flatbreads, naan-style breads and pan breads cooked on the stovetop, biscuits and scones rather than loaves, when there is no yeast and no buttermilk in the house
- Taste
- flat and floury next to yeast bread, with none of the fermented smell; fine in a flatbread eaten hot with something on it
- Texture
- tender and short, closer to a scone than a bread, with no chew and no pull
- Look
- small and thick, with a pale surface and a close crumb; a loaf shape will barely rise and will be dense in the middle
- Suits
- vegan, dairy-free
- Contains
- wheat
- Leave out the recipe's yeast, its baking powder and its salt.
- Do not knead it for 10 minutes as a bread recipe tells you to. One minute is plenty; long kneading toughens it and none of it helps the rise.
- Skip the rising time altogether. Standing around only loses gas.
- Do not use it where the recipe calls for bread flour. Self-rising flour is milled soft and low in protein, which is the opposite of what a chewy bread needs.
The two-ingredient flatbread in the method line is the one thing this does genuinely well, and it is the fastest route from nothing to warm bread. Treat it as its own recipe, not a version of the one you were following.
Small and thin only. It works for flatbreads and biscuits and it will not produce a risen loaf, a pizza with any chew, or anything enriched.
Beer
a pleasant malty note in a beer bread, and no bready fermentation flavour
Fermented, filtered and usually pasteurized, which means the yeast in almost every bottle on a supermarket shelf is dead or removed and cannot raise a dough.
- Misses
- Aroma & flavor identity — not covered
- Leavening — not covered
- Browning & color — not covered
- Amount
- Nothing — beer will not leaven a doughper 1 packet of yeast
- Then
- if you want to use beer, use it as the liquid in a beer bread built on self-rising flour or baking powder
- Best for
- flavour and a little carbonation in a chemically leavened beer bread, batters for frying, where the bubbles help lightness, nothing that needs to rise on the counter
- Texture
- if you rely on beer alone for lift, dense and heavy — no rise at all
- Look
- a flat, squat, pale loaf that has not moved from the shape you put in the tin
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Suits
- vegan, dairy-free
- Contains
- wheat
- If you are making beer bread, the recipe rises from self-rising flour or baking powder — 3 cups self-rising flour to 1 bottle (12 oz) of beer and 3 tbsp sugar. The beer is flavour.
- Even an unfiltered bottle-conditioned beer has far too few live cells to leaven a loaf in any useful time.
- Use room-temperature beer for flavour breads so it does not stiffen the butter or fat in the mix.
The idea that beer's yeast leavens beer bread is one of the most persistent wrong claims in home baking. Look at any beer bread recipe and you will find self-rising flour or baking powder doing the work.
Listed only because this claim is repeated everywhere. Beer is an ingredient in some quick breads; it is not a leavener.
Club soda
no change from the club soda itself, and none of bread's flavour
Water with carbon dioxide dissolved in it under pressure, which gives a brief lightness to a thin batter and nothing at all to a dough.
- Misses
- Aroma & flavor identity — not covered
- Leavening — not covered
- Browning & color — not covered
- Amount
- Nothing — the dissolved gas is a tiny fraction of what a dough needs and it escapes while you mixper 1 packet of yeast
- Then
- keep club soda for tempura and pancake batters cooked within a minute of mixing
- Best for
- tempura and fritter batters used immediately, thin pancake and waffle batters, no bread of any kind
- Texture
- dense and heavy in anything dough-like
- Look
- a flat unrisen slab
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Suits
- vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free
- Open the bottle at the moment you mix, and keep it cold — cold water holds more gas.
- Cook within two minutes. Stirring alone drives most of the gas off.
- For bread, use a chemical leavener or wait for yeast. There is no version of this that works.
Frequently suggested as a yeast substitute and it is not one. The gas dissolved in a cup of club soda is a small fraction of what a teaspoon of baking soda generates in a reaction, and a dough has no chance of trapping it.
Thin batters cooked on the spot. Not bread, not pizza, not rolls.
Don’t swap it here
5 cases- Brioche, cinnamon rolls, babka, doughnuts, challah, panettone or any enriched sweet dough.Wait until you have yeast. A packet is inexpensive, and dry yeast keeps for months in the freezer. Make a soda bread or a tray of scones today.
- Bagels, pretzels, pizza you want chewy, ciabatta, baguettes or sourdough.Use yeast, or pick a recipe written for chemical leavening rather than converting one that was not.
- Substituting nutritional yeast, brewer's yeast or yeast extract for baking yeast.Use baker's yeast — instant, active dry or fresh. Nutritional yeast has its own uses and leavening is not one of them.
- Doubling the yeast, or using hot tap water to speed the rise.Keep the liquid at 105-110F, use the amount the recipe says, and let it take as long as it takes. A cool slow rise tastes better than a warm fast one.
- SafetyFermenting or preserving — using baker's yeast in place of a starter culture, or changing a fermented recipe's salt or acid.Follow a tested recipe exactly, with the culture and quantities it specifies. See the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
Safety
3 notes- Canning
Do not substitute cultures, salt levels or acids in fermenting, pickling or curing recipes. In those preparations the culture, the salt and the acidity are what keep harmful bacteria from growing, and baker's yeast is not a substitute for a starter culture. Follow tested recipes exactly.
Source — National Center for Home Food Preservation (opens in a new tab)
- Alcohol
Yeast fermentation produces a small amount of ethanol as well as carbon dioxide. Almost all of it evaporates during baking, but unbaked yeasted dough and batter do contain alcohol.
- Allergen
Baker's yeast itself contains no wheat, dairy or egg and is suitable for vegans. The doughs on this page contain wheat, and the soda bread route contains dairy unless you use a non-dairy milk soured with lemon juice.
If it went wrong
4 fixes- The dough has not moved in two hours.Dead yeast, liquid hot enough to kill it, salt tipped straight onto the yeast, or a kitchen cold enough to slow it right down.Give it more time somewhere warm first — a turned-off oven with the light on is about right, and cold dough often just needs four hours instead of two. If it still has not moved, dissolve a fresh packet of yeast in ¼ cup of 105F water with a pinch of sugar, wait until it foams, and knead it in.
- It rose enormously and then collapsed into a crater in the oven.Over-proved. The gluten stretched past what it could hold, and the bubbles burst rather than setting.Nothing for this loaf. Next time judge by the dough, not the clock: it is ready when it has grown by about half and a poke springs back slowly, leaving a faint dent.
- The bread tastes and smells strongly of alcohol or beer.Too much yeast, too warm a rise, or both, so fermentation ran ahead of everything else.Toasting improves it. For the next loaf, stay at 1 to 2 tsp of dry yeast per 3 to 4 cups of flour and rise it somewhere cooler for longer.
- The no-yeast loaf came out dense, gummy and heavy.A yeast recipe converted to chemical leavening, kneaded like bread dough, and left to stand before baking.Slice it thin and fry it in butter — it is good that way. Then use the soda bread ratio above as its own recipe: mix 30 seconds, shape, cut a cross, straight into a hot oven.
Measure it
8 measures- 1 packet yeast2 ¼ tsp = 7 g active dryEvery conversion on this page is anchored to that packet.
- Active dry to instant1 ¾ tsp instant per 2 ¼ tsp active dryAbout 25% less. Instant goes straight into the flour.
- Dry to fresh yeast17 g fresh (one 0.6 oz cake) per 7 g dryFresh yeast is about 70% water, which is where the factor of roughly 2 ½ comes from. Take 1 tbsp of liquid out of the recipe.
- Dry yeast to sourdough starterabout 1 cup (227 g) active starter per 7 g packetRemove ½ cup flour and ½ cup water from the recipe, and allow 4-12 hours instead of 1-2.
- Water temperature105-110F to proof; yeast dies above about 130FUse a thermometer once and you will recognise the feel of it afterwards. Warm, not hot to the fingertip.
- Normal dose1 to 2 tsp dry yeast per 3 to 4 cups flourMore than this rises faster and tastes distinctly of alcohol.
- Soda bread ratio3 cups flour : 1 tsp baking soda : 1 tsp salt : 1 ¾ cups buttermilk45 minutes at 425F/220C. The nearest thing to real bread that needs no yeast.
- Storageunopened dry yeast keeps about 2 years; opened, several months in the freezerFreezing does not kill dry yeast. An open jar in a warm cupboard is what kills it.
Questions
10 questionsWhat can I use instead of yeast?
If you have another form of yeast, use that: 1 packet is 2 ¼ tsp active dry, 1 ¾ tsp instant, or 17 g fresh. If you have none, do not convert the recipe — bake something written for chemical leavening instead. Irish soda bread (3 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 ¾ cups buttermilk, 45 minutes at 425F) is the closest thing to real bread you can get without yeast.
Can I use baking powder instead of yeast in bread?
You can make a loaf with baking powder, but it will not be the loaf you were making. Yeast releases gas over hours, so the gluten stretches into an open chewy crumb and fermentation builds the bready smell. Baking powder releases its gas in about two minutes, before any of that structure exists, so the result is dense, tight-crumbed and cake-like. It works for flatbreads and soda bread and fails for anything you were meant to knead and prove.
How much instant yeast do I use instead of active dry yeast?
About 25% less: 1 ¾ tsp instant for every 2 ¼ tsp of active dry, which is one standard packet. Instant yeast is milled finer, so it goes straight into the flour and starts faster. Going the other way, use 2 ¼ tsp active dry per 1 ¾ tsp instant and expect the first rise to take roughly 15 minutes longer.
How much fresh yeast equals a packet of dry yeast?
17 g of fresh yeast, which is one 0.6 oz cake, for each 7 g (2 ¼ tsp) packet of dry. Fresh yeast is about 70% water, which is where the factor of roughly 2 ½ comes from. Crumble it into the recipe's warm liquid and take 1 tbsp of liquid out to compensate.
Can I use sourdough starter instead of yeast?
Yes, with two changes. Use about 1 cup (227 g) of active starter, fed 4 to 8 hours earlier and visibly bubbling, per packet of yeast. Because that starter is roughly half flour and half water, remove ½ cup of flour and ½ cup of water from the recipe. Then allow 4 to 12 hours for the first rise rather than 1 to 2, and judge by the dough rather than the clock.
Can I use beer instead of yeast?
No. Nearly all beer is filtered and pasteurized, so the yeast in it is gone or dead, and even bottle-conditioned beer has far too few live cells to raise a loaf. Beer bread rises from self-rising flour or baking powder — the beer contributes malty flavour and a little carbonation. This is one of the most repeated wrong claims in home baking.
Can I use nutritional yeast instead of baking yeast?
No. Nutritional yeast is deactivated, meaning the cells are dead, and it is sold for its savoury cheesy flavour. So are brewer's yeast and yeast extract. None of them ferment, so none of them leaven. Only live baker's yeast — instant, active dry or fresh — will raise a dough.
Why didn't my bread rise?
In rough order of likelihood: the yeast was dead or long expired, the liquid was hot enough to kill it (anything much over 130F), the salt was tipped directly onto the yeast, the kitchen was too cold, or it simply needed more time. Test yeast first by dissolving it in ¼ cup of 105F water with a pinch of sugar; it should be visibly foamy within 10 minutes.
Can I make pizza dough without yeast?
You can make a good flatbread-style base and you cannot make a chewy one. Mix 2 cups self-rising flour with ¾ cup plain yogurt, knead a minute, roll thin, and bake at 450F/230C. The chew and the puffed blistered edge of a yeasted pizza come from gluten stretched slowly around fermentation gas, and there is no chemical shortcut to that.
Do I need to proof active dry yeast?
Modern active dry yeast can generally go straight into the flour, so proofing is a test rather than a requirement. It is worth doing when the jar is old or has been open a while: ¼ cup water at 105-110F, a pinch of sugar, and it should be foamy within 10 minutes. If it stays flat, the yeast is dead and no amount of rising time will help.
Tips for substituting yeast
9 tips- Most people looking for a yeast substitute already have yeast, just not the kind the recipe names. 1 packet = 2 ¼ tsp active dry = 1 ¾ tsp instant = 17 g fresh yeast.
- Keep the liquid at 105-110F. Yeast starts dying above about 130F, and hot water from a tap can easily get there.
- Whisk the salt through the flour before the yeast goes in. Salt sitting directly against yeast draws water out of the cells and kills them.
- Judge the rise by the dough, not the clock: it is ready when it has grown by roughly half and a poke springs back slowly, leaving a faint dent.
- A cool slow rise tastes better than a warm fast one, because the flavour compounds take time to form while the gas does not. An overnight rise in the fridge is the easiest upgrade to any bread recipe.
- Do not add extra yeast to hurry things along. You get the same gas sooner, a coarser crumb, and a strong beery taste.
- Freeze opened dry yeast. It survives freezing intact and lasts months, where an open jar in a warm cupboard fades within weeks.
- Nutritional yeast, brewer's yeast and yeast extract are all dead and will not raise anything. Only baker's yeast leavens.
- If a recipe is written in grams of fresh yeast, divide by about 2 ½ for dry: 50 g fresh is about 20 g dry, not 50 g.
Sources — National Center for Home Food Preservation (opens in a new tab), USDA FoodData Central (opens in a new tab)