Substitute for fresh yeast in Brioche dough – Brunch Pastries

[Sussan ScoolinaryTeam]

Hi Kelly.

The sticky texture of the dough is likely due to one or more of the following factors when substituting fresh yeast with active dry yeast:

Possible reasons and solutions:

Excess hydration:Active dry yeast needs to be rehydrated before use, but doing so may have added too much liquid to the dough.

Solution: Subtract the amount of water used to activate the yeast (50 ml) from the total liquid in the recipe. This will prevent the dough from becoming overhydrated.

Water temperature:

While 50 °C is suitable for rehydrating active dry yeast, if the water is slightly hotter, it can kill some of the yeast, weakening its effect and impacting the dough’s texture.

Solution: Use water between 35-40 °C to activate the yeast. This range is safer and more effective.

Yeast quantity:

It’s important to adjust the proportions correctly.

Typically, one-third of the fresh yeast amount is used when substituting with active dry yeast.

For example: If the recipe calls for 10 g of fresh yeast, you should use 3-4 g of active dry yeast.

Overmixing:

Prolonged kneading, especially in enriched doughs like brioche, can heat the dough and increase stickiness.

Solution: Knead in short intervals and refrigerate the dough if it starts to warm up.

Activation time:

If the yeast was activated for more than 10 minutes, it may have overfermented, creating gas bubbles that alter the dough’s hydration.

Solution: Activate the yeast for a maximum of 5-10 minutes until it becomes foamy.

Steps to fix a sticky dough:

1. Add more flour:Gradually add small amounts of flour (10-15 g at a time) while kneading until the dough reaches a manageable consistency.

2. Refrigerate:If the dough is sticky due to warmth, chill it for 30 minutes before continuing to knead.

3. Adjust liquid in future attempts:Reduce the total liquid in the recipe by the amount used to activate the yeast.

With these adjustments, you should be able to work with your brioche dough without any issues.

I hope this information helps, and I wish you success in achieving an amazing brioche.

Best regards!

[Kelly Evans]

Hi Susan,

Thank you for your detailed solutions. In the end I added some more flour and ended up letting it proof while being a little more sticky than the video showed. The brioche was still flaky and buttery. Thanks again for your help! Kelly

[Sussan ScoolinaryTeam]

Hi Kelly.

Great! I’m glad to hear your brioche turned out flaky and came out well.

You know we’re here for any questions, and we’re happy to help.

Best regards.

[Sol Damiani]

Hey there Kelly!👋

Welcome to the Scoolinary Community! 😊Join our awesome group of food lovers and share your love of cooking. Everyone’s invited!

I’m Sol Damiani, the Community Builder and I’m from Buenos Aires.

I hope Sussan’s answer helped you. Please let us know if it did.

This is a Community that values your participation a lot: that’s why we created “Masters Game”

• Win Scoolipoints by sharing a pic of your own dishes in our Community > Cooking Feed section. If it is really cool you can snag a #ScooliStar: you’ll win 100 Scoolipoints and we’ll give you a shoutout on social media!🤩

• 🏆Check out our Challenges and score 250 Scoolipoints! Right now we have a special Mini Challenge called Sweet Christmas Surprise.

• You’ll see everything you need to know about how to win Scoolipoints here.

Let’s build a community of foodies together.

We hope you have a blast learning with Scoolinary!

[Zenobia Chacko]

Hey Kelly

You did the conversion wrong

When substituting dry yeast for fresh you use half the qty.

Recipe asks.for 10 gms fresh you use 5gms dry.

When doing fresh to instant you use 33.3%

Thats 3.99gms in the same example…so round up to 4.

Dm me if you need more help im on instagram as the.f.chef

[Sussan ScoolinaryTeam]

Hi Zenobia.

Thank you for your input on this question, we know it will be helpful for our Scoolinar.

Best regards.