The Grand Breadxperiment - Morrisons Fast Action Dried Yeast

Now, this won't be a direct comparison as such as Morrisons Fast Action Dried Yeast is a sachet-type. However, I'm mostly doing this in terms of discovering which yeast regime produces the best results rather than being a strict comparison. So, Morrisons.

Firstly this is supplied as 7g sachets which contains the yeast as well as ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and 'bread improvers' - probably extra gluten. Normally I was using 5g of yeast for the recipe so with the weight of the extra ingredients it's probably nearly equivalent.

First thing to note was that this was made on a significantly warmer day. However, as the dough is being risen in a heated microwave chamber this is not necessarily a major factor in the results. Declaring it for clarity though.

Here's the stuff:

Technically it shouldn't need to be activated in water before use but I went ahead and did it anyway. Sue me:

Did foam up pretty well, despite my inability to demonstrate it photographically. Initial mix:

Kneaded nicely as ever to give a smooth, elastic dough. Here's the before and after for the rising. It was substantial, I think more so than the previous experiment:

After knocking back and shaping it into the loaf tin it had another 30 minute rise and puffed up obviously more than the Doves Farm:

Sprung up well in the oven to give a pleasing finished result:

Definitely a noticeable difference in texture and flavour - not as soft as the Doves Farm but that could be down to the oven keeping its temperature better in the warm conditions. Once again, made absolutely perfect toast - the sort of moist, crispy toast that keeps its heat for more than a second and had the most wonderful flavour. Mmf.

Stay tuned for more loaf-related posts.