Having my airtight container of fresh yeast in the fridge was all too much for me yesterday and I decided to give it a go. I checked out my bread making book and lemon rolls struck me as a tasty treat and I had a lemon in the fridge, serendipidy! Making a full amount of dough was too much so I decided to make half the quantity (it did mean that I had to halve my already weighed parcel of yeast!).
So 250g of white flour, 5g fresh yeast, 5g salt and 175g water was all I needed for my dough and then the zest of a lemon that is added at the end of the kneading.
Using fresh yeast meant I had to rub the yeast into the flour, as if you were making a crumble mix, before adding the salt and water.
And almost immediatley as I started to knead the dough it felt different from the dried yeast dough. It was lighter, more pliable and it worked so easily. It felt....silken, yes that's the word for it, silken. Towards the end of the kneading I added the zest and worked it into the dough so it was evenly distributed, formed it into a ball and popped it into a floured bowl to prove for an hour. The dough rose better too. I then knocked it back and divided into four balls and formed them into rolls before leaving them to prove for another hour until they had doubled in size.
Then it was into the oven for 9 minutes until they were golden brown. They rose beautifully and the smell in the house was more bread-like than usual. All that was left to do was to butter and top them with smoked salmon and eat. They were so much lighter and airier than my previous breads, the texture was springy and holey, almost like "normal" bread! And so fresh yeast is the way forward.
Now that I'm making progress with the bread making I want to get some more of the bread making paraphenalia (proving basket, bread scraper, blade etc) and have found a great website where I can get it all called Bakery Bits. Roll on payday!
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