# How much flour will 1 packet of yeast rise?



## abefroman

How much flour will 1 packet of yeast rise?

4 cups?  6 cups?  8 cups?


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## kyheirloomer

A packet of active dry yeast = 2 1/2 teaspoons. If using instant yeast, you can cut that down to 2 teaspoons.

Assuming you are not using preferments, one packet is enough yeast for a standard recipe, which generally means 3-4 cups flour.

A couple of suggestions, re: yeast. First, you'll find things much more efficient to use instant yeast (i.e., "bread machine yeast"), as it doesn't require proofing. You just mix it in with the dry ingredients. And, because it has 25% more live cells, you use less of it.

Second: If you're going to be doing a lot of baking (and, from your recent posts, it looks that way), you'd really be better off buying yeast in bulk.


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## abefroman

Thanks!

And yep, I plan on doing a fair amount. I have 11c of flour's worth rising right now.

Where is a good place to get bulk instant yeast? And which brand/type?


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## kyheirloomer

Although I'm sure there are other brands, SAF-Instant is pretty much the standard.

It's available in one-pound packages wherever bread-making supplies are sold. Not necessarily your supermarket, but from mills and places like that. King Arther and Weisenberger both sell it on-line.

Most supermarkets stock 4-oz jars of both active dry and instant. The instant (in both jars and envelopes) will be marked "bread machine." More expensive than the one-pounders, but still better than those little envelopes.


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## phatch

I dislike your question as it makes a poor assumption I think.   You could raise pretty much any amount of flour dough/batter with that amount of yeast if you're willing to give it time and conditions to work. There are recipes such as no knead bread or retarded rise breads and such that work with little yeast over a longer time in off conditions. 

To assume a standard rise/punch down/second rise over some few hours is to limit yourself. Lots of good within those limits but you should also know hot to think broader with yeast.


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## abefroman

phatch said:


> I dislike your question as it makes a poor assumption I think. You could raise pretty much any amount of flour dough/batter with that amount of yeast if you're willing to give it time and conditions to work. There are recipes such as no knead bread or retarded rise breads and such that work with little yeast over a longer time in off conditions.
> 
> To assume a standard rise/punch down/second rise over some few hours is to limit yourself. Lots of good within those limits but you should also know hot to think broader with yeast.


I was wondering the general rule of thumb for the standard 90-120 minute rise.


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## amazingrace

King Arthur Flour has yeast in bulk. To extend the shelf life, keep it in the freezer.

www.kingarthurflour.com


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## kokopuffs

For a 6C recipe, I use approx 1 1/3 tsp of SAF Red Instant Yeast.


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## kyheirloomer

Koko, that can be misleading. You're using a poolish, don't forget, then supplementing it with additional yeast. Without the preferment I reckon you'd need more than the 1 1/3 tsp.

Although the basic tenent is important: when it comes to yeast, less is more.

One thing to keep in mind is that Abe is basically at the beginning stage. That is, he's where I was three years ago; just learning the science so he can pursue the art. At least that's my impression from his posts. So things you and I take for granted may be new to him.

Abe, while we're on that subject, do yourself a couple of favors.

First, if you haven't already done so, get a scale. It's really the only way you can be consistent with bread making. Plus it lets you use formulae instead of recipes, allowing a fairly easy way of scaling up or down.

Second, although Phil, perhaps, overstates it to make a point, forget about the clock. It is, at best, a guideline. There are other, more precise ways, of judging the status of a rise. Doubling in bulk is the most commonly used one. But, depending on conditions, that could be as little as an hour, as long as three. Another is the poke test. Etc.

Here, again, if you haven't already done so, get a good book or two that goes into the hows and whys. They're really more important than the recipes and formulae. _Bread Baker's Apprentice _remains, IMO, the best place to start. But there are other good ones as well. If you are not, as yet, ready to play with preferments and retarded fermentation (note the "as yet." You will be if bread making gets under your skin), check Eric Treuille & Ursula Ferrigno's _Ultimate Bread---_which, for some reason is also sold just as _Bread._


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## abefroman

Thanks for the tips KY!

Yep, I'm at the beginner stage, I've made a loaf or two every now and then and they didn't come out well, so I wouldn't make anything for a while, and as of my last few loaves, they've come out considerably better, so now I have something worthwhile to improve on.


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## kyheirloomer

That's exactly where I was, Abe. I would follow recipes slavishly, cuz I didn't understand what was going on. The bread would turn out great, or not so great, and I had no feel for why. Then, for no particular reason, I decided it was time to learn about making bread.

And, of course, anything worth doing is worth overdoing.......


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## addicted2food

In general, 1 packet of yeast (or 1 1/2 teaspoons / 0.35 ounces) will raise approximately 3 cups of flour in one hour. If you're using less yeast, you will need a much longer ferment / first rise and a long second rise as well.Session data


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## kyheirloomer

Where do you get your yeast, Addicted? And what brand is it?

I presume you're talking about active dry yeast?

Fleishmann's, the most familiar brand in America, comes in envelopes that contain 1/4 oz (7 gm) of yeast, by volume approximately 2 1/2 teaspoons.

One way or another, your figures are off. You're claiming more weight (1/3 oz) equals lower volume (1 1/2 tsp). Better check into that.

I'd also disagree with your rise-time figures. For starters, environmental conditions can effect the rate of yeast growth, so "one hour" is, at best, a guideline. But let's accept it as fact. The second rise will be unaffected by the amount of yeast you start with. If your first rise has been done correctly, the yeast has multiplied exponentially as it fed.

No matter how long it takes for the dough to double in size, the number of living cells will be the same at that point.


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## belle123

I am curious my mom and I do alot of baking for farmers mrkt. haven't quite figured out the exact amount yeast to use when making large quantities of bread. roughly 10 loaves or so, depending on how it rises. I found one recipe that said 10 loaves you use about 37 c of flour, I dont recall my mom and I using quite that much flour. So if someone else would know the answer I would appreciate it. We make like 3dz cinn rolls. Have a good sweet dough recipe and so to 6 eggs and 16 1/2 c flour we use 4tbls. thanks for the suggestions. the cheapest place we have found to buy bulk yeast is Sams Club, but we don't have alot of choices to shop where we live. thanks


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## kyheirloomer

Hi, Belle. Welcome to Cheftalk.

For starters, it's obvious that you are using volume measurements rather than weight. And that could be part of your problem. Multiplying and dividing bread recipes, when volume measurements are involved, doesn't always work. That's why professionals use formulas based on weight. The weight relationship of ingredients always remains the same, no matter how far you multiply or divide them.

So, my advice is that the first thing you need to do is convert your basic recipe to weight. There are references that will help you convert, or you can just establish your own chart. Flour (which is always 100%) should be figured at 4.5 oz per cup.

We recently had a discussion on using formulas, and you should review it. It's somewhere on this page. But, to give you a thumbnail, here's how it would work. Let's assume:

3 cups flour

2 1/2 tsp yeast

1 cup water

2 tsp salt

The flour will weigh 13.5 oz and is indexed at 100%

The water is 8 oz, indexed as 59%

The yeast is 1/4 oz, indexed as .018%

The salt is 1.25 oz, indexed as .09%

To figure the amounts for 10 loaves becomes a simple exercise in arithmetic. Start by multiplying the flour by 10.

135 ounces of flour=100%

Next, determine the percentage of 135 each ingredient represents. In this case, the water would be 79,6 oz, the yeast 2.43 ounces, and the salt 12 oz.

Keep in mind that all of these ingredient amounts were made up off the top of my head and do not represent a real bread recipe.


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## dotdot53

21/2 teaspoon never work for me. my bread  does not rise with this little amount of yeast even when I put it in A warm place and yes I test the yeast to make sure its good. 2 1/2  teaspoon does not sound like enough yeast.


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## colin

How long are you allowing for the rise, and what sort of recipe are you using?

Because phatch above is right.  Yeast is not like baking powder.  Given time, it will make more of itself.  If you're patient you can start with tiny amounts like 1/4 of a teaspoon.

There's also a reference above to a "standard 90-120 minute rise."  I'm not sure where that comes from.  There are some straight doughs for which that's enough time, but generally that's on the short side.


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## kokopuffs

Should I desire more flavor in my final loaf of bread, I'll add as little as 1/4 tsp or even less to a 1 kg dough and allow it a 24 hour rise.  Mmm  mmmm, the flavor harkens to something like sourdough even though it isn't.


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## kokopuffs

Colin said:


> ...........................There's also a reference above to a "standard 90-120 minute rise." I'm not sure where that comes from. There are some straight doughs for which that's enough time, but generally that's on the short side.


Often I am pressed for time and so added to a 1.5kg dough are 2-3 tsp of SAF Red Instant Yeast and the rising time takes around one hour at 72F ambient.


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## colin

That's interesting.  In my experience short rises will work for flattish things like lavash crackers, and maybe little rolls, but don't give you the kind of dough development (putting aside flavor) that you want for a more serious loaf.


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## kokopuffs

Colin said:


> ......but don't give you the kind of dough development (putting aside flavor) that you want for a more serious loaf.


As previously stated, the longer and slower the ferment, the better the flavor, way better.


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