529270 Sun Jun 15 11:10:23 -0700 2008 2 31 Home Cooking 0 3782186 Let me ask this question again as I still have not resolved my problem. I have been (successfully) baking with yeast since 1948 and am using the identical recipes and procedures now, but I find that my product (bread, yeast coffee cake) is coming out very different. I don't smell the sweet yeasty smell in the dough when I work it, I don't taste the sweet yeasty flavor in the finished product, and I find the texture is different---tends to crumble rather than "sheet" as if baked with baking powder and not with yeast. I have tried every brand of dry and fresh yeast that I can find: no different. So I have two questions, please, for the baking professionals: 1) Has commercial yeast been changed, for some reason, in recent years? Or maybe flour has been changed? and, 2) Would using high-gluten flour make a difference? I have always used all-purpose flour for this baking. Thanks for any answers. Sun Jun 15 11:10:24 -0700 2008 15521 Querencia 1 3782554 I have always used SAF active dry yeast, and I have not noticed a change in the past few years. If you have used rapid rise yeast where you previously used a A-D yeast you might have noticed a lessened yeast flavor, but the action should be similar. I would need to know more about what flour you used in the past to what flour you have used now. It is easier to get higher gluten flours now, and some mills have changed their processing methods to remove r the taste of the bleaching chemicals. I am, wondering if your water source has changed, as the treatment chemical can have a dramatic difference in yeast action. You might experiment with others flours, but I would not use bread flour is you are seeking a delicate pastry. I hope Father Kitchen replies, as his knowledge verges on encyclopedic. Sun Jun 15 14:45:44 -0700 2008 3782186 22220 Kelli2006 2 3783459 I have never used any flour but ordinary "all purpose" when making bread or coffee cake (neither of which qualifies as "a delicate pastry")---have probably used Swansdown two or three times in sixty years, not for yeast baking. I do not use rapid rise yeast at all---tried it once and discarded the nasty product. Water source is an interesting idea that hadn't occurred to me---I have noticed the "unyeastiness" only since moving to Chicago---but all the recipes I use don't call for water anyway. However, the next time I bake, I will try using bottled water and see what happens. Thanks for the suggestion. Sun Jun 15 22:57:59 -0700 2008 3782554 15521 Querencia