Croissant Yeast Debate.

[lmno101]

Over the years I have come across two kinds of croissant recipes. Ones that call for activating the yeast before making the dough and ones that call for adding in the dry yeast to the dough and have it activate in the dough.

Now I've only used the recipes that call for activating the yeast beforehand because that always made more sense to me. But by the last proofing of the rolled croissants, they don't rise as much as I suppose they should. I guess this method exhausts the yeast before you need it to really rise a the end. I would assume that's why there are recipes that call for adding in the dry yeast to the dough so that the yeast has enough 'energy' to get a good rise when proofing.

However, that never seemed to make too much sense to me, I mean dry yeast needs sugar and warmth to activate right? And if you need to keep croissant dough as cold as possible, how is the yeast going to activate?(Besides the fact that I have a hard time believing that the yeast would get enough sugar while it was all suspended in dough). I've always been wary of these recipes and I've just assumed that these recipes have been mistakenly adapted from recipes that call for the traditional fresh yeast. (But that's just me.)

Which makes more sense? What method do you use? Are there any other ways to deal with the yeast?

[sandylc]

I always use instant yeast. I never proof it. It is a myth that yeast needs warmth and sugar. You can mix instant yeast with four and salt, add cold water, and get bread. It just takes time, which is the friend of flavor.

[Novelli]

Depends on the yeast.

Active Dry Yeast (ADY) is the one that usually requires activating in warm water.

Instant Dry Yeast (IDY) only needs to be mixed in with the flour (and other dry ingredients) since it is a more active type.

In addition, proteins in the flour will provide ample sugars for the yeast to consume, so sugar is not entirely necessary.

Not for nothing, but I prefer the IDY for baking, over ADY...and I do not use any added sugar to my bread/pizza dough.

[lmno101]

Silly me I forgot there was more than one kind of dry yeast. But I never knew about the protein sugars in the flour, wish I knew beforehand. Thanks for that.

[Novelli]

No problem.

One fun experiment is to develop your own wild yeast starter.

Serious Eats has an excellent tutorial on how to do this:

http://slice.seriouseats.com/sourdoug...

[babette feasts]

Proteins in the flour or starches in the flour? Aren't sugar and starch are more similar molecularly than sugar and protein? Starches break down into sugars, don't they?

[Novelli]

that's right. I don't know why I stated protein. It's the yeast that converts the starches into sugar that feed them.