Instant yeast and active yeast are two different products. Red Star carries both Active yeast (the red jar) and Instant yeast (the blue jar). Instant yeast is considerably faster developing than active yeast, and you’ll have to adjust the recipe accordingly in order for active yeast to give you the same results.

Thank you Jeanette, so great to read your comment on the loafs. Happy we can be a part of your baking joy in this way. So glad we all have baking skills in times like these. A blessing for both the baker and the bakers’ friends and family 🙂
Stay safe and take care of yourself!

Air hugs from Holland across the big pond!

So great to read your comment and learn about your method and the success you are having with it. Thank you for sharing and it will inspire others to try this busy mama version too we are sure!

I’ve been making this bread or a variation of it now for a few months with just 30g sourdough starter and no yeast. It’s so much fun to play with variation and different flour combinations/add ins. I don’t put it in the fridge and leave it in a warm spot overnight. I try to do a 2-3 stretch and folds in the morning depending on my time but there’s been times I skip them altogether. This is my busy mama (twin boys and infant) sourdough variation that I needed.

Hello Anna,
Thank you for your kind words and enthusiasm 🙂
It has been a while, but we did make this loaf with sourdough. Every culture acts different but a good starting point for us would be to add 30 grams of active culture to the recipe. Could be you might need a few rounds to get it right for your conditions, and the taste, texture and crust will be a bit different, but we hope it will be great!

Hi Karen,
Thank you for liking it so much. My brother actually makes this recipe with apricots and nuts every week and it is a firm family favorite.

Happy baking and happy Holidays!

Next time I will keep with the golden grain flour but put in extras that I actually like…..maybe dried apricots, hazel nuts…..opportunities as endless!

Breakfast sorted!

Hi Shirley,
You can use 250 grams whole grain wheat flour or also use bread flour if you cannot get the whole wheat. When using only bread flour you can use a little less water (300 ml would be our suggestion to start with).

Happy baking!

Marieke

Is there any way to substitute spelt four with wheat or rye or semolina? It’s almost impossible to find spelt flour where I live. And if I were to incorporate some regular bread flour, what would be the best ratio?

Thank’s in advance.

-Shirl.

Thank you so much Martin for your lovely comment and the details about how you made this recipe your own. The possibilities with this recipe are endless and you never get tired of making it we think.
The greek yoghurt has much more fat and for that reason also less moisture, which might also partly account for you having to add more moisture, but you are very right, flour plays the main part.

Wishing you many more tasty loaves and happy baking moments!

Oh yes, I forgot, I use greek yoghurt instead of normal yoghurt.

For the third time I tried this recipe I varied it up and made a poolish out of the spelt flour and combined all the ingredients the morning after with 400 ml total of water and only 3 extra grams of yeast and then did about 4 stretch and folds with 45 minutes in between.
Then for the final proofing I simply shaped the loaves and put them into a cold oven with some water in a pan in the bottom and set the oven to 225 degrees for 45 minutes.
And boy let me tell you that is the best bread I have ever made by far, amazing flavour and texture and it’s nearly all methods I learned from this site so I just wanted to say thank you for transforming my bread baking!

Hello Carla, this is a very good idea. When using a baking tin you can also stretch the final proofing to 90 min – 120 min, this way you get an even fluffier structure. The sides of the baking tin will help the bread and keep it from collapsing. Happy baking!

Update on this fabulous recipe:
You can bake this bread in a loaf tin too! I’ve used a tin of 30cm to make one big loaf. After getting the dough out of the fridge, I did the two stretch-and-folds and formed a loaf shape, put in a prepared loaf tin. Let it rest in the tin for 30 min. The rest of the proces according to the original recipe. Bake for 40 minutes and I had a beautiful bread with a nice crust on top. When I bake my bread this way the end result is a higher bread then “free form” but the taste and crumb inside the bread are the same! The hardest part of the bake is every time the cooling period!
Carla

Hi Helen,
You’re welcome! Your selection of ingredients sounds heavenly. Sounds like it turned out exactly as it should be.
Thank for trying and liking our recipes 🙂

Happy baking,

Marieke