How to use dried yeast at home

A couple of weeks ago, we shared our “secret” recipe for baking our popular Country Crunch loaf at home. At that time, we were just selling 1kg bags of flour in our stores, but, by popular request, we’re now also selling little pots of dried yeast in our stores too! So we wanted to share a short video and blog post on how you can best use dried yeast at home in order to get a loaf of bread to be proud of.

When you’re using dried yeast at home for baking bread, it’s important to activate the yeast first. Sian from Thomas the Baker guides us through the process of how to activate yeast for baking.

Add 1 heaped teaspoon of dried yeast to around a cup of warm (just above body temperature water) along with a half a teaspoon of sugar, a splash of milk or even a dash of honey, and stir. Leave covered with a damp tea towel or cling film to activate for around 15 minutes. The yeast is now ready to use in your recipe.

It’s key not to add your salt directly to your yeast at any stage of the process as it will kill the yeast – see our video here for an example of what this looks like. If the salt is added along with the flour, water and other ingredients, your yeast will survive and work far better.

Simon Thomas, general manager at Thomas the Baker, explains:

“Dried yeast works just as well as fresh yeast in the vast majority of bread recipes, as long as it’s activated in this way first. This is the first step in most bread recipes, and making sure the yeast is properly activated will ensure a soft, well-risen loaf.’

Click here to see which of our stores are currently open. And don’t forget, you can call to collect products the next day at any of our open shops to ensure that you can definitely get what you’re looking for.