Please be honest - do you have a packet of yeast gathering dust?

[hippospot]

We have been making bread 5-6 times a week for nearly 20 years in a machine, but I've been unable to find yeast in the shops since lockdown. Friends gave me a couple of packs (one was out of date but still worked!) but now I'm down to a few days' worth only. I was able to bulk order some bread flour from a mill last month, and have enough flour for about 2-3 months.

I'm curious to know if the people who bought yeast at the start of lockdown have been using it.

And why is it that nearly everything is back in the shops EXCEPT flour and yeast (in my neck of the woods, anyway).

I'm also a regular baker of cakes and will run out of plain flour quite soon too.

I'm happy to buy bread in the short term although a) my freezer is small so I can only freeze about 3 small loaves and b) this means I'd have to go to the supermarket more often and I'm trying to only go once a week.

Anyone else with this issue?

We can get flour at a local farm shop so DH is going to get going with a sourdough starter tomorrow.

I have a packet of yeast at the back of my cupboard which is at least ten years old so the chances of it making anything rise must be zero.

I got some in our Morrison’s delivery yesterday so it seems to be popping up some places!

I've had my yeast for the past 6 months and year (2 packs as I had forgotten I had one). I have been using some recently. I just have no time to bake generally, and not that much now.

I'm also down to my last kg of plain flour, for bread, pizzas, pastry, naan bread etc.

I'm doing ok for self-raising as I still have 2x2kg bags - we haven't been looking for sweet stuff so I haven't been baking cakes or cookies really. But I am using it, just more slowly.

There is self raising in our supermarkets, but no plain. I did see plain in the local corner shop today but I only had enough with me for my post office jobs (in the same store). I may go back tomorrow for 1 pack.

Having baked brown (rye) yeast bread yesterday, I am making a rhubarb crumble tonight with SR flour. And I am having a fed up few days (for lots of reasons!) so may well actually bake something sweet and chocolaty for myself tomorrow.

To those who have yeast that’s out of date: it’s easy to check if it still works. Stir a teaspoon of yeast into a splash of warm (not hot) water with a pinch of sugar. Give it ten minutes, if it’s all bubbly and frothy, it’s fine.

I always bake my own bread. I do three large loaves in one go and cut them in half 5 in the freezer and one to eat fresh.

I have now run out of yeast so copied the Sourdough starter recipe on the Doves Farm website. It is so detailed and with a table with timings etc I am so pleased with the results.

I particularly liked the fact I didn’t have to discard some to feed the starter. In these straitened times I felt like such a waste.

I've ordered yeast from HERE

It was dispatched on Thursday but hasn't arrived yet.

Now if someone could link a website for bread flour that'd be great please

We've got enough for about a couple of weeks - we've made all our own bread and pizzas for over 10 years (with the help of a Kenwood mixer!).
Flour, on the other hand...........

Someone locally bought a 16kg sack of bread flour and flogged it on at cost to her mates, split into 1kg or 2.5kg bags.

I have a sack of bread flour, and fresh yeast in the freezer, and I'm making bread every few days.

Lots of instructions online for making your own yeast, Ive no idea if they work though.
Wish I’d known about the out of date yeast test before we wasted the flour on a really bad pizza base batch ... 🤦‍♀️

We are lucky that we have a local catering supplier who's now doing home deliveries so I got a 25kg sack of bread flour and a 500g pack of yeast from them. I haven't had to use the yeast yet because I had 2 boxes in the cupboard from pre-lockdown ( I usually bake fairly frequently). I've been making bread of one sort of another almost every day. There are 5 in the family and we go through a lot

I had about 150g of yeast at the start of lockdown and have 50g left. My bread maker has been in use every day! I am now down to my last 1.5kg bag of flour and am now waiting for delivery of a 16kg bag and a large packet of yeast from an online supplier.

I've not read the whole thread, but why is yeast suddenly hard to get? Is it similar to the flour issue with smaller retail packaging Being the problem?

This is funny. Op "I can't buy flour because all of you are buying it"

Our town has an abundance of self-raising flour but no plain or bread flour. No yeast either

Oh and I bought some yeast off Amazon before Brexit and started using it two weeks ago but realised the date was use by march. However it's still fine so I am using it but I worked out I have enough for 1000 loaves! :)
However bread is readily available so no point buying flour to make bread right now when flour is scarce. It's all going to the large bakeries ironically making the loaves of bread you don't want to buy.

Little tin of Allisons dried yeast lasts months for us and that's even with making a loaf every other day in the breadmaker.

Also got 3 or 4 packets from son doing food tech.

Soda bread is easy to make if you don't have yeast. Not sure if you can do it in a breadmaker but it's simple to do in the oven.

We also have a local catering supplier delivering to homes who appear to have stacks of flour and fresh yeast in stock (wonder if it's the same one as yours, WollyFoolly). I think both are available but you need to look beyond the normal supermarkets.

I'm afraid I'm another who has increased the demand, but I am using it!

Used to bake bread with exboyfriend but stopped when we broke up. I live somewhere with a brilliant independent bakery.

Now the bakery's temporarily closed and I'm obviously in the house a lot more with time for kneading and proving and rising. Getting back into baking is tasty and reduces my frequency of supermarket visits.

I only have yeast in the cupboard as it's left over from DS's food tech. Can't get any baking powder do I have resorted to out of date stuff.

I'm not really a baker but wanted a lemon drizzle for my birthday

I've also been shopping with a local catering supplier. We live in a popular holiday destination but obviously all the hotels etc are closed now so the wholesalers will sell to anyone. Flour isn't a problem (as long as you want 16kg!) but even they are out of yeast. I have got some in stock but Ive nearly run out. I got a big back of bread mix from the wholesalers last week though so that will keep us going for a while. We are stuck indoors now as my husband has symptoms so we cant get anything for a week at least. Hopefully yeast will have reappeared by the time we get to shop again.

I bought loads about a year ago and learned recently that I could extend its life by putting it in the freezer .
I now have a breadmaker and use it in that.

I had tons of yeast, but predated lockdown by a year or 2 at least. I always have high hopes of baking bread and then remember I have a toddler and work full time

Doubt it even works now!

If you have a Morrison’s with a bakery, they usually have fresh yeast in.