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 Friends gave me a couple of packs (one was out of date but still worked!)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?

It doesn't make sense - it's even a 4 hour programme like the ordinary one.

I asked the question, "Can I use fresh yeast in my Panasonic breadmaker?" Mrs Google sent me to a Money Saving Expert page from 2008.
Posters on there seem to have had good results although don't all agree on the best way to incorporate the fresh yeast; some dissolve it first and wait for it to bubble whilst others add it as a dry lump underneath the flour.

One chap says this - "I won't use dried yeast as I always think it's like the UHT equivalent to milk. When I did use it I thought it smelt slightly yeasty and tasted home made.
I then tried just putting the fresh yeast as a direct replacement and it tastes and smells just like ASDA bakery at 7am.
I use a panasonic which you stick the yeast in first then flour over it then water so it stays dry until the time it is mixed."
I will definitely try this method if i can get some fresh yeast.

I'll definitely give it again the future but I currently have lots of dry yeast and no fresh.

My machine was my parents' one but they didn't like the taste with the dried yeast. I wonder if they would have been OK with fresh (that said, I think they used dried for hand baking bread though).

It's a mystery isn't it. On a related baking subject, I made your famous flapjacks for the first time earlier this week. They are amazing!

Glad you liked them. A lot of research went into those

Flapjacks? What flapjacks?!

I don't often use advanced searh but have 'stalked' SoupDragon

and found her recipe for flapjacks HERE

Condensed milk is genius & will be making some asap!

Just seen the date of the recipe post - you've been making those for a while, SoupDragon

I've used fresh yeast in my Panasonic with good results. I used to get it in a particular morrisons store. The one nearest me never had it, though. Dome morrisons bakeries have been bagging up 1kg bags of flour, so that's worth a look for anyone struggling to find any.

I'm lucky that I bought a fresh pack of doves farm yest before everything kicked off.

I used this fresh yeast recipe with my (ancient) Panasonic and it is yummy.

cooktogether.com/recipe-items/fresh-yeast-breadmaker-loaf/

Thank you magimedi
Thank you SoupDragon

(Rushes off to add condensed milk to the shopping list.)

I used to have a bread machine but it broke a couple of years ago and we never replaced it. I had a half-finished packet of yeast in the cupboard and when I managed to get hold of some flour a couple of weeks ago I tried to make bread, but it simply didn't rise. Then I saw that the yeast packet said best before end September 2017 and use within 3 months of opening, so I reckon it is dead. I found some yeast on ebay and am expecting that to arrive any day now.

I suspect that the kind of quick easy yeast that we bake with at home is something that it makes sense for manufacturers to make in large batches and then turn over the production line over to something else, rather than it being constantly produced all year around. I expect that like with flour, the market for yeast packaged and ready for use in domestic kitchens (rather than factories and bakeries) is tiny, and that the entire year's worth of supermarket stock was bought during the March panic buying. The manufacturers would not be planning to make any more yeast just yet as they still have plenty of stock for their industrial customers who take the bulk of what they make. I would guess it could be up to 6 months before we can expect to see yeast back in the shops again.

I have yeast but not gathering dust we regularly bake. I am nearly out though and like you op I have not been able to find more

Plenty of yeast on eBay here if you want dried.

I got mine here www.windsorcakecraft.co.uk/mauripan_instant_dry_yeast_500g.html

They also have regular supplies of bread flour, usually as a pre-order.

I don't often use advanced searh but have 'stalked' SoupDragon

I often have to stalk myself to find the recipe as I can never find my printed copy 😂

I’ve got a tub of dried yeast, best before 2017, that a friend has given me. And I got 3kg of bread flour in Waitrose yesterday.

Before that I had 7 sachets of dried yeast, again best before 2017 which made 7 loaves of bread.
I made one loaf by growing my own yeast which took a few days.

And our Tesco’s bakery has fired up so they have proper bread now, not just ‘instant sliced’.

I have loads of flour and yeast but all bought pre-COVID. I bake quite a bit. I haven’t bought any baking supplies since this all started, though I am eying a unicorn cookie cutter online.

Squires Kitchen are restocking every few days of flour(s) and yeast amongst other things.

I always have yeast in the cupboard - its a store cupboard ingredient as far as I am concerned.

I don't bake bread but we do regularly make our own pizza dough - when I want to make pizza dough I don't think in advance, "I will want to make pizza dough today/tomorrow/this week, I need to buy yeast". I think "lets have pizza tonight - I'll whip up some dough" and have the ingredients to hand to do it.

Except of course I've not been able to buy a bag of bread flour for over a month now.

I am eying a unicorn cookie cutter online.

I accidentally purchased a sausage dog cookie cutter from Ocado when it showed up in a search for sausage rolls

All the other people who bake bread here think yeast is a store cupboard ingredient too. Unfortunately they haven't been able to get more when it's run out. Rather like your bread flour (Another store cupboard ingredient.)

I had a packet of 6 -in date and stupidly shared with a colleague who was desperate.
Have been to our corner shop every time Im passing with no luck .
Today strolled down and when I asked he grinned and went " go and have a look" .
Yay ! 2 boxes .
Feel like Ive won the lottery

and no doubt I won't be able to get more yeast when mine runs out either.

Running low on supplies here and unable to shop til the next week at least. What do you reckon are my chances of success with a bread mix BBE Dec 2012?

MrsAvocet - if it's bread mix you have nothing to lose (apart from a bit of butter?) in giving it a go. Don't go raising the hopes of your bread-craving family though!