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Breads & baking

Baker's yeast

Also called bread yeast and yeast

Baker's yeast is a yeast used to leaven baked goods. It is sold dried or fresh.

Part used
Whole organism
Cooked most in
Asia, Europe
Top country
Türkiye
Baker's yeast, whole

Photo: ElinorD · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

In the kitchen

How to use baker's yeast

Typical ways to cook or use it

  • Bake
  • Leaven

Preparing it

Dissolve and rehydrate active dry yeast in warm water before adding it to the dough. Instant yeast can be mixed straight into dry ingredients.

Cooking with it

Salt and sugar can inhibit yeast growth, with salt having the stronger effect. Instant yeast works faster than active dry yeast, so dough can require less rising time. Avoid adding sorbates directly to yeast-leavened dough because they inhibit fermentation.

Shopping

Choosing and storing baker's yeast

Keeping it

  • Pantry · unopened
  • Fridge · opened
Sold as
Dried, Fresh

Around the world

Where baker's yeast is cooked

6 dishes in the catalogue use baker's yeast. Here is where they come from.

Dishes by continent

Countries whose dishes use it most

Counts are catalogued dishes from each country that list baker's yeast among their ingredients.

Origins

  1. 1846

    The Vienna Process was developed in response to a shortage of baking yeast.

  2. 1973

    Instant yeast was created.

On the table

Dishes made with baker's yeast

5 of the 6 catalogued dishes that use it, spread across the countries they come from.
  • Roti buaya

    Indonesia

  • Pizza funghi

    Italy

  • Babuko

    Türkiye

  • Fetîr

    Türkiye

  • Torpedo dessert

    Bulgaria, Türkiye

Dish lists come from Wikidata; a dish counts when its recorded ingredients include baker's yeast.

Family

Related forms

A kind of
yeast

Around the world

What baker's yeast is called

Names in 45 languages, from Wikidata.
  • Spanish

    levadura de panadería

  • French

    levure de boulanger · levure boulangère

  • Portuguese

    fermento de padeiro

  • German

    Backhefe · Hefe · Germ

  • Dutch

    bakkersgist

  • Greek

    Μαγιά αρτοποιίας

  • Turkish

    ekmek mayası

  • Russian

    дрожжи · пекарские дрожжи · хлебопекарные дрожжи

  • Polish

    drożdże piekarskie

  • Arabic

    خميرة الخباز

  • Persian

    Baker's yeast

  • Bangla

    বেকারের খামির

Show all 45 languages
  • Albanian

    tharm · maja

  • Austrian German

    Germ

  • Basque

    legami-hauts · okindegiko legamia · okin-legamia · legami

  • Belarusian (Taraskievica orthography)

    дрожджы · пякарскія дрожджы

  • Bulgarian

    Мая

  • Catalan

    llevat de forner

  • Central Kurdish

    ھەوێن

  • Chinese

    商業酵母 · 麵包酵母 · 貝克酵母

  • Czech

    droždí · kvasnice

  • Danish

    bagegær

  • Esperanto

    bakista gisto

  • Estonian

    Pärm

  • Finnish

    leivinhiiva · hiiva · oluthiiva · viinihiiva

  • Galician

    lévedo de panadeiro

  • Georgian

    საფუარი · ბალარჯი

  • Hungarian

    sütőélesztő · pékélesztő · élesztő

  • Icelandic

    Pressuger

  • Indonesian

    Ragi roti

  • Irish

    giosta aráin · giosta

  • Japanese

    パン酵母

  • Korean

    빵효모

  • Latvian

    maizes raugs

  • Malay

    Yis roti

  • Min Nan Chinese

    Kàⁿ-bú

  • Norwegian Nynorsk

    bakegjær

  • Romanian

    drojdie de brutărie

  • Sindhi

    خميري اٽو

  • Slovak

    droždie

  • Slovenian

    pekovski kvas · kvas

  • Swedish

    bakjäst · jäst

  • syl

    বেকারের খামির

  • Ukrainian

    пекарські дріжджі · хлібні дріжджі

  • Walloon

    Lidje di boledjî

  • Welsh

    burum sych

Sources and credits

Data

  • GlobeCooks editorial: descriptions, kitchen notes and classification, written by GlobeCooks from checked sources
  • Wikidata: names, classification and dishes (CC0 1.0)
  • Wikimedia Commons: photos
  • Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Wikidata item: Q911712

Photos

Photo: ElinorD · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons