Too much yeast could cause the dough to go flat by releasing gas before the flour is ready to expand. If you let the dough rise too long, it will start having a yeast or beer smell and taste and ultimately deflate or rise poorly in the oven and have a light crust.
The amount of yeast you use in your bread dough has a significant bearing on how quickly it'll rise, and thus on your own schedule. By reducing the yeast, you ensure a long, slow rise, one more likely to produce a strong dough able to withstand the rigors of baking.
We all hope that yeast will be widely available (at a reasonable price) soon. But until then, ration what yeast you have by reducing how much you use in each loaf, batch of rolls, or pizza crust. Just remember: the less yeast, the longer the rising time (and/or the warmer the rising temperature).
Things You Should Know
Add more yeast, blend in the starter, or knead in more flour to help initiate rising. Dough that has expired yeast, too much salt, all-purpose or cake flour, or antifungal spices like cinnamon might have trouble rising.
The general bread-making rule is 1% dried yeast to flour (ie 5g yeast for 500g flour). More than that and your bread will taste yeasty. You can use less if you want to, though - the dough will take longer to rise, but it will develop more flavour.
Perfect Your Yeast Levels
Carbon dioxide is responsible for all the bubbles that make holes in bread, making it lighter and fluffier. Because gas is created as a result of yeast growth, the more the yeast grows, the more gas in the dough and the more light and airy your bread loaf will be.
A small amount of yeast will be strong enough to raise a large amount of dough. It just takes longer to do so. Using less yeast slows the development time and allows the flavour of nicely fermented flour to shine through.
Dough containing yeast will rise faster as temperatures increase and the amount of yeast used is increased. Bakers use both of those variables to control the speed at which dough will rise. However, there is a limit to how much yeast should be used and how warm the environment should be.
If your bread has a sour, yeasty flavour and smells of alcohol then you have either used too much yeast.or you may have use stale yeast or creamed fresh yeast with sugar.
Too much yeast—While it seems counterintuitive, too much yeast can actually cause your bread to collapse.
There's something magical about the bread you get at your local bakeries - they're always sooo soft and fluffy. Many of these breads, especially packaged ones, are made with a ton of chemical additives such as calcium propionate, amylase, and chlorine dioxide which help keep them soft, light, and fluffy for days.
If you believe that your dough is slightly over-kneaded, try allowing it to rise a little longer before shaping it into a loaf. While you can't fully undo the damage of over-kneaded dough, letting the dough rise for longer can help relax the gluten in the dough a bit.
Similar to the signs of over proofed dough, an over proofed loaf will be very flat, without much rise or retention of shaping. Over proofing destroys the structural integrity of the bread, so loaves that have gone over are unable to hold their shape in the oven.
What is a Typical Yeast to Flour Ratio? One packet of dry yeast (2 and 1/4 teaspoons) will raise up to 4 cups of flour.
As a guide, for a kitchen where the temperature is 20C and you added yeast at 1% of the flour weight (eg 5g dried yeast in 500g flour), you should still leave your dough to rise for around an hour and a half to two hours after kneading it.
In addition to diet and lifestyle changes, Dr. Wallman often recommends using herbal supplements like oregano oil and garlic extract to help restore the balance of the yeast. “The herbal supplements have a lot of anti-yeast and antifungal properties to them,” she says.
Too much or too little yeast can negatively affect the final product. For example, if there is too much yeast, the bread may collapse during baking due to the release of too much gas. Not enough yeast will result in a dense loaf of bread. The type of yeast also determines how quickly the bread will rise.
This condition is sometimes called yeast syndrome. To cure these symptoms, some people try a candida cleanse diet. The diet removes foods such as sugar, white flour, yeast and cheese from the typical diet. The candida cleanse diet is based on the theory that these foods cause candida overgrowth.
Dense or heavy bread can be the result of not kneading the dough mix properly –out of many reasons out there. Some of the other potential reasons could be mixing the yeast & salt together or losing your patience while baking or even not creating enough tension in the finished loaf before baking the bread.
The maximum amount of time dough can sit out on the counter is four hours for yeast-made bread, six for sourdough. Temperature, the characteristics of the sugars in the flour, the amount of yeast and the humidity of the room alter the length of the rise.
What bakers call the “poke test” is the best way to tell if dough is ready to bake after its second rise. Lightly flour your finger and poke the dough down about 1". If the indent stays, it's ready to bake. If it pops back out, give it a bit more time.