7 yeast substitutes, if we don’t have yeast?
Knowing yeast substitutes for baking bread, cooking, pastry making, and cookies is necessary for your dough to rise and become “airy” and soft. They always used yeast to get an excellent texture and flavor in the dough. Now, for whatever reason, you may not want to use yeast when baking bread, so you need to look for alternative methods. Therefore, in this post, we have listed 7 excellent and accessible yeast substitutes for you.
Yeast substitutes for baking bread without yeast
To bakeing bread without yeast, you can use one of the tricks below so that the dough rises and your bread, pie, and cookies turn out well.
Note: Wherever in this post I mentioned warm water, I mean warm water but when you put your finger in it and wait 5 seconds, it doesn’t burn your hand. If the water is too hot, it will ruin the yeast.
Sourdough starter
To make bread without yeast, use the ready dough from the bakery. Place a piece of bakery dough such as Barbari or Sangak bread dough in a container, cover it with plastic wrap, and put it in a warm place; allow it to sit for one to two hours until it rises and becomes full of bubbles, and the smell of sourness indicates that the sourdough starter is ready.
Toast and flour
For this yeast substitute method, we use toast. To bake bread and other pastries with this method you will need:
- 2 slices of toast
- One cup of flour
- Some warm water
Mix the ingredients above and let sit for 4 hours at room temperature or in a warm place until the yeast substitute is ready for you. You can store this bread yeast in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 days.
Baking soda is one of the oldest yeast substitutes
Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) when mixed with lemon or vinegar causes gas production in the dough and makes it rise. On the other hand, baking soda also softens the dough’s texture due to its pH. For every 120 grams of flour, half a teaspoon of baking soda is required. If using whole wheat flour, you should increase the amount of baking soda.
The more baking soda you add, the more lemon juice or vinegar you should add.
Baking soda is one of the Sourdough substitutes that doesn’t require resting.
Baking powder as a yeast substitute
Use baking powder as a yeast substitute for baking regular breads, pizza dough, pies, cookies, and cakes.
To bake bread without yeast using baking powder, follow these steps:
- Add half the required amount of yeast as baking powder.
- You should also use lemon juice or vinegar in the amount of baking powder.
Egg whites
Eggs are used as a yeast substitute in cookies and pancakes. Egg whites retain air inside and are the best yeast substitute. Whisk the egg whites for 5 minutes with a mixer until they become white, then add the flour. Place the final mixture in a bowl after kneading.
Homemade yeast, yeast substitute
To bake bread without yeast, make it yourself at home. Ingredients needed to make homemade yeast:
1 cup flour (doesn’t matter if it is whole wheat or not)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons traditional yogurt
About 1 cup of warm water
Sourdough, one of the best yeast substitutes
Sourdough is a natural yeast that makes the bread taste great. The bread made with this method is very healthy and natural and takes on the flavor of local bread. Homemade yeast needs a timeframe of 5 to 7 days to become sourdough. But once you use this method, it can be used for a long time. Sourdough is one of the best and healthiest ingredients as a yeast substitute.
