Wine Yeast for Bread?

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Xandra

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Here's a question I haven't found an answer to on the forum... If I want to make bread and am out of baker's yeast, can I use wine yeast? What might the ramifications be?
 
Xandra, Why don't you try it? The cost of a few cups of flour is not expensive and the worst that can happen is that you don't like the flavor that this yeast imparts but basically all you want the yeast to do is transform some of the sugars in the flour to CO2 with a side effect of alcohol being produced (wine making on its head). The high temperature in the oven when you bake the bread evaporates the alcohol and expels the CO2 through the carbohydrates leaving the gluten strands nicely stretched
Wine yeast belongs to the same family of yeast as bread yeast ( Saccharomyces Cerevisiae) so I suspect that wine yeast would not treat flour as an alien substance but it may result in a very different flavor in your bread and the bread may take more (or less) time to rise to the level you are familiar with. That said, I buy my bread yeast in bulk. One tablespoon probably costs me about 5 cents or less. Wine yeast is a wee bit more expensive, so it is not something I would try on a routine basis but I would have no problem adding lees left over after racking to a cup of flour mixed in a 1 C of water with a T of sugar to use as a starter. I often try to capture wild yeasts to use for sour dough
 
Thank you! I've got to make a couple loaves of bread for bruschetta, for a dinner I'm hosting tomorrow evening and I really don't want to go to the store just for yeast... that's a pain in my backside. Forgot to add it to my previous shopping list... I need anti-aging cream for my brain! I'll give it a go... and will base the topping ingredients upon the flavor of the bread... doubt the bread will be bad, just perhaps different. Huge thanks for your response! I do believe this will be a successful endeavor. I'd invite you over if you were closer, LOL! Bruschetta, gazpacho soup, twice-baked potatoes (not in the oven, but on the grill) with garlic/onion/rosemary butter, parmesan and sauteed julienned mushrooms, marinated 1.5" T-Bone steaks, grilled corn on the cob, fresh baby carrots w/ clarified butter and dill, and for dessert a parfait using clarified and gelled white and dark chocolate with carmelized Mandarin oranges and fresh whipped cream. All veggies from my garden, beef locally raised, and all homemade. LOL... all that and I have to get the lawn mowed, too.... Guess I'll be up early, eh? Hahaha :) *grin* Unfortunately, none of my wines are ready to serve to guests, as I've only started making wines recently. I'm relying on the old standard hard liquor offerings this time... using what I have on hand, and... the motive is to have them buzzed enough that they all think my food is worthy, LOL! Again... thanks for the response :)
 
I think that wine yeast would produce much smaller "bubbles" in the bread dough. I'd say that the dough wouldn't rise as much. Just my guess...
 
I agree, Give it a try. The only thing that I think you may find is that it will take much longer for the bread to rise. Please post pictures once you have taken the bread out of the oven
 
Naw heck send us all a slice. I loves me some homemade bread! :D
 
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