Getting A RiZE Our Your Breads

If you're like me, you don't want to experiment with a bread when you've got an important 'deliverable' - you've promised to bring a bread to some sort of gathering and you don't really have time to bake it and discover you've got a brick on your hands.

I recently got a sample of Rapunzel's RiZE organic active dry yeast and decided to try it when I was just cooking for myself and a few close friends. We were cooking up some wonderful Indian food and decided that naan was a requirement. If you're not familiar with naan, it's a traditional flatbread and it's a wonderful side dish.

When I opened the packet, the smell of yeast was powerful. I was concerned that the naan, which is a simple yeast bread, would taste of yeast. Still, I mixed it in the mixer with it of sugar and salt as well as water, olive oil, yogurt, whole wheat flour and bread flour. I let the mixer do the hard work for about 8 minutes. As I was cleaning up a bit, I noticed the packet "use by" date was a couple of months earlier (I'd gotten the sample from a friend months ago and hadn't tried it). Naturally, I thought I was going to end up with really flat bread.

Still, I popped it in a proofing bowl and left it for an hour. I peeked at it at the 30 minute mark and it was rising nicely. After about an hour, it had doubled in size as was expected. I popped it out onto a floured board and kneaded it a bit. It had a great bounce, like you'd expect from a would-be great bread.

After rolling out the rounds and letting them rest, I popped then on a hot cast iron skillet and cooked them up. We served them almost immediately with our spicy chicken tikka masala and they were an instant hit. They were crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on this inside. Delicious slightly nutty flavor and just the perfect companion to our meal.

Frankly, I was surprised that I noticed such a big difference in yeasts. I've used a lot of different yeasts and never found one that performed so well and so consistently. Want to give it a try? I'm not sure where else you might find it, but you can find it at shopOrganic (along with some of my other favorite baking ingredients - but more on that another time).

Rapunzel's RiZE organic active dry yeast from shopOrganic