L'hirondelle French Fresh Yeast 12 x 42g Blocks

This fresh yeast arrived very quickly after it was ordered which is important in keeping it fresh. It is neatly packed in a small box. The box has twelve x 42gm individually wrapped cubes of fresh yeast and the package contains a small freezer pack to try and maintain a low temperature for the journey, and this is particularly important in warm and hot weather. My pack had to travel to Northern Ireland and I must say it travelled very well. The ice pack, although thawed, was still very cool and it served the purpose well. Although I have been baking bread in many shapes, forms and types over many years now, and progressed to bread scoring, I have never ever used fresh yeast. Mostly what put me off in my early days of baking bread, were all the tales stating that it didn't keep and had to be used quickly, and the fact that it was often sold in 1kg and 500gm blocks. This was not possible for me when I was making only 1 or 2 loaves week. I never lost the curosity though and would have loved a small amount just to try it out, because I had read so much about the wonderful smell etc. I understand that some larger supermarkets where fresh bread was baked daily sometimes willingly gave you a small amount if you asked, but it seems this all stopped with the advent of Covid. I always used fast acting dried yeast granules, yet when my supply was running out I always was looking for something new to try, and I would always come back to yearning to try fresh yeast. That is when I discovered this fresh yeast which seemed to me to be a contender. This brand is also available in larger blocks but there is only a little difference in price for the individually wrapped 42gm blocks. I read every customer review here on AmazonUK and was greatly encouraged to find that although it has a very short use-by date, that it can be frozen very sucessfully. I also learned that a loaf that only requires 400gms of flour, just needs 14gms of this fresh yeast to have a very sucessful rise, and I have proved this to be true. 14gms is exactly a third of each block in the pack and it cuts very easily with a very sharp knife. It is sort of like cutting soft fudge and it may "flake off "little bits, but if you cut carefully this is really negligible. This is a good reason to buy this pack of 12x42gm blocks, as it would be a nightmare to try to measure out 14gm pieces off a larger block. You can just carefully cut each cube into 3 using just your eye to guage it. Extreme precision not required! I did this as quickly but carefully as possible, and wrapped each piece in aluminium foil, placed them in a small airtight plastic tub and stored them in the freezer. This way I have enough individual pieces of yeast to make 36 loaves of bread that use 400gms of flour in the recipe. Thawing is very quick and easy. NOTE: When taken out of the freezer it will thaw to a liquid so I suggest that you do the following: immediately put the frozen portion of yeast into a small jug or bowl for proving and add about 75 to 100mls/gms of lukewarm to warmish water, and stir it around a bit. Remember to subtract this amount of water from your total recipe liquid. It disolves very quickly. To this add about a tablespoon of sugar and stir and a TEAspoon of flour to give the yeast something more to feed on. This is very easy and again not needing to be totally precise. It will become automatic after you have done it once or twice. Then wait about 15 or 20 minutes for a froth to form on top. This way you know your yeast is working. If it is cold where you are baking give it longer or set your small bowl near or on a radiator or in your hot press. Then just add the frothy mixture to the top of all your other measured out ingredients and knead in using you usual method. There is no shame in letting a breadmaker do this job for you using a dough-only programme, or letting the machine do a complete programme right through from beginning to ending with a baked loaf. I have used both these methods for the purposes of this review and I will add photos of bread using each method. I have cut into the middle of the breadmaker version so you can distinguish it by the little notch at the bottom where the paddle was. The other I made last night using the dough programme, then knocked back the dough, reshaped and tightened it in and let it rise in a clay Schlemmertopf pot, in which I then baked it. My 400gms of flour was made up of 250gms of strong white bread flour and 150gms of freshly ground wheat grains. (Farmer in the family.) Irish wheat grains are notably lower in gluten and are not really suitable for breadmaking so I added about just under a tablespoon of Vital wheat Gluten (available on Amazon) to improve it. This would not be necessary with strong brown bread flour. SO: 400gms flour + (OPTIONAL)1 tablespoon Malt extract+ 1 generous teaspoon salt+ 20mls(tablespoon) of vegetable oil or butter if preferred + 1 teaspoon to one tableapoon sugar to your own preference + approx 255-260 mls of water, (I use 100mls kefir+ 160mls water) and add in the yeast mixture. And that is it. (To explain the seeded look, I chose to mist and gently roll my risen dough in Sundlower seeds before baking.) Proceed with the recipe either using the breadmaker method or the dough only method and bake seperately in an oven in a covered casserole, at 200°C for around 55 minutes and then check if browned to your liking. Suggest 185°C-190°C if baking in an open bread pan for 40 -55 minutes but check before the end time to see if you are happy. Why all this detail? Well I gave this yeast (and myself) quite the challenge using freshly ground wheat and I was delighted with the outcome. Performance was excellent. The rise the texture and crumb were all very pleasing and the taste possibly somewhat better than the dried, quick acting yeast. I enjoyed using this yeast and will continue to use it. The smell of the fresh yeast is quite unusual, a bit (beer-y) but pleasant, but not detectable in the finished loaf. It is very easy to use and I enjoyed the feeling of using yeast in a traditional way. Made me feel very French! I recommend if you are into bread making that you give it a try.

Really good yeast. Great value for money and the bread is soft

love baking with these, easy and of good quality

I freeze the yeast as soon as it arrives. The yeast works fine even when frozen for 2 years at minus 22 degrees C. I think fresh yeast leads to better flavoured breads, especially for things like brioche. The yeast is packed in 40g individual units. I find half a block (20g) works with 850g of flour for lightly enriched breads and for 650g of flour for brioche made with 480g of eggs (weighed in shells) and 450g of butter. I make a starter with yeast in warm milk with a hald a teaspoon of sugar and flour sprinkled on the surface and kept in a warm place until it starts to bubble. Three risings of the dough: one a room temperature, one in the fridge overnight (makes the sticky dough much easier to handle in the morning) and a final rising preferably in a moist proving oven but also fine at room temperature but it takes longer to rise. Takes time but produces very nice brioche far better than one can buy in supermarkets.

This fresh yeast arrived well-packaged and properly chilled, which was reassuring. It crumbled easily and gave a great rise when used in my pizza dough, really pleased with the results. I haven’t tried it in bread yet, but I’m confident it’ll perform just as well. The only downside is the quantity; there’s a lot of it, and I had to freeze over three-quarters of the pack. While it’s great that it freezes well, having the option to buy smaller blocks would be far more practical for home bakers. Still, a great product with strong results and good shelf-life flexibility.

I always buy yeast from them. Since I live in the UK, it's hard to find fresh yeast for my baking. Somehow, I just can't do it with the dried one... I just put this in the freezer and use it when I'm baking. I always get perfect results.

Very vigorous, high quality yeast. According to the description on the Bonne Bouffe website, this originates in the natural yeast from natural sourdough culture, i.e. not from the beer-making process. So there is no smell of beer. On one small pack it says use 42g yeast for 1 kg flour, but I found that half that amount is more than enough. When using packets that have been frozen for longer-term storage, it is possible that it may lose some of its vigour.

The first time I ordered this it was both great fresh and great defrosted from frozen with a longish use by date - making bread taste so much nicer than Easy-Bake yeast. The 2nd time I ordered this, again it was great from fresh, very short shelf life, unusable defrosted from frozen: runny and smelly, obviously it's gone off.