Cakes, pastries, bread … What to replace yeast?

There are two kinds of yeast : baking powder and baker's yeast.

Baking powder is made up of an agent acid (usually tartaric acid), a basic agent (sodium bicarbonate) and starch (But or from potatoes) to stabilize the mixture and prevent it from acting too quickly.

The Baker's yeast is, it, "alive": it contains yeasts which feed on sugars contained in thestarch and produce carbon dioxide by fermentation, which allows the dough to rise during cooking. It is sold in dehydrated or fresh form (generally in cubes).

Replace baking powder

Some cakes like cake yogurt or the chocolate fondant can very well do without baking powder. If not, you can adopt one of these solutions.

• The bicarbonate food: mix a teaspoon of food bicarbonate + a teaspoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Remember to reduce the salt in your recipe, the bicarbonate is already salty.
• Egg white: beaten in snow, it brings lightness to waffles, donuts, cakes. To "fix" the egg white, add a little powdered sugar when beating the eggs and add them last in the preparation.
• Theaquafaba : this is the cooking water of Chickpeas, which can be whipped and snowed like egg white.

Replace baker's yeast

Unlike baking powder, it is impossible to do without baking yeast in breads and buns. You can however make your own homemade sourdough, by fermenting flour with water. For this, mix a cup of wholemeal flour, rye flour or chestnut crushed porridge with a cup of warm water. Let sit in a warm place (20 to 25 ° C) for three days. When small bubbles appear on the surface and the mixture gives off a characteristic sour odor, add a little flour and water and leave to ferment for two more days. Be sure to stir regularly to avoid the formation of crust. It is possible to speed up the process a little by adding a little sugar at the start to "nourish" the yeasts.

If you are in a hurry and looking for an express solution, you can always make pan-fried rolls like naans or mini-pitas.