Yeast is one of those ingredients you buy at the grocery store and use without a second thought. Sometimes, little packets of yeast sit unused in the cupboard for months until you suddenly want to bake a fresh loaf of bread or a plate of donuts. While most of us are used to these dry yeasts sitting on the shelf, they are not the only option for baking. In fact, when it comes to donuts, Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay explains on his YouTube channel that “to make fresh donuts, you need fresh yeast.”
While Chef Gordon Ramsay is known for his practical cooking tips, dishes like Beef Wellington, and creative quips, his approach here is not without reason. In the video, Ramsay demonstrates his donut-making technique, which involves using fresh yeast instead of dry yeast. To activate the fresh yeast, he first crumbles up a block of yeast. Then, Ramsay adds it to warm milk and explains that the active fresh yeast helps the dough rise, resulting in a fluffy donut.
If you’ve never used fresh yeast before, you certainly won’t find it on the shelf; it’s stored in the refrigerated section, usually near the butter. It comes packaged in small blocks or lumps and is light brown or gray in color. The biggest difference with this yeast is its water content—it contains about 70 percent water, making it noticeably wetter when used.
Why use fresh yeast for doughnuts?
Many professional bakers use fresh yeast instead of dry yeast, believing that fresh yeast gives bread and other dough recipes a more flavorful, sweet texture. Fresh yeast is less common in home baking because it doesn’t have a long shelf life—only about two weeks—which means you can’t keep it in your pantry for months. It’s also less common in grocery stores for the same reason.
According to the mini doughnut recipe on Ramsay’s website, using fresh yeast and letting it fully activate for 15 minutes will give the doughnuts a lighter texture. It’s important to note that while Ramsay activates fresh yeast in warm milk in his doughnut-making video, it’s typically activated in warm water at 80 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit (about 27 to 32 degrees Celsius). Without proper activation, neither fresh nor dry yeast will help the doughnuts rise. Yeast donuts are different from cake donuts, which use baking powder.
The main benefit of fresh yeast is that it improves flavor and texture. But many donut recipes call for active dry yeast, which comes in packages with a longer shelf life. For some people, the differences are so minor that it’s not even worth the effort to find fresh yeast. Some other celebrity chefs and bakers, including Alton Brown and Jamie Oliver, offer recipes that use regular dry yeast. So if you can find fresh yeast, great. But if you can’t, don’t worry. As long as you let the yeast fully activate, you can still make delicious donuts.
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