> I received a Better Homes and Gardens Best Bread Machine Recipes
> cookbook for Christmas. With only a couple of exceptions, all the
> recipes for 1 1/2 lb. loaves call for only 1 teaspoon of yeast.
> This seems such a small amount of yeast since all the recipes that
> I usually cook call for 2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast.
I have this book as well. I have baked many of the recipes from it, and
most of them have turned out as they should. I would usually compromise
and put a little extra yeast in them (rounded teaspoons instead of level).
Since then I have read Peter Reinhart's Crust and Crumb, and have been
using even less yeast, although I no longer use my bread maker. The reason
recipes call for 2 to 2 1/2 is that is how much yeast comes in one packet.
If you look at old recipes, you will see that usually they use a packet for
two loaves, not one. My advice: Try it with the lower yeast amounts. If
you don't like it, raise it up a little. It's a lot easier for me to
measure once for 1 teaspoon than more times for any other amount.
Ben McGehee