Chocolate babka - yeast question

I personally prefer using instant yeast over the old active dry yeast. There is just a little more life in the instant type, believe it or not, so your rise should actually go a bit faster. It's also got better oven spring, which gives you a better finished product. That said, if you are planning to do, or the recipe calls for, a long cold rise in the refrigerator- the instant yeast can tire out before you are ready to shape, rise and bake. If this is the case, then active dry yeast is a better bet. All this being said, if you are going to be baking much with sweet dough it is worth it to seek out a formulation meant to handle the extra sweetness. I personally like SAF Gold for this. For the rest, I use SAF Red. I get the larger pack, and keep it stashed in a mason jar in the freezer. They say it lasts a year, but I've never had the opportunity to put that to a test. I think it likely would last longer, though, as long as it was freezing cold and dry.