Yeast - Bread’s Greatest Little Secret
Yeast – Bread’s Greatest Little Secret.
When you see a round, steaming loaf of homemade bread in all its warm, crispy goodness, did you ever think about the yeast that goes into it ?
Without yeast, our bread would look like crackers, baking completely flat.
Yeast offers carbon dioxide to the bread, which in turn causes bubbles of gas that make the dough rise.
Who was the first person to discover that yeast could be used for baking bread ?
No one is entirely sure, but it is believed that ancient Egyptians were the first people to use yeast in the bread making process.
Most likely, someone left a flour and water mixture in the sun on a warm day, and the fermentation in the flour caused yeast which made the entire mixture rise and bake as fluffy, rather than flat, bread.
Yeast used to be available in fluid form and could be purchased from a brewer for home bread making.
Today you can find it in small packets at any grocery store, or you can buy it in larger containers from co-ops and health food stores.
There are two different varieties of dry yeast: active dry yeast and instant yeast, or rapid-rise yeast. Either kind will work well, but the rapid rise yeast will rise in less time than the instant variety.
Active dry yeast requires water, while rapid rise yeast does not.
Both types of yeast will be good for about 3 months in the refrigerator if they’ve been opened.
They can also be frozen for up to 6 months, and if they have not yet been opened, they can last up to a full year if stored at room temperature.
There is a very easy way to find out if your dry active yeast is still usable.
Simply add some yeast to warm water and mix in one half teaspoon of sugar.
If the yeast becomes bubbly within ten minutes, this means it is still active.
Biologically, yeast is actually a plant that is full of tiny cells, and it is able to reproduce.
Yeast feeds on sugar, but heat will kill it. (This is why it is important to have water at the correct temperature when you are baking bread with active dry yeast. This temperature is specified on the yeast package by yeast manufacturers, and is normally between 110 and 115 degrees F.)
It may be hard to believe, but these lively little yeast organisms are the most crucial aspect of our bread making process.
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