Bread Baking - Yeast

I've talked to so many ladies who are completely intimidated at the thought of working with yeast! "What if I kill it?" is always the question.

The goal in bread baking is for the yeast to feed on the sugars in your dough and produce specific gases which lift and raise your dough into the high light loaf that we recognize as a "good loaf of bread".

It truly is possible to kill yeast. High heat will do it every time! But let's just think for a minute of how glad we are that yeast dies. Imagine if it didn't. You slice off a few pieces of bread for breakfast, but by lunch the loaf is again twice it's size! The next morning you find the bread bag burst and bread dough rolling off the counter and onto the floor. Aren't you glad that yeast can be killed. The alternative might be down right scary!

The goal in working with yeast is to keep it warm. Be Goldilocks and aim for not too hot and not too cold, but just right. If you can bathe your baby, or yourself, without scalding either of you, you can successfully work with yeast. 

Too hot of temperatures will kill the yeast. Eventually, after your loaf has risen to the size you wish, you will bake it in the oven and basically "kill" the yeast and stop the rising process. It will not actively grow any longer. 

Cool temperatures will not kill the yeast but it will grow very slowly or not at all until it is brought into warmer temperatures. Some recipes call for placing your dough in the refrigerator over night to add more depth of flavor. This doesn't kill the yeast but does slow it's activity.

I use the SAF active dry instant yeast. It is much faster working then regular (non-instant) yeast. You can find small packets at the grocery store but it is far cheaper to buy yeast in bulk. I get mine at a bulk food's store or Sam's Club. Look for it in the refrigerator. It comes vacuumed packed or in a jar but after opening the package, it is best to keep your yeast in the refrigerator or freezer. It will stay fresh for months when kept cold.

Many bread recipes call for mixing yeast and warm water in a bowl before adding any other ingredients. This is allowed to sit for a few minutes. The yeast should dissolve and possibly become bubbly. This is the way our grandmothers tested their yeast to see if it was active and alive before adding their precious flour.

When using instant yeast, it is not necessary to dissolve the yeast in water and it can be added directly to the flour.

The water used in bread baking should always be lukewarm, not hot. I find 90 to 100 degrees is about right but it isn't necessary to check the temperature. When I first was married, I thought our tap water didn't get hot enough. So I heated my water up in the microwave. Bad move! After ruining two batches of bread (I truly understand now the fear of killing your yeast) I decided that the tap water is warm enough. It would be better to use room temperature water then water that is too hot. If you can comfortably put your wrist in your water, it should be good to your yeast.

All bread is basically a mixture of flour, liquid, salt, and yeast. A great loaf of bread can be made with only those four things. Sweeteners, eggs, milk, fats, spices and all the other various ingredients found in recipes, are added for flavor, nutrition, or richness.

So that is the basics on working with yeast. Tomorrow I'll share a super simple recipe for your first foray into using yeast. Hope you join me!