What is yeast for baking bread?

Before I can bake bread, I did not know anything about yeast. Consequently, I always failed after all. After I researched its information, I figured out why I was always failed. Now I am writing what I know about them. I hope that I could help you a little bit.

What is yeast?

"Yeast is the driving force behind fermentation, the magical process that allows a dense mass of dough to become a well-risen loaf of bread. And yet yeast is nothing more than a single-celled fungus. How does it do it? Yeast works by consuming sugar and excreting carbon dioxide and alcohol as byproducts. In bread making, yeast has three major roles. Most of us are familiar with yeast's leavening ability. But you may not be aware that fermentation helps to strengthen and develop the gluten in the dough and also contributes to incredible flavors in bread" (http://www.finecooking.com/articles/yeast-role-bread-baking.aspx).

How many kinds of yeast?
There are many kinds of yeast, such as fresh yeast, active dry and bread machine (rapid, instant) yeast... However, I just use active dry yeast and rapid yeast (bread machine yeast)

  

      Bread machine yeast (instant yeast):
This is rapid yeast, so we do not need to be active in the yeast. All you need to do is just sprinkle yeast into the flour and mix them well.

     Active dry yeast:
This is one kind of yeast that we must be active it before using. However, we should be active the yeast even rapid yeast before we use. We just want to make sure the yeast we are using is still fresh. Otherwise, we might throw a whole thing (dough) away because the yeast is almost dead.

Here is the way I am active my yeast
- Use the liquid in your recipe, such as water, milk. Use sugar in the recipe for the active process. Pour sugar into the milk and stir well.

- Warm the mixture up to 70 F degree ~ 100 F degree.

- Pour the yeast into it, and stir well until the yeast is dissolved.

- Set it aside at least 15 mins to make sure the yeast is active. After that, you can see the bubbles flew on the surface of the mixture. It is time to use the yeast mixture.

 

Update:
I usually use active dry yeast when I bake my bread. I do not want to throw away my dough, and I do not want to waste my money and my time, too. Before, I really did not like to use instant yeast because my bread was always failed. Nevertheless, I just changed my mind muaha muaha. I like to use instant yeast now because it is fast hehehe. Finally, when you really know your yeast is still fresh, just use it without being active.


Hana