Bread Making Tips Part Two – The Magical Properties of Yeast


In my previous article, I covered one important aspect of bread making which is to select the right type of flour. Bread flour or an all-purpose flour which has a protein level greater than 10% is a suitable flour that will meet this requirement, and allow the dough to rise adequately.

In this Part 2 article I will be covering the topic of yeast, a crucially important ingredient in bread making if you are planning to make leavened bread.

I like to think that yeast has its own magical properties, and it really certainly does. The story goes way back when as a child, I remember getting excited when my mother would have me pour the warm water to the yeast. She would tell me to watch the magical power that the yeast had as it expanded and changed its consistency. And it certainly did seem to have magical properties, especially as a child.

So What Exactly is Yeast?

Yeast is a living plant-like micro organism which belongs to the fungi family and is unicellular in terms of its biological makeup. There are literally thousands of varieties of yeast. Though for bread making, we need to make sure that we use the right strain of yeast.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the particular strain of yeast that is used as a leavening agent for making bread and other products which require the dough to be leavened. Baker’s yeast has different varieties such as active dry yeast and rapid rise yeast which are all used for bread making.

As the baker crafts his dough, he or she is aware that the yeast is a living organism which must have the right conditions in order to thrive and play its crucial role in bread making. In simple terms, the role of yeast is to ferment the sugar added to the dough. In the process of fermentation, carbon dioxide gases are given off. As the carbon dioxide gets trapped within tiny bubbles, this results in the dough rising. That’s how we get our nicely leavened bread with an airy texture.

Therefore the yeast must grow in the right culture to produce the gases required to create your nice airy loaf of bread. The right culture will be affected by factors such as the amount of moisture, the temperature and the acidity or ph level.

For the budding baker, it is important that you check the expiry date on your packet or container of yeast. If the yeast is too old, then it won’t be able to do this its job in the bread making process.

The process of checking whether the yeast is too old to use for your bread making is a method called proofing.

Proofing the Yeast

To check whether your yeast is too old, take a measuring cup and add ½ cup of warm water. To your warm water, add ½ teaspoon of sugar and 2 teaspoons of yeast. The water should be at a temperature of over 40 degrees Celcius. Leave aside for around 10 minutes.

After returning to your experiment, if the yeast is still active it should have interacted with the sugar and foamed up to the upper level of your measuring cup. If it didn’t, then your yeast is too old, and it’s time to start anew by buying some fresh yeast.

In summary, choose an appropriate flour with a high level of protein – bread flour or an all purpose flour with a protein level greater than 10% is recommended. You will be starting out by using yeast as your leavening agent. If you think that your yeast is too old, apply the test above to proof your yeast.

Happy bread making!

You may also be interested in our article on The Quest for the Best Bread Maker.