Celebration Breads Recipes, Tales, and Traditions

Chapter One: Ingredients Yeast Yeast is an amazing living fungus that hangs in suspension until warm water activates it. Once activated, like any living thing, it requires food and nourishment, such as flour and other bread ingredients. Yeast feeds on the natural sugar in the flour and creates carbon dioxide. The kneading process helps fill the gluten meshwork with gas bubbles, which in turn make the bread rise. Yeast is commercially available in three forms:Active Dry Yeastis available at the grocery store in small 1/4-ounce foil packages or in 4-ounce jars. You can also buy yeast in bulk at some specialty food stores or through mail-order catalogs. If you use bulk yeast, this conversion formula is helpful: For each package of active dry yeast called for in a recipe, use one scant tablespoon -- not quite a full spoon -- of yeast.Of the two major yeast companies in America, one specifies that a scant tablespoon equals a small packet of yeast, while the other says to use 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast for a packet. Both ways of measuring equal the same amount. Like all perishable products, yeast packages are stamped with an expiration date. Most yeast remains good past that date, but you should "proof" it to be sure. See page 22 for detailed instructions on proofing and activating yeast.Compressed or Fresh Yeastis available at some grocery and health food stores in the refrigerated section, and from some bakeries. The packages are approximately an inch square and 1/2-inch thick. Fresh yeast is becoming harder and harder to find because it is more perishable than active dry yeast. Also fresh yeast is easy to damage when defrosting it from its frozen state. However, bought fresh from a reliable source, it produces outstanding breads with a wonderfully intense flavor and a smooth texture. Many bakers, especially in European countries, feel that fresh yeast gives much more flavor to their breads than dry yeast.Fast-Rising or Quick-Rising Yeastcomes in foil packets or small jars just like active dry yeast. This is a different strain of yeast developed to give quick results. With rare exceptions, this type of yeast is activated by therapid or quick method of activating yeast(see page 23). To substitute fast- or quick-rising yeast for active dry yeast, use a scant tablespoon for each package called for in the recipe. Just remember to cut the rising time in half for each rising period. Do not use this type of yeast if you're letting the dough rise for an extended period of time. Do not let the dough double in size before it goes into the oven or it will deflate. Watch it carefully and put it in the oven just before it has doubled. Flour and Meal The natural sugar in flour feeds the yeast and gives a "carbo-boost," much like the lift humans get from sugar. When mixed with liquids and beaten, flour forms a gluten meshwork that gives bread its structure and texture. It is important to use hard-wheat flour -- not soft-wheat flour -- when making yeast breads. Soft-wheat flour does not contain enough protein to form gluten, which means that the bread won't rise very high. Only hard-wheat flour -- or a mixture of hard and soft wheat, as in all-purpose flour -- provides yeast breads enough protein to form a strong gluten meshwork. Flour comes in many varieties, but in the interest of simplicity, only the types used in this book are described below. Wheat Flour All-Purpose Flour,a mixture of hard and soft wheat, can be used for all types of baking, from light cakes to hearty breads. As its name implies, it is designed to be all purpose. It comes bleached as well as unbleached. Bleached.Although this flour contains hard wheat, it is not good for making yeast breads. The bleach shortens the gluten strands, which keeps the bread from rising properly. Short gluten strandsOppenneer, Betsy is the author of 'Celebration Breads Recipes, Tales, and Traditions' with ISBN 9780743224833 and ISBN 0743224833.