Not much can spoil baking like dead yeast. Even if you read on the packaging that the yeast has not yet expired, it still does not guarantee that they are active. In order for the bakery to be “fluffy”, so that the dough is guaranteed to rise, take a few minutes to check the yeast and you will not have to deeply regret sending expensive products to the bin.
Pick your recipe
You will need
- - yeast;
- - warm water or milk;
- - sugar;
- - timer.
Instruction manual
1
If you have fresh pressed yeast in a briquette, then, first of all, pay attention to their appearance and smell. The lively yeast is a delicately creamy color, with a clear appetizing yeast odor. If you click on them with your finger, a hole will remain in them and they will by no means crumble. If living yeast "smears" their activity is also in question, it is possible that they absorbed too much moisture.
2
Dry active yeast should be tiny granules, similar to small balls of different diameters. They should not stick together and, as the name implies, should be dry and crumble easily if you rub them between your fingers.
3
Yeast is a living organism that “eats” sugar and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide, so in order to check the activity of yeast, you need to add a little sugar to them. For one teaspoon of live yeast, you need to put one teaspoon of sugar.
4
After adding sugar to the yeast bowl, pour ¼ cup of warm water or milk there. The temperature of the liquid you add to the yeast is very important. The fact is that "live" yeast can be "brewed" with too hot water and milk. The optimum fluid temperature is 42 degrees Celsius. If you poured yeast with boiling water or just hot water with a temperature of over 50 degrees Celsius, do not expect activity from them. Even if they were "alive" before the start of your experiment, too hot a liquid killed these capricious microorganisms.
5
Set the timer for 10 minutes and do other things. When the timer goes off, look what happened with the yeast. Ideally, a deliciously smelling thick creamy foam should appear above the “experimental” container, similar to the one you can watch over a glass of freshly poured good dark beer.
6
If you have dry yeast, first mix ¼ cups of warm water or milk with one teaspoon of sugar and only then sprinkle the contents of one small packet (11 grams) of dry yeast over the surface of the liquid. Try to pour evenly, make sure that all yeast is scattered in a thin layer, if necessary, carefully rotate the container to distribute them.
7
Set the timer for the same 10 minutes. When the timer goes off, look at the yeast. They should form a beautiful foamy "hat".