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A Loaf for Learning:

Questions & Answers

How can I tell if the yeast is okay?

If you have bulk yeast, or packet yeast whose expiration date is at hand and you want to make sure it is alive and well before you start, stir only a few drops of honey (or a tablespoon of flour) into the water with the yeast, and let the mixture stand. In about ten or fifteen minutes it should foam up to the surface. If there is no sign of activity after about twenty minutes, put off the baking until you can get some livelier yeast.

Note that some kinds of yeast will foam up if they are alive, even if you don’t add the honey or flour; others won’t go to work until they have some fuel. If you are sure your yeast is all right, there is no need to wait till it foams in its dissolving cup: you can use it as soon as it is completely dissolved in the warm water.

Why dissolve the yeast separately?

Active dry yeast has endured some very fancy high-tech processing and needs a certain amount of care when you bring it out of its state of suspended animation.

For one thing, when yeast is dried, its cell walls become porous and fragile. The cells are quickly restored in warm water. If the water is too cool, though, some of the cell contents leak out, which damages both the yeast and the dough. If the water is too hot, the yeast will die.

The water used to dissolve the yeast shouldn’t contain much sweetener or any salt because these can also harm the yeast. Once the dough is mixed up, the flour acts as a buffer to protect the yeast.

Why do you make such a big deal over temperature?

Like everyone else, yeast works best within a certain range of temperature, and less well in extremes of heat and cold. A warmer environment speeds up its metabolism so that it raises the dough more quickly. Speed isn’t everything, though, and a more leisurely rise usually produces better bread. Your own convenience counts, too: by adjusting the dough’s temperature within its “comfort range” you can have it ready for each subsequent step just when you expect and want it to be.

Do I have to add salt?

No, but it’s tricky to make bread without it. If you want to try. see this page

Salt affects the bread in more ways than taste. By strengthening the gluten, it helps the loaf rise higher; by regulating the activity of the yeast, it makes the dough more manageable and predictable. Without salt, and without special precautions, the dough may rise very fast, and then suddenly stop. Because of its weaker gluten and uncontrolled yeast, a saltless loaf will often overproof and collapse in the pan.

I am used to bread recipes that say to mix the liquids and then add flour as required to make the dough. You add liquids to the flour. What difference does it make?

Our mixing method is different: it is designed for whole-grain flours, which vary a lot in the amount of liquid they take up. Basing the mixing on the liquids in the standard way is all right with white flour, which is always the same; with whole wheat, you can keep the balance of ingredients much more dependably if the mixing is based on the flour instead.

Why does whole wheat flour vary so much in how much water it takes to make the dough right?

Any flour that has been stored in a damp place absorbs moisture so that a measured amount will require less water than usual. In a very dry climate flour loses moisture to the atmosphere and requires more water to get the right consistency.

But even more influential than storage conditions are the solids in the flour, gluten most of all. Because it is very absorbent, the more gluten there is in the flour, the more water the flour takes up. The flour’s starch can also be more or less absorbent, depending on how much it was damaged in the milling.

Surprisingly, whether the flour is coarse or fine makes very little difference except that coarse flour does take in water more slowly, so when you get partway through kneading you may find that the dough seems to be stiffer than you thought it was going to be. No problem—just work more water into the dough as you knead