Leavens and Salt

Yeast is a living organism which, when activated by contact with liquid, converts the added sugar or sucrose, and then the natural sugars in the flour, into gases. These gases cause the bread to rise. As yeast is live, you must treat it with respect. It works best within the temperature range 21—36°C/70—97°F. Too hot and it will die; too cold and it will not activate. Yeast must be used before its use-by date, as old yeast loses its potency and eventually dies.

In most bread machine recipes dried yeast is used. In this book, all the recipes have been tested using easy bake (rapid-rise) dried yeast, which does not need to be dissolved in liquid. It is also called fast-action bread yeast or quick yeast for bread. If you can find dried yeast especially made for use in bread machines, this will produce good results. You may need to adjust the quantities in individual recipes as variations occur between different makes of yeast.