Final answer:
Making yeast bread involves the steps of mixing, kneading, fermenting, shaping, and baking. Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a single-celled fungus, revolutionized bread making with its ease of use and reliability as a leavening agent.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Five Steps of Making Yeast Bread
The process of making yeast bread involves several crucial steps that lead to the delicious aroma and taste of fresh bread. Here are the five steps traditionally involved in making yeast bread:
- Mixing: Combining all ingredients to form the dough, including flour, water, yeast, and any other desired additions.
- Kneading: Working the dough by hand or with a mixer to develop gluten, which gives the bread structure and texture.
- Fermenting (First Rise): Allowing the dough to rest in a warm place so that the yeast can ferment the sugars, producing carbon dioxide gas and causing the dough to rise.
- Shaping: Once risen, the dough is shaped into loaves, rolls, or other forms before being allowed to rise again.
- Baking: Placing the shaped dough in the oven, where heat causes the dough to rise further and kills the yeast, setting the bread's structure.
Artisanal breads historically relied on wild yeasts for fermentation, leading to unpredictable results and often-discarded batches. The discovery and use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as baker's yeast, revolutionized bread making by providing a consistent and reliable leavening agent. This is a single-celled fungus that is cultured easily, enduring even tough conditions such as cooling and drying, which is beneficial for yeasts used in bread and alcohol fermentation.