how do i properly use red star yeast that comes in a semi soft, moist, cake form? i tried to activate it with sugar and warm water but nothing happened. Do i mix directly into dry ingredients??

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2000

Answers

The best way to utilize cake or compressed yeast is to crumble the yeast in a small portion of the water from the bread formula. Dissolve by stirring into the water. Then add to the rest of the ingredients and mix as required. There are some guidelines to this though.

1. Yeast does not function well in cool water. Best kept at 105 F

2. Do not allow salt to come in contact with the cake yeast or the water/yeast mixture

3. Sugar is a yeast food, but yeast has some difficulty when exposed to high amounts of sugar, especially when starting the yeast. If you have a high sugar dough, try making a sponge or liquid starter.

4. Try to observe the storage guidelines with cake yeast. 2 weeks; older yeast can sometimes lose virility.

If this does not solve your query, e-mail back.

Joshua Shroll R&D IBR

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2000