You may not know this, but there are actually eukaryotic micro-organisms in that sandwich you’re about to eat. This may sound a bit strange, and no, you haven’t found yourself in a real-life version of a science fiction novel. What you have come into contact with, though, is good old-fashioned science.
The fact is that there is a species of yeast known as Saccharamyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) that has been used in the baking of bread for thousands and thousands of years. We also use it for our easy white bread recipe and a lot of dough based baking.
It is the presence of yeast in the baking process that is important. This budding yeast actually allows our bread to be full, rather than flat and lacking the texture that we have come to recognize about the bread we eat on a daily basis.
Scientists and historians aren’t exactly sure when yeast first began to be used in the baking of bread. However, many of the first records in our history do show that the Ancient Egyptians may have been among the first cultures to bake bread with yeast. Archaeologists who have excavated sites all over Egypt over the years have found many artifacts to support that theory, including baking chambers and grinding stones, as well as drawings depicting centuries old bakeries.
What researchers tend to believe is that the Egyptians would leave a mix of water and flour meal out for a longer period of time on a warm day, and the yeasts that were naturally in the flour would allow the mixture to ferment before they would bake it. The bread that resulted from the baking process was then much lighter and delicious than typical hard, flat breads.
The yeast used in the bread baking process is actually utilized as a leavening agent. What it essentially does is convert fermentable sugar that is present in the dough into carbon dioxide. Through this process, dough expands as the carbon dioxide gas forms pockets of bubbles in the dough. Flour, water or milk, and salt are mixed with this yeast and the resulting dough is kneaded and left to rise up. This dough can often double in size during the process. Bakers will, after the dough has risen, shape the dough into individual portions or loaves and then baked in an oven.
While dough is being baked, the yeast essentially dies and the pockets of bubbles that are present in the dough are able to set, which makes the product soft. Sometimes, bakers utilize potatoes or the water left over from boiling potatoes, as well as eggs and sugar in order to allow the dough to increase yeast growth.
The specific yeasts utilized in bread baking may vary, though. Most often times, the same yeasts used in bread making are the same kinds of yeasts that are utilized in the fermentation of alcohol. Certain other yeasts that are found in fruits, grains, and plants such as Saccharomyces exiguss may also be used in the process.
Regardless of the kind of yeast; however, the importance of yeast in the bread baking process cannot be underestimated. It is this essential element that has given us the modern loaf of bread as we know it.
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