Where has the Yeast gone?
If you’ve been to Valley Natural Foods recently you may have noticed that we have removed yeast from our refrigerated bulk bin section due to lack of sales. However, we still carry yeast for baking purpose in small, single-use packages of active dry yeast, and large, 1 pound packages of instant yeast. You can find these packages in our baking aisle (aisle 5) and above the bulk liquid containers in our bulk section. If you’re looking for brewer’s yeast you can find it in Aisle 6.
Yeast has been used for more than 5,000 years for fermentation and bread leavening purposes. It wasn’t until recent years that yeast was identified as a living organism. Yeast is a single-celled fungi that is used today for fermentation, leavening bread, molding cheese and producing useful mold for antibiotics.
So how does yeast work? Yeast cells, like many living things, must digest food for energy and growth, but yeast thrives best on sugar. Take bread baking for example, when the yeast cell consumes sugar from the dough it releases carbon dioxide. The bread dough can easily be stretched and prevents the gas from being able to escape. This allows the dough to “inflate” and bread to rise.
Without yeast, holiday baking just wouldn’t be the same. So the next time you stop in and are looking for yeast just ask one of our staff member and we would be more than happy to help you find it.
For more information about yeast and yeast baking tips visit: http://redstaryeast.com/
