First, congratulations to Jim for reviving the list!
I own a Zourjurushi (I hate having to attempt spelling that name in
public), and I was wondering if anyone knew what difference in the
design of different manufacturer's machines determined whether yeast
was added first or last (top or bottom). In the Zourj... machine,
yeast is always added last and sits on top of the dry ingredients.
But in my friend's R2D2 Bread Machine, yeast is added first and sits
underneath all of the dry ingredients.
Personally, I have found I get lighter and fluffier loaves from allowing
the yeast to sit in the liquid ingredients for several minutes before
starting the machine (I have even allowed the yeast to sit in the liquids
for several hours using the timer mode, with very good results).
It seems to me that, to a point, the larger the yeast population you
have revived from their freeze-dried state at rising time, the better
off you are.... Comments?
BTW, if you wish to prove me wrong, I'll gladly accept several large
loaves of banana-nut or zuchinni bread in the mail as experimental
data :)