Greetings...
I've got a DAK R2-D2 model, and get fairly decent results from it. I was
wondering, however, about yeasts. One of my hobbies is homebrewing beer, and
I've learned a lot about yeasts from my reading on that topic. A couple of
questions and observations:
>Why not rehydrate the yeast before adding it to the machine? For beer or
ale, the technique is to boil a cup of water, cool it to 105 degrees (f), and
mix the yeast into the water, cover it, let it sit until it starts, well,
yeasting. At that point, you add it to the wort (unfermented beer). How would
this work for breadmaking, and reason NOT to? (Oh, I don't know if boiling is
necessary, for beer it is because it ferments for weeks or months and you want
to kill off nasties. Bread only hangs around for two days anyway!)
>Back to the R2-D2 machine, it's not been doing too well in the winter, but if
I warm all the ingredients up to room temperature it seems to work a bit better.
However, if I put the machine in the time delay mode, the relay clicks & the
heating element comes off & on, is it preheating for me or not? If I could
bypass the room temperature bit and just have the machine do it by delaying my
loaf for an hour or whatever, that'd be easier. So, what's it doing?
>I had some ale yeast sitting around that I wouldn't get to use before it
went old, so, being in a whimsical state, I threw it in for a loaf of raisin-
honey bread. It has a bit of a beer-ey flavor, and rose quite nicely and
definately added something to the bread. If you have a homebrew store near
you, give this variation a try. If you come up with anything special, let
us know! There are ale & lager yeasts in homebrewing, the lager yeast
works at even lower temperatures. Would that work for baking in the winter,
or when the ingredients are colder? I dunno, I may try it.
Dave Hinz