20-minute experiment
Warm vs cold yeast starter
Wake up the yeast.
The idea
Yeast in warm sugar water foams within 10 minutes, and yeast in cold water barely moves.
The one thing you change: Water temperature
You need
- 2 tsp dry yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- Two glasses
- Warm water (about 38C)
- Cold water
Steps
What you should find
The warm glass is foamy and smells bready. The cold glass is flat.
Waking up yeast
Yeast is a living fungus that eats sugar and gives off carbon dioxide, which puffs up dough. It works best at 25 to 35°C (77 to 95°F). Above about 55°C…
Read the explainer