The smell of baking bread seeps into every room in a home.  It fills not only your house with a delicious smell but fills your heart with comfort.  It is truly nourishing and nutritious to enjoy freshly baked bread.  In Ireland, brown soda bread is traditionally made, but yeast bread is very straightforward and often easier to perfect than its soda cousin.  Many times a week I make wet yeast bread, this means that there is no kneading, no hassle and a delicious loaf at the end of it.  Although it takes a longer time than soda bread to get the finished product, it is very quick to assemble.  It takes time to let it rise and cook (and you can be doing a million other things when this is happening)!

Yeast is a living organism.  Once it is mixed with liquid and a little sweetness and the tin/loaf is put in a warm cosy spot (a bit like us wanting a cup of tea, a slice of cake and a warm fire) its needs are met and it will start to grow.  It will multiply and produce lots of bubbles of carbon dioxide that rise the uncooked loaf.  If you are making a wet loaf, you pour it directly into the oiled tin with no kneading.  Once it has doubled in size, put it in the oven and the high temperature will kill the yeast, so there will be no more rising, and the loaf will stay the same size.

But throughout the baking a few simple rules must be adhered to and then, not much else can go wrong.  Yeast will be killed by direct contact with salt or heat above 120 degrees F.  It using dried rather than fresh yeast, you only need to use ½ the quantity as it tends to be stronger.  Fresh yeast will keep for a few weeks if covered and refrigerated.  It also freezes well.  Using a warm tin and utensils speeds up the rising time.

Yeast extract as well as yeast used in baking and brewing is an excellent source of B vitamins.  These are essential for a healthy metabolism, nervous system and body tissues.  But it is not recommended for people who have an overgrowth of yeast in their body, for example candida albicans.  This yeast is naturally present on our skin and in our bodies, but when it proliferates more than it should, it can cause all sorts of health problems from thrush to digestive problems, flatulence to exhaustion.

Recipe for a wet brown yeast loaf:  mix 450g brown flour, 1 teasp salt, 2 tablesp or seeds and 1½ teasp dried yeast.  Separately, mix 425ml of warm water with 1 teasp molasses.  Stir to dissolve.  Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix.  Pour mixture into an oiled loaf tin.  Sprinkle sesame seeds on top.  Place in a warm area, (with a tea towel over it to prevent a skin forming) until the bread has risen to just above the tin.  Bake for 45-50 mins in an oven 450 degrees F.  The bread should be nicely browned and will sound hollow when taken out of the tin and tapped from underneath.  Good luck!