The following instructions can be used to determine the freshness and quality of your yeast. To test, follow these instructions:

1. Place 1/2 cup of lukewarm water into a small bowl or cup.
2. Stir 1 tsp. of sugar into the water.
3. Sprinkle 2 tsp. of yeast over the surface.
4. Place bowl or cup in a warm area and allow it to sit for 10 minutes undisturbed.
5. The mixture should foam and produce a strong yeast aroma. If this does not occur, the yeast is inactive and stale and new yeast should be purchased.

Basic Baking Ingredients and baking rules apply to Chia Seed Flour baking

Yeast

Yeast is actually a microscopic plant. Simply stated, without yeast, your bread
will not rise. When moistened by a liquid, fed by sugar, and carefully warmed,
yeast produces gases which power the dough to rise. If the temperature is too
cold, the yeast will not be activated; if it’s too warm, it will die. You can use either “active dry yeast”, “quick acting”, “rapid rise yeast” or one of the new “Bread machine yeasts”.

Sugars

Sugars sweeten the bread, brown the crust, and lend tenderness to the texture. These jobs can be performed by white or brown sugar, molasses, maple or corn syrups, honey, fruits or other sweeteners.

Flour

In order for the bread to rise, the flour has to have high protein content. Glutens are the proteins that cause flour to rise. Chia Seed Flour is gluten free therefore you should not expect it to rise very much. There will be a better rise if it is baked in mini or small pans or muffin pans. A lighter larger loaf with a better rise can be achieved by combining wheat flour with Nuchia Original Chia Seed Flour. This should only be done if you are not gluten intolerant. With Chia Seed Flour some recipes may require you to add more or less Chia Flour to reach the desired consistency. In practice, many cases those are not just perfect on the first bake, get it right the second time.

Liquids

When liquids are mixed with the proteins in flour, gluten is formed. Gluten is necessary for rising. Many recipes use dry milk, but other liquids, such as fruit juice, beer, and water work too. It’s a delicate balance: A recipe with too much liquid may cause the bread to fall during baking while a recipe with too little liquid will not rise, this applies to gluten free baking as well. Feel free to adjust you liquids in bread recipes. Remember beer contains glutens as well.

Salt

Salt inhibits rising, so be very careful measuring. Ordinary table salt will do. Us slightly less when using Sea Salt.

Fats

Many breads use fats to enhance the flavor and retain moisture. Typically, margarine or shorting is used, but butter may also be used.

Bread Machine Baking

Always put the liquids in first, the dry ingredients in next, and the yeast last. Before adding the yeast, dig a shallow hole in the dry ingredients and place the yeast in the hole so that there’s absolutely no contact between the liquids and the yeast. You don’t want the yeast to be activated too soon in the process. This is especially important when you’re using the Delay Bake option.