Actually, it does; but it doesn't need you to spoon-feed it from your sugar bowl. Yeast readily makes its own food supply by transforming flour's starch into sugar. Yes, sugar jump-starts yeast right at the beginning, but yeast dough without sugar will soon catch up.
Once you get the yeast on the water, add about a teaspoon of granulated sugar. Yeast is fed by sugar and this will help it multiply and activate with a little snack in its belly. Basically it speeds up the process.
Sugar is nutrition for yeast, it consumes it and produces CO2. Yeasts produces enzymes that react with sugar. The yeasts, like most fungi, respires oxygen (aerobic respiration), but in the absence of air they derive energy by fermenting sugars and carbohydrates to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide.
As the yeast feeds on the sugar, it produces carbon dioxide. With no place to go but up, this gas slowly fills the balloon. A very similar process happens as bread rises. Carbon dioxide from yeast fills thousands of balloonlike bubbles in the dough.
Most yeasts require an abundance of oxygen for growth, therefore by controlling the supply of oxygen, their growth can be checked. In addition to oxygen, they require a basic substrate such as sugar. Some yeasts can ferment sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide in the absence of air but require oxygen for growth.
Yeast feeds on sugar so by adding a tablespoon or two provides yeast a readily available food. This increases yeast's activity and speeds up fermentation as well. However, adding a large amount of sugar to your dough will affect yeast's metabolism. Sugar is hygroscopic which means it absorbs moisture from the dough.
Bread can still be made without adding sugar. However, removing sugar from the recipe will alter its texture, taste, freshness, and speed of the rise. Without sugar, yeast can still multiply by feeding on the naturally occurring sugar and starches in flour. Do I need to add sugar when blooming yeast?
In this condition the salt and sugar exert a great affinity for liquids, which can either impair the ability of the yeast to feed or, in some cases, draw the plasma material right through the yeast cell wall. When this happens, fermentation of the yeast is seriously compromised.
If the yeast does not foam after proofing, there could be a few reasons why. The most common is that the yeast has either expired or was not stored properly. If you're working with yeast that does not foam, you'll need to discard the yeast and buy a fresh batch before continuing the recipe.
To activate yeast, you need water and a touch of granulated sugar.
If You Forgot to Add Yeast to Dough
If you forgot to add yeast to your dough, you can just mix the yeast called for in the recipe with a few tablespoons of warm (but not hot) water. Let it sit for five to 10 minutes. Once the yeast has activated, fold it into your dough, and allow it to rise.
All in all, dead yeast in the water looks like small grainy specks that are difficult to see with the naked eye. Under a microscope, however, they appear as oblong shape cells with no internal workings.
You do not need sugar to activate the yeast. This is a half-true old wives tale leftover from when yeast wasn't preserved as well as it is now. A pinch of sugar will make yeast bubble up, thus proving that the yeast is still active and hasn't expired.
To activate dry yeast, you'll need to leave it in a bowl of warm water (100–110℉) mixed with a pinch of sugar for 10–15 minutes. You can also use warm milk if you nix the sugar. Yeast is used in baking as a leavening agent, meaning it makes cakes and bread rise.
Sugar is optional; a little bit makes yeast happy, but too much—generally, more than 1/4 cup per 3 cups of flour—slows yeast down.
When using a product like instant dry yeast (IDY), there is no problem in allowing the IDY to come into direct contact with the salt or sugar, even for extended periods of time, as long as all of the ingredients are dry.
Water at 95°F is the fermentation temperature that yields the best result. Water at 140°F or higher is the kill zone for yeast. At temps like this or higher, you will have no viable live yeast left.
No matter what amount you choose, the rules hold. The ratio is 5:3.
SWEETENERS. Sugar (glucose) provides “food” for yeast, which converts it to carbon dioxide and alcohol; sugar enhances bread flavor; gives the crust a golden color; improves the crumb texture; and helps retain moisture in bread.
The effect of adding sugar to your bread dough
Adding up to 5% of sugar will speed up fermentation as it will feed the yeast in the initial stages before enzymes begin to break down the complex sugar molecules in the starches into simple sugars that the yeast can eat. However, it isn't necessary to add sugar.
The foods you eat may be contributing to your recurring yeast infections. Yeast loves sugar. Avoiding the following foods (also known as a Candida diet) can curb the growth of yeast in your body. Although avoiding these foods may help you avoid a yeast infection, this diet can be difficult to maintain.
While sugar and other sweeteners provide "food" for yeast, too much sugar can damage yeast, drawing liquid from the yeast and hampering its growth. Too much sugar also slows down gluten development. Add extra yeast to the recipe or find a similar recipe with less sugar. Sweet yeast doughs will take longer to rise.
In other words, sugar makes a feast for the yeast. Once the sugar has been evenly distributed throughout the water, add the yeast. Stir gently and let it sit. After 5 or 10 minutes, the yeast should begin to form a creamy foam on the surface of the water.
The main role for sugar in yeast breads is to provide food for the yeast. It will also speed up your rise time during proofing. Sugar is not an essential ingredient for the yeast to grow and multiply. The yeast can convert the starch in the flour to sugar as in a lean bread.
Does Instant Yeast Need Sugar? No, instant yeast does not need sugar for proofing or baking. But you can mix in ½ teaspoon of sugar or honey when proofing yeast to speed up the process.