Hi again! It's me, Dina! I’ve been wondering, what makes bread so different from matzah anyways? Why is matzah flat and bread is all puffy? So I decided to do an experiment that will show us exactly what is happening when bread rises! Here’s what you’ll need:

What to do:

1. Fill the bottle up with about one inch of warm water.
Yeast is actually a bunch of living organisms, but when they’re cold and dry, they are resting.

2. Add all of the yeast packet and gently swirl the bottle a few seconds.
As the yeast dissolves, it becomes active - it comes to life!

3. Add the sugar and swirl it around some more.
Since yeast is alive, it needs food. When we add the sugar, the yeast starts eating it!

4. Blow up the balloon a few times to stretch it out then place the neck of the balloon over the neck of the bottle.

5. Let the bottle sit in a warm place for about 20 minutes
If all goes well the balloon will begin to inflate!

What’s Going on?

When the yeast eats the sugar, they release a gas called carbon dioxide as waste. As more and more gas is released, it fills the bottle, and then eventually the balloon. When you let bread rise the same thing happens, except instead of blowing up a balloon, the gas puffs up your bread. When we make matzah, we’re extra careful to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Note: Adding yeast to dough is one way to make sure a lot of gas is released into the dough so it will be very big and puffy. However, if you just mix flour and water together and leave it alone, it can still rise on it's own. It might not be much, but it's enough to make it not Kosher for Passover.

Things to think about:

On Passover we think a lot about slavery and freedom. How does flat matzah or puffy bread remind you of slavery? Freedom?