There is not enough yeast there to use it as a "regular" active dry yeast. For the same reason if you try to proof the yeast cake in a warm water and sugar bath you won't see any activity either. But assuming you did everything correctly and you've let the yeast multiply enough and then dried it up with enough cornmeal quick enough, it should work if you let the dough rise in a warm room for 8-12 hours.



If after 8-12 hours you can see that the dough has risen but not enough to be baked, you may have to add more flour and water (i.e., feed it some more food, ideally you need to double the amount of flour, but may less would work too) and let it proof for a few more hours.



If you don't see any activity in your dough at all then something went wrong when you made the yeast mixture. Maybe you waited too long before you add the cornmeal, by which time most of the yeast all already dead. Since you said you only waited an hour, that seems to indicate that you did NOT wait long enough. When I made mine I had to wait about 3-5 hours.