In spite of what you might hear or read, preparing a basic yeast dough, is (litterally) a piece of cake. When preparing, the most complicated part is kneading it, and even amateur bakers or beginners can handle that. By the way, if you have a good mixer, you’re not even going to do that!
I agree that some yeast doughs can require some time and a little more skills (but only very little), but this is the simplest of all, and I bet everybody can master it easily!
Some yeast dough tips before you get to work:
- You can’t be spontaneous about yeast cakes and pastries, because it has to rise for several hours. Therefore, when you plan to bake a yeast cake, take into account that it will probably take at least 6 hours from the moment you start mixing the dough ingredients until you take the cake out of the oven.
- From my experience, the rising time usually depends on the type of yeast you’re using – fresh or dry, when dry usually takes longer. Another factor is the room temp where the dough rises.
- A yeast dough can left to rise overnight in the fridge.
- 25g fresh yeast = 1 tbsp quick dry yeast = 1 sachet of 7 grams.
- The milk can be replaced with a similar amount of sour cream or natural yogurt.
- When working with a sweet yeast pastry, I sometimes dust my work surface with icing sugar rather than flour. There’ll be no complaints if the dough is just a little sweeter than it supposed to be (which is not too sweet anyway!).
- A baked yeast pastry can be freeze. When necessary, just warm it up again in your oven.
- The quantities specified in the following recipe are sufficient for: 1 Kugelhopf OR 2 loaf tin sized yeast cakes (25-30cm long)
So what so complicated about yeast dough?…
You’ll need:
- 600g plain flour
- 200g softened butter
- 100g sugar
- 1 tbsp dry quick yeast (or 25 fresh yeast)
- 2 eggs
- 180ml milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- pinch of salt
How to:
(1) Combine all pastry ingredients in a bowl and mix well
(2) Kneed until the dough is smooth and elastic, at least 6 minutes. The dough will be very elastic at this stage
(3) Place the dough in a bowl and cover with cling film
(4) Leave dough in a warm place and let rise until it doubles its size (approx 3-4 hours). Alternatively, let it rise overnight in your fridge
(5) Roll out the dough on to a lightly floured surface
(6) Using a rolling pin, gently shape the dough into the desired shape
(7) From this point on, you’ll have to continue according to your relevant recipe instructions
Tags: baking tips, yeast cake