Yeast dough can be different: some recipes are quite simple and affordable for beginners, while others require special skill and special knowledge. It all depends on what exactly you plan to cook: pizza, pies or fragrant homemade bread. Useful tips on how to make yeast dough with your own hands will help to cope the first time. Try and see: it’s easy.
How to make yeast dough at home
Yeast dough does not endure fuss and requires a special attitude. Start work only in a good mood, knead in a warm room without drafts and loud sounds, otherwise it may not rise. During work, it is advisable to include calm music, best of all classical. For the dough to rise well, it must be placed in a warm environment. If the house is cool, use this technique: pour warm water into a large bowl or pan, put a container of dough covered with a clean towel in it. You can also put the dough in a slightly warm, but by no means a hot oven.
Before starting work, it is advisable to check the quality of the yeast. To do this, pour about 50 ml of warm water or milk into a cup, pour 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sugar and 1 tbsp. spoon of white wheat flour, add the yeast, and then leave it warm for 10-15 minutes. Yes, this period, the yeast will have time to activate, and a fluffy froth is formed in the cup. If this does not happen, then the yeast is spoiled and it will not work to prepare the dough from them.
Fast Yeast Pizza Dough
Useful advice on how to make yeast dough the first time if you are a beginner: start with the simplest recipe. Pizza dough is made extremely easy and should not cause difficulties. Take 85 ml of warm water, dilute in it 0.5 tbsp. tablespoons of honey and 1.5 teaspoons of dry fast-acting yeast. Pour 160 g of white wheat flour, add 20 ml of any odorless vegetable oil, and then replace the soft, flexible dough with your hands or in a food processor. Thanks to perfectly selected proportions of products and the presence of oil, the dough does not stick to your hands at all, it easily rolls out and the product from it turns out to be very tasty. Roll it into a ball and place in a warm place for 5 minutes. After this time, roll out a large round layer 1 cm high, lay out any filling to your taste and bake in 15 minutes at a temperature of 180 degrees.
Kefir pastry dough
To bake delicious pies, it’s useful to learn how to quickly prepare a kefir yeast dough. It quickly fits, easily kneads, and the finished products turn out to be airy and do not turn stale for a long time. In an enameled pan or large glass bowl, mix 250 ml of kefir and 125 ml of vegetable oil, heat until warm. Add 20 g of sugar and 11 g of dry yeast, mix and leave for 15 minutes. Then pour 3 cups of white wheat flour in small portions and knead the soft dough. Roll the mass into a bun and leave it warm for 25 minutes. After this, you can proceed to the formation of pies. Since it is much simpler and faster to make yeast dough from dry yeast, they are most often used. However, ordinary live pressed yeast can also be used. They need to be taken 3 times more, that is, for this recipe you will need 33 g. Crush the mass and add to the warm kefir-butter mixture with sugar, leave for 30 minutes, and then cook according to the recipe.
Butter dough: features
Soft, fragrant buns, which melt in your mouth and are tasty even on their own without any fillings, are usually baked from butter yeast dough. Baking is a generic name for ingredients that make the taste of pastries richer. These components include:
- milk and cream;
- butter and margarine;
- eggs, egg powder and melange - a ready pasteurized mass of egg whites and yolks;
- sweeteners: granulated sugar, honey, molasses, various syrups;
- raisins and other dried fruits, nuts, seeds, spices, vanilla, essences, other flavoring and aromatic additives.
Due to the presence of fat, the dough becomes softer, and the eggs make it lush. Sugar, honey and other sweeteners not only give a pleasant taste, but also form a breeding ground for yeast bacteria. As a result, the baking is more airy, with a delicious fried crust. Baking makes the dough more difficult to lift, so it is always prepared in two stages: first you need to make a dough, and after that proceed directly to the dough kneading.
How to make a dough
Combine 2 cups of warm milk, 10 grams of dried or 30 grams of fresh yeast, 60 grams of sugar and 3 cups of flour. Stir the mass, cover the container with a lid or towel, and then put in heat for 1 hour. While the dough rises, prepare the rest of the ingredients for the dough: melt the butter or margarine, and mash the eggs with the remaining sugar.
How to knead the pastry
When the dough rises, add 125 g of melted butter, 4 yolks and 1 whole egg, 3 cups flour and knead a smooth, non-sticky dough. Then roll into a ball, cover and send to a warm place for 1 hour. After this time, put the mass on the table and knead, then leave for another 50-60 minutes. After that, you can start making pies.
Useful advice on how to cook yeast dough at home: so that the finished product gets a beautiful golden crust and does not stale longer, pour 2-3 tablespoons of mustard oil during the batch. This does not affect the taste, but will improve the quality of baking.
Sweet pastry
For baking buns, croissants and other delicious rolls, the composition of the ingredients varies slightly. Since you can make sweet sweet yeast dough according to the previous recipe, it is enough to include more sugar in the list of components. For 6 glasses of flour, 4-5 additional tablespoons of granulated sugar will be required. It must be added after cooking the dough, at the same time with fat and eggs. Vanillin, cinnamon, lemon essence and other aromatic additives will significantly improve the taste.
How to freeze yeast dough
Mistresses, who do not have much time to cook, will need advice on how to cook yeast dough for subsequent freezing. Please note that this can not be done with every look. If you are preparing a dough to leave it in the freezer, you need to use 5-7% more yeast. For this purpose, only slow yeast is suitable, if the package says "fast-acting", then this product is not suitable for you.
After the dough is already kneaded, it needs to be allowed to come up for 15-20 minutes, then divided into portions, tightly wrapped in several layers of stretch film and sent to the freezer. It is very convenient to pre-form a pie with a filling, place it in a baking dish, wrap it with a film and freeze in this form. When the time comes to bake the treat, remove the film and let the cake thaw in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours. Then let it rise in a warm place and bake as usual.
It is not recommended to freeze the sweet dough, since during storage the yeast bacteria have time to process all the sugar, despite the low temperature. As a result, any dough becomes frozen after freezing. If you want dessert baked goods, you need to use a sweeter filling.
There are a lot of recipes for how to make yeast dough. For baking with filling, simpler and more bland options are suitable, and for buns, cheesecakes, croissants, you need to prepare a fancy pastry, since it plays in this case the role of the first violin.