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| Cinnamon Rolls, Butter Doughnuts, Raisin Bread, Blueberry Kolochi |
A basic sweet dough can make so many things. Last week the boys and I made a double batch and baked up cinnamon rolls, butter doughnuts, sticky buns, kolachi, and raisin bread. The same dough can be used for
bierocks, fancy breads, and stuffed with potatoes and cheese for tiny pyrizhky. We are planning on holding a bake sale for
No Kid Hungry, so this was "practice."
Sweet dough is one of the easiest yeast doughs to make by hand. My greatest challenge is to just let go and use white flour. Trial after trial, using various ratios of whole wheat-to-white, I find that the fluffiest, most tender pastries need the fine texture of white flour. Once the aroma of cinnamon buns in the oven takes over the kitchen, I can get over the health kick.
Tips for sweet dough:
* Use white flour.
* Avoid the urge to knead in too much flour. Your dough will be really soft, and that's okay. There will be eggs to add some lift.
* Use fresh eggs. Can you get them from your backyard or right from someone else's? Use those.
* Butter. Butter, butter. Butter in the dough, melted butter in the rising bowl and on top. Melted butter in the pan.... Margarine is not butter. If you are dairy-free, the only thing I have found to come close is pure coconut oil, and for that add a pinch of salt.
* Avoid instant yeast. It doubles too quickly, not leaving enough time for the flour to stretch and soften.
* If it is really warm in the house or you need the first rising to take longer so you can run errands, use half the yeast. That will buy you twenty minutes.
* After forming the pastries, let then rise until they seem almost frothy. Unlike regular bread, there is little risk of a collapse from too much rising because there are eggs in the dough.
* To make dough the night before for breakfast, pop it straight into the fridge before rising. In the morning, give it a light knead to break carbon dioxide bubbles, and give it extra time to warm up and rise after the pastries are formed. You can make the pastries ahead and refrigerate them to slow the rising. Allow them extra time, at least half an hour, to warm up before you bake them.
