Baking school
Yeast dough
Light, fluffy and fragrant: how to make yeast dough for braided loaves, Buchteln and plum cake – with the right temperature and enough patience.
Yeast is a living raising agent: it likes warmth but not heat, and it needs time. Keep that in mind and the dough almost makes itself.
How it works
Warm the ingredients: Heat the milk until just lukewarm (about 35 °C / 95 °F – it should barely feel warm on your wrist). Butter soft or melted and cooled, eggs at room temperature.
Dissolve the yeast: Crumble fresh yeast into the lukewarm milk, add a pinch of sugar and leave for 10 minutes until foamy. Instant dry yeast can go straight into the flour (7 g replaces about 21 g fresh yeast).
Knead: Knead for 8–10 minutes until smooth and elastic and the dough comes away from the bowl. Windowpane test: a small piece can be stretched paper-thin without tearing.
Let it rise: Cover and leave in a warm, draught-free place for 45–60 minutes until roughly doubled in size.
Poke test: Press a floured finger into the dough. If the dent fills back slowly, it is ready. If it springs back at once, give it more time.
Shape and prove again: After shaping, let it rest for another 15–30 minutes, then bake.
Common mistakes
Milk too hot: From about 45 °C / 113 °F the yeast is damaged and the dough barely rises.
Too much flour while kneading: A slightly sticky dough is right – extra flour makes the bake dry.
Under- or over-proved: Too short makes it dense and heavy; over-proved dough collapses in the oven and tastes yeasty.
Tips
Add fat and salt after the first few minutes of kneading – very buttery doughs turn out lighter.
More time, less yeast: overnight in the fridge with only a quarter of the yeast gives a particularly aromatic dough.
An oven with just the light switched on (about 30 °C) makes a good proving spot.
