It is difficult for a person who has never encountered yeast to decide on their own to prepare a yeast dough. Meanwhile, there is nothing difficult in this. You just need to follow the recipe exactly, do not forget that yeast are living organisms that actively reproduce in the presence of favorable conditions. Well, for beginners, it is still better to use dry yeast at first, it is somewhat easier to work with them than with fresh ones.
From fluffy dough on dry yeast, you can make all kinds of flat cakes, use it for pies, buns or pizza.
To do this, you need the following products:
- 20 grams of dry yeast
- 500 grams of flour
- 1 pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 300 ml of warm water
Before you start preparing the dough for yeast baking, sift the flour through a sieve, this will enrich it with oxygen and make future products lighter and more airy. Mix dry yeast with sifted flour, add a pinch of salt, collect the mixture up a hill, use your fist to form a depression in the middle to make it look like a low but rather wide volcano. Pour warm water into the volcano’s “mouth” over and over again in small portions, mixing it with the flour that makes up the inner surface of its crater. If the dough turns out to be liquid, sprinkle it with flour scooped up from the outside of the slide. Continue kneading the dough in this way until all the flour is combined with the water. Give the dough some elasticity by adding a little vegetable oil to it and mixing thoroughly again.
You should have a dough that is not liquid and not thick in consistency, slightly sticky to your hands, but at the same time capable of gathering into a lump.
Now you should give the yeast, as they say, to work. In other words, leave the dough to stand for some time, during which, under the influence of carbon dioxide released by the multiplying yeast, it will begin to rise and increase in volume by 2–3 times. Transfer the dough to a container with enough room to rise, cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave in a warm, draft-free place for 40-60 minutes.
Look into the bowl of dough after 20-30 minutes. The activity of the yeast can be different depending on the variety and age, and the overstayed dough, if not kneaded in time, acquires an unpleasant sour taste.
Place the matched dough from the bowl on a floured table and knead a little until it is almost reduced to its original size. Do not be afraid that this will leave all air bubbles from it. The loose yeast will immediately resume its work and the dough will begin to rise again. After each kneading, the bubbles will become more and more, they will continue to grow in volume, making the dough more and more fluffy. Of course, it is possible to form products after the first rise, but it is better to make 2-3 cycles. Bread, rolls or pies made from this dough will stay fresh longer and will not stale.