Tom Johnson's Christmas Bread Dough
Submitted by Therese on Mon, 12/28/2009 - 4:26pm.
CHRISTMAS BREAD DOUGH (2010 version)
Ingredients
2 ounces fresh yeast or 4 packages dry yeast[1]
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup sugar
1 cup lukewarm milk[2]
7 egg yolks or 3 whole eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon grated lemon rind
4 to 5 cups flour[3]
½ cup butter, softened
Cream fresh yeast with salt and sugar until a syrup forms, add milk. (If dry yeast is used dissolve it in 1 cup lukewarm water[4], add salt and sugar.) Stir in eggs, vanilla and lemon rind. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Work in butter. Add more flour if needed. Knead dough on floured surface for 10 minutes or until it is shiny and elastic. Place in a floured bowl. Dust the top lightly with flour. Cover bowl with a towel. Place in a draft-free place to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough doubles in bulk.[5] (The inside of an unlighted oven is ideal.)[6] Dough has risen enough if it does not spring back when fingers are poked into the center. Punch the dough down. Knead it briefly. Dough will keep up to four days in a covered container in the refrigerator.[7] At first it may need punching down every hour or two—so don’t make dough at night. Once thoroughly cold, it needs to be punched down once a day. This dough is used in the Schencken and Hungarian Nut Roll recipes which follow.
[1] Tom’s Notes: If you use dry yeast include a ½ teaspoon of sugar with the dry ingredients at the time you dissolve it in the water. This sugar is in addition to the ½ cup which is added later.
[2] Do not use milk if you use 1 cup of water to dissolve yeast. If you do use cake yeast be sure the milk is at 100° to 110° F.
[3] Original recipe. We always found it took more than 5 cups of flour; this should just be considered an estimate.
[4] 100° to 110°F is lukewarm. 20 seconds in microwave, then use thermometer to be sure.
[5] We usually found that it took more than 30 minutes for the dough to double in bulk; expect about an hour.
[6] Warmth is critical at this point. You may want to turn your oven on to “warm” or its lowest setting--150° to 200°F just before you begin to mix the dough and then turn off the oven as you knead the dough. Then you can put the dough into the oven to rise in a warm environment.
[7] We usually let the dough rise and punch it down at least twice before we use it in the recipes; this is probably because we are usually making large numbers of batches at one time. There is no need to refrigerate the dough before using it in the recipes, unless you want to wait a day or two to finish the baking.
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Updated 2010
Updated 2010.
Thanks Tom!