You can argue or argue about the benefits and dangers of yeast fungus as much as you like, but the point of reconciliation among supporters of the yeast and yeast-free dough preparation method is still to recognize the fact that humanity lives in close proximity to billions of microorganisms that inhabit not only the corners of our planet inaccessible to humans, but and the human body.
These inhabitants have not been fully studied by microbiologists, but some of them have already been registered and recognized as "assistants" of people.
These include some types of yeast and sour milk bacteria.
These invisible representatives of the terrestrial fauna, no matter how hard we try to isolate ourselves from their presence, enter their air and food into our bodies.
Therefore, people, having stopped the senseless resistance, accepted them into the service, which brought noticeable success to the development of world culinary, especially to such areas as winemaking, cheese making, baking.
Kulich cake with kefir without yeast - basic technological principles
There are several types of yeast-free pastry that can quite successfully replace traditional yeast pastries.
It is no secret to anyone that the splendor of baking is achieved by raising the dough, which is provided by the yeast that releases air bubbles during the proofing process. The emitted gas is the product of the vital activity of yeast, resulting from their nutrition with sugar and flour, which in turn contain carbohydrates - a breeding ground for yeast.
What should I do if, for some subjective or objective reason, the hostess does not want to use yeast for making pastry?
An alternative to yeast - kefir yeast.
You can probably compare how the dough rises on yeast or kefir. But in terms of the strength and intensity of the fermentation process, such a comparison will undoubtedly indicate a significant preponderance of yeast. Lactic acid bacteria, participating in the biological chain, like yeast, prefer to choose dairy products as their habitat. They work on the same principle as yeast, but less intensively.
Even if the dough is prepared without the use of yeast, sour milk bacteria still need a warm environment, so kefir should be warm. You can (and even better!) Use a fermented sour-milk drink, but without traces of mold and bitterness. Almost any fermented milk product that is not eaten before the indicated time period produces a wonderful dough. True, in order for milk bacteria to raise the dough well, they need to be added a little more than yeast, and they also need more time to reproduce in the milk environment. Sugar and flour additionally provide milk microorganisms with energy.
To prepare the yeast on kefir, it will take from 24 to 76 hours. Not all housewives have enough time and patience for such a long process, although the use of yeast for Easter cakes on kefir without yeast is the most effective way to make baking truly festive.
The second option for making kefir dough without yeast is use of soda or other baking powder. The lactic acid medium in conjunction with the alkali, which is baking soda, causes a quick and rapid process of gas bubble evolution, which, lingering between the dough fibers formed by fiber, ensures its rise. Using this method of kneading dough as the main one, you need to ensure that the amount of soda and acid is as balanced as possible. An excess of soda leads to the fact that its residues, which have not reacted with lactic acid, make the dough and subsequently baking dark and unpleasant in taste, heavy and settled.
The desired increase in the test for Easter cakes with kefir without yeast can be achieved by combining the physical and biochemical properties of products (eggs, oils, and others) with methods of their mechanical processing, for example, beating, during which egg white is converted into fibers, trapping air bubbles in the mass. In this case, it should be treated the same way as during the preparation of the biscuit dough: carefully mix the whipped mass with the rest of the dough components, being careful not to destroy the porous structure of the protein, and then bake the products immediately.
Recipe 1. Easter cake on kefir without yeast
Ingredients:
Flour 450 g
Kefir 300 ml
Eggs 3 pcs.
Soda 15 g
Vanillin 4 g
Sugar 200 g
Orange: juice - 100 ml; zest - 30 g
Cognac 30 ml
Small salt
Oil (spread) 150 g
Seedless Raisins 200 g
Glaze 70 g
Powder 50 g
Order of preparation:
Kefir (20-25 C), juice and half sifted flour with soda mix in a deep bowl. Cover tightly with a film and keep warm; bubbles must appear on the surface. Beat the eggs, gradually adding sugar: the mass should increase 3 times, as for making biscuit. Add soft butter to the eggs, continuing to beat, zest, cognac, vanilla. Combine the second half of the flour with raisins washed and boiled in boiling water.
Combine gradually, adding to the test first beaten egg-butter mixture, then flour and raisins, one spoonful each. It should be very soft and airy dough, almost liquid.
Lay it in equal parts in split molds for Easter cakes, or use disposable parchment forms, pre-greased. Immediately place the dough in a preheated oven (180 Ϲ) and bake.
Cover the cooled cakes with protein glaze, powder.
Recipe 2. Butter cake on kefir without yeast, butter
Ingredients:
Kefir (1.0%) 100 ml
Sour cream, fat 180 g
Oil 450 g
Flour 600 g
Soda 30-40 g
Vanilla 5 g
Saffron 3 g
Rum 25 ml
Sugar 350 g
Candied fruits (small cubes) 150 g
4 eggs
Cooking:
Separating the yolks, rub with sugar (150 g) and soft butter, add sour cream and kefir, brewed and combined with rum saffron, vanilla (3 g). Mix soda with sifted flour, add a pinch of salt, finely chopped candied fruit. Combine the liquid and dry parts of the dough and mix well. Arrange in 200 g cupcake tins and bake until golden brown.
Grease the prepared cakes with whipped sugar (200 g), pre-cooled proteins. Add 2 g of vanillin to the protein mass before the end of whipping. Decorate Easter cakes with candied fruit chips.
Recipe 3. Sourdough for Easter cakes on kefir without yeast
For those who love magnificent pastries, but at the same time avoid the use of yeast and too much baking, which makes the yeast-free dough “elegant” - a recipe for kefir yeast.
Products:
Kefir of any fat content of 0.5 l
Sugar 100 g
Flour 300 g
Cooking method:
Pour kefir into a jar of a larger volume, so that there is free space for added products and for the fermentation process, when the sourdough begins to rise. Add sugar and mix well to dissolve. Add the specified amount of flour gradually, dividing it into 2-3 parts, with an interval of 10-12 hours. All this time, the sourdough jar should be covered with gauze and be close to the heat source. When the leaven rises and acquires a characteristic sour smell, take half of it to prepare the dough, and store the rest at + 3-5C, adding kefir and flour once a week. The consistency of the starter should look like pancake dough.
Recipe 4. Easter cake on kefir without yeast, leaven
Ingredients:
Sourdough 300 ml
Sparkling water, dining room 200 ml
Sugar 250 g
5 mg vanilla extract
Saffron 3 g
Salt
Premium flour 800 g
Cottage cheese (18%) 400 g
5 eggs
Raisins 200 g
Oil 100 g
Soda 50 g
Cooking method:
Kill the butter with sugar, gradually adding eggs. Combine the mass with the curd while continuing to beat. Add the brewed saffron, vanilla extract.
Sift the flour and, combining it with salt and soda, add to the prepared mixture. Add steamed and slightly dried raisins to this. Stir the dough, gradually pouring in the leaven, combined with sparkling water, to a uniform consistency, which should look like thick sour cream.
Arrange the prepared dough into molds, not more than 200 g per serving. Forms must first be generously greased with oil (vegetable) or sent with oiled parchment. Place the molds on a tray or baking sheet, covering the dough on top with an airtight material. Soak the workpieces in this form for about a quarter of an hour and immediately send to a preheated oven. Check the readiness of the test for Easter cakes with
Recipe 5. Small cakes on kefir without yeast
Ingredients:
Flour 100 g
Eggs 3 pcs.
Semolina 200 g
Kefir 150 ml
Spread 140 g
Sugar 250 g
Baking powder 35 g
Dried fruits 300 g
Orange juice 100 ml
Flavors of choice
Cooking:
Separate egg whites and yolks. Remove proteins temporarily to cool. Leave half the sugar to make the glaze. After cooling, whisk the whites into the foam, gradually adding sugar, or replace it with the same amount of powder.
Mix semolina, flour, baking powder. Add a little salt and vanilla powder to the dry mixture if you want to add flavor to the baked goods. Whisk the yolks with sugar and spread. You can replace the spread with any oil, vegetable or cream. To the oil mixture add kefir, warmed to room temperature and combined with juice made from fresh orange.
Dry ingredients, prepared dried fruits (or candied fruit) are gradually added to the liquid mixture, and knead light dough. Pour it into small cupcake tins and bake at 180Ϲ20 minutes. When the products have cooled, remove from the molds and grease the surface with glaze.
Recipe 6. Honey and nut cakes on kefir without yeast
List of ingredients:
Eggs, large 6 pcs.
Honey, linden or buckwheat 400 g
Boiling water 200 ml
Mint (fresh or dried leaves) 20-30 g
Linden (flowers) 50 g
Butter, butter or margarine 200 g
Kefir 350 ml
Flour 400 g
Soda 30 g
Icing sugar 100 g
Crushed nuts (cashews, peanuts, almonds) 250 g
Vanilla 4 g
Cooking:
In 200 ml of boiling water, brew the crushed grass, strain the infusion and mix warm with honey to make a thick syrup. Add 3 eggs and 3 egg yolks to it. Beat the mixture in a deep bowl until doubled. Pour kefir and melted butter into the mass. Combine the sifted flour and nut crumbs, soda and half vanilla powder. Add a pinch of fine salt. In the liquid part of the dough, gradually add the flour mixture. The consistency of the dough as a pancake should be obtained.
Distribute the dough into pre-prepared cylindrical forms of small volume, filling them just above mid-height.
Bake on the middle shelf of the oven. You can check readiness with a wooden skewer or by pressing on the "cap": it must be elastic.
Recipe 7. Easter cake on kefir without yeast from a two-layer dough
Ingredients Composition:
Curd 400 g
Dried Cherries 200 g
Semolina 150 g
Liqueur, cherry 100 ml
Condensed milk (8%) 400 ml
4 eggs + 3 yolks
Kefir 250 ml
Raisins 200 g
Baking powder 10 g
Flour 300 g
Amaretto 50 ml
Oil 200 g
Soda 25 g
Vanilla Powder 8 g
Salt 15 g
Cocoa 50 g
Sugar 250 g
For glaze:
Icing sugar 150 g
Protein 3 pcs.
Vanilla 4 g
Cooking:
Place fat cottage cheese in a bowl of a blender or combine. Pour in the cherry liquor and condensed milk, add 3 whole eggs. Beat the mixture to a homogeneous and lush consistency and add 100 g of softened butter without stopping whipping. Put the dried cherries into the whipped mass, having previously sorted and washed them.
Add 4 g of vanillin, salt (half of the taken amount) and baking powder to semolina. Add the dry mixture gradually to the whipped mass, mix thoroughly and leave for a while: you need to wait until the semolina swells.
Prepare a rigid cylindrical mold for Easter cakes (it is better to take detachable ones). Lubricate them and, having separated the dough prepared from flour and cottage cheese, put them into molds. Place the molds in a baking sheet with a high side, at an angle: so that the dough flows from the bottom to the edge of the mold, not reaching 2-3 cm. After baking, a diagonal line should be formed between the two layers of Easter cakes.
Place the pan gently in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, add boiling water into it and bake the curd dough for a couple until the water evaporates. As soon as the dough gets a firm consistency and brews, remove the pan with the molds from the oven. Without removing the mold from the pan, let them cool. After, put the molds straight and pour the dough on kefir, with cocoa powder.
To prepare the dark dough, combine the sifted cocoa, flour, soda, the second part of salt and vanilla powder. Pour the prepared raisins into the flour.
Beat eggs with sugar, add soft butter, kefir and Amaretto. Combine dry and liquid mixture, mix. Fill the forms with the curd dough with the cooked mass and return them to the hot oven. Bake at 180Ϲ. Check the readiness of Easter cakes with a wooden stick.
Cool and remove from molds. Garnish with a protein cream, whisking the cooled proteins with powder and adding vanillin.
Kulich on kefir - useful tips and tricks
So that the baked goods from the yeast-free dough do not dry out for a long time and keep fresh, try adding butter to the dough, which, thanks to its properties, retains moisture in flour products. For the same purpose, you can mix flour with a small amount of starch.
If you cook the dough using cocoa, then you need to consider that it absorbs moisture more than flour. Therefore, for chocolate dough, it is better to add more wet ingredients and be sure to mix the butter to create a soft chocolate texture for the finished baking.
Given that the moisture content of the flour can be different, because it depends on many factors, be careful about the amount indicated in the recipe: in almost all cases, an adjustment of its weight is necessary.
It will be better if the consistency of the dough (the necessary density) is achieved by kneading it, rather than increasing the amount of flour. Remember that the formation of its fibers and the saturation of the dough with air depend on the duration of mixing.
