Dough recipe with yeast but no rising time?

[helou]

I have a recipe which my mother gave to me for a dough she used for various pastries which I loved. I never made it because she always kept me well-supplied, but now that she's gone I'm reading the recipe and it doesn't make sense.

In has the basics - flour, orange juice, egg yolks, butter (or margarine), and sugar. But it also calls for a package of dry yeast dissolved in a bit of warm water. The dough is to be well kneaded; however, there is no information about letting the dough rise.

The cookies and pastries did not have that risen yeast-like quality (like bread or challah).

Does this recipe sound right? I don't see what the point of the yeast would be. I *know* my mother didn't purposely give me a recipe with errors.

I'm going to try it, but I generally don't have much luck with yeast, and I worry that I won't be able to tell if I did something wrong with theyeast, or if the recipe is missing a step.

[sandylc]

I'd use butter instead of margarine. Just my two cents.

[almond tree]

Butter is obviously tastier but, for kosher keepers, not acceptable in a dessert to be served after a meat meal. However, I do substitute oil for the margarine sometimes. Walnut oil is particularly good.

[sandylc]

Sorry. My oversight.

[JudiAU]

Can I just ask here? Why not save the delish dairy baked good for a non-meat meal? All of the Kosher bakeries here are parve and really, none of them are very good. The best Jewish bakeries in the city are made in a random cafe and the answer is simple-- butter.

Is it just that most celebratory meals are meat based?

[sandylc]

Don't ask me. I already put my foot in my mouth. I don't understand a thing about religious dietary restrictions.

[almond tree]

It's a bit complicated, Judi. One of the issues is that what is baked in an oven can affect the kosher status of the oven. So if I had only 1 oven and baked a dairy item in it, my oven would become "dairy" and things baked in it could not be served with meat. Simpler just to keep it parve.
Another is that when someone is baking a large batch of cookies, s/he might want the flexibility that keeping it parve brings.
And it's true that there is a lot of poor quality parve baking around. However, there are many talented bakers who can make magic with parve ingredients, particularly home bakers who add that certain je ne sais quoi to their pastries. My Hungarian friends especially seem to shine at this :).
That being said, I do feel privileged to live in Jerusalem, where I have access to some of the best kosher bakeries in the world. and, yes, if I'm going out for a cappuccino and a sweet *something*, that something will most likely be dairy.

[JudiAU]

Of course. I wasn't thinking about kitchen restrictions. I always think of kosher-keeping folks as having duplicate kitchens but of course not everyone would. And in fact all of our friends who keep kosher haven't had them and they kept dairy kitchens. They were mostly health nuts and ate vegan/vegetarian/fishetarian when out.

We live in Los Angeles and plenty of kosher households here.

[helou]

What Almond Tree said.

[sandylc]

When you refrigerate yeasted dough, that IS rise time. Dough does not need warmth to rise - it just speeds it up. I would let the dough rise once, form the pastries, let them rest covered for 20 minutes or so, then bake. If that isn't quite right, experiement with less/more resting time before baking. Do you remember ever seeing the dough or the formed pastries just hanging around resting?

[helou]

It's possible the dough was in the fridge, but that's all. It definitely was not a risen dough sort of pastry.

[wyogal]

When reading your OP, it is unclear what you are making. Reading downthread, you give some reference, but having more information to begin with would be helpful.
What is the recipe you are working from?
This is a pastry, and not a bread, right?

[helou]

It's a pastry, and somewhat similar to Almond Tree's below. In fact, it seems like mine has double the ingredients, which makes sense since I have a note that 1/2 of the recipe makes about 6 dozen hamantashen, so that's what I'd want.

6 Cups of flour
6 Egg yolks
4 Sticks Unsalted Margarine
1 Packet Dry Yeast, dissolved in a bit of warm water
3/4 cup Orange Juice
1/2 cup sugar

Make a dough, kneading well. Roll out and cut into circles.

[wyogal]

Thanks, very interesting!

[almond tree]

My dough does not rise noticeably during its time in the fridge (unlike, say, challah dough, which does).

Because the result is quite dense, I find it's best if rolled as thin as possible before filling.

Here is an ingredient list so you can see if it's similar to your mother's:

1 pkg dry yeast
1 c margarine
5 TBSP sugar (I use 3)
3 c flour (I use 3.5)
1/2 tsp salt
3 egg yolks
1.5 tsp vanilla

From "Classic Kosher Cooking" by Sara Finkel.

In looking at the recipe just now, I notice that it says explicitly: "Do not let rise."

Good luck.

[helou]

Yes, this seems like it's very close. I'll give it a shot, and I will skip the rising completely.
Thanks so much!

[almond tree]

My favorite recipe for rugelach/kokosh cake dough calls for yeast & then 2 hours in the fridge, but no rising time. I've experimented with it -- if I let it rise, it has an almost challah-like texture. If not, it's much denser and richer. I prefer the latter.

Maybe you could prepare the dough, divide it & try different methods with different sections.

Good luck. May the results bring back warm memories of your mother.

[helou]

As a matter of fact, my mother was Hungarian, and made kokosh cake quite often. The dough I'm asking about was what she used for hamantashen, definitely not with a challah-like texture. She also made a non-dairy version of ruggelach, filled with raspberry jam and ground walnuts.

The orange juice was there instead of using plain water, and gave the dough a richer. more interesting flavor.

There was even a sort of meringue cookie, Habcsók, that she made with the unused egg whites.

I'm going to give it a shot with an hour or 2 of refrigeration, and see how it turns out. I'm sure that if it required rising and punching down she would have mentioned it.

Thank you, everyone. It's amazing to me now when I realize just how much my mother cooked and baked, that I simply took for granted as normal every-day fare.

[Ruthie789]

Every single item that you mentioned sounds delicious, especially the rugglach with raspberry and walnuts.

[MidwesternerTT]

rockycat recently posted his recipe for hamantashen and it uses baking powder ('d guess instead of yeast as you do) & refrigeration. Perhaps compare yours and see whether techniques are similar? - thread is here
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/690188

[helou]

Thanks. There are many, many recipes for hamantashen :-). I do have to say the lime curd sounds intriguing.
My mom also made her own lekvar (prune jam) which involved 2 types of prunes (sweet and sour) and a lot of slow cooking time.

[treb]

She probably made an assumption that when using yeast, you'll let the dough rise.

[JudiAU]

It may not need rising time. I have a recipe for Hungarian kifli cookies that is quite similar. (4 cups of flour, 4 egg yolks, 1 lb of butter, 1 pt of sour cream and a package of yeast activated in some warm water.) The yeast is mixed in and dough rests in the refrigerator for at least an hour but there is no rising time. The yeast just provides a bit of lift when they are baked and gives the dough a bit more complex flavor.

The cookies are one of my favorite things on earth to eat so it does work. =)

[JudiAU]

Wanted to add that the dough has no sugar at all. Cookie is rolled out in powdered sugar and that gives a bit of glaze to the exterior.

[wyogal]

Maybe you could give the recipe, and tell us what you are making with it. You say "cookies and pastries," but I'm not sure what you mean by that.
Also, orange juice is not really "the basics," in my experience.
A bit more detail would be helpful.

[youareabunny]

I'm guessing the standard... Let double in volume then punch down. Maybe once the cookies are formed you bake directly (no additional proof). Good luck.