Baking with Yeast - who does this??? About This Page:

[Cheriemek]

I'm Irish, DH is Polish. His parents are both gone now, but I try to keep their traditions for our kids. We went to their home for Easter brunch every year where we had ham, kielbasa, rye bread and placzek. Placzek is this really heavy coffee cake. Heavy as in each slice probably has 600 calories and weighs half a pound. So, each year I make it and I wonder, did people in the old days really do all this work on a regular basis? It took me all day. Scolding milk then letting it cool and then putting yeast to let sit for an hour. Then I made up the batch and had to let it sit until it doubled in size (our house is freezing so I heat up the oven and then turn off the oven and open it up and put the bowl on the oven door). Then when it finally doubles, you put it in the loaf pans and then wait another 45 minutes for it to settle and rise some more? I started this yesterday at 11:30am. The placzek was done at 6:30pm. There have been some years where I have ruined it - got the yeast too hot so that I killed it and nothing raised. Those were bad years.

So, is working with yeast always this hard, or am I missing something?

[saremca]

My SIL is Polish and she and her sister and her mom bake placzek every year. I expect I'll be getting a loaf of it tomorrow.

I make french bread a lot to go with dinner, but it's easy and quick. I wouldn't have time to bake something like placzek on a regular basis. Too much time and work involved. I'd never get anything else done.

[graygables]

I bake bread all the time and usually plan to start dinner loaves at 3pm (for 7pm dinner). One thing, though, I use "instant yeast" that I get at Sam's Club or Gordon's Food Service. I keep it in a sealed canister in the fridge, but I do use it a lot so I've never had any go bad on me. The thing with it is that there is no "proofing" involved. I literally toss flour, sugar, salt, yeast in the mixer, run sink water as hot as I can and pour that in with some oil, let it run for about 10 minutes with the dough hook, then set it to rise. Go back, split it in half, roll it into loaf pans, set it to rise, then bake.

Alton Brown would probably have a cow ; I don't scald milk if it's called for, that was primarily to kill off buggies that modern processing takes care of, so I just nuke it to warm it up enough that it makes the yeastie beasties happy. I've never had any issues with the end product and un-scalded milk. You might try it with the instant yeast and just warming the milk and see how it goes to cut some of the time off. As far as rising goes, that's a necessary step that can't be rushed (dinner was at 730 last night...my kitchen was a tad too cold!)

[Teresa]

I use yeast on occassion and bake a lot. I can say that one of the reasons it probably takes you so long is that you only do it once a year or so, and that it means so much to you to get it right. Like anything else, the more you do it, the more short cuts you find.

And - BTW - I got a great laugh out of your original post. I know you meant "Scald" the milk, but you typed in "Scold". I got a chuckle out of imagining someone standing over a measuring cup full of milk, shaking her finger, and saying "Bad milk, bad, bad, milk!!" Thanks!

[mrsmac2001]

Originally Posted by Teresa

BTW - I got a great laugh out of your original post. I know you meant "Scald" the milk, but you typed in "Scold". I got a chuckle out of imagining someone standing over a measuring cup full of milk, shaking her finger, and saying "Bad milk, bad, bad, milk!!" Thanks!

I got the same image in my head!

[eff051102]

Originally Posted by mrsmac2001

I got the same image in my head!

Too funny, I did also!

[BostonTeaParty]

To answer one of your questions, I bet that back in the old days, they didn't bake things like Placzek on a regular basis. I've never heard of it before, but it sounds like something one would make for a celebration. I've read accounts of people in days of yore preparing for holidays and festivities. They would spend between a week or two baking and making other dishes. So even though for modern times, a day spent baking something might seem labor intensive, compared to the way it use to be it's really a snap.

[LisaJ]

The tips you have gotten are good. And as someone has stated, the more that you do the bread-baking thing, the quicker/easier you can do it.

Yeast: Dates on the yeast packets are generally there for professional bakers - those who keep the yeast out all day as they are baking many many loaves. For those of us at home, who keep it in the refrigerator, it will take a lot longer to expire. So don't worry so much about the expiration date.

You can use the recipe that you have, but just warm the milk in the microwave, no need to scald it and let it cool back down. I believe yeast does well at about 100 degrees or such. I think the first time I worked with the stuff, I actually got my thermometer out to test how hot/warm 105 degrees felt, so now I just go by touch. If the liquid is a little warmer than warm, that is usually good for yeast. If your hand pulls away from the water coming out of the faucet, then you have the water too hot (this is if you are using water instead of milk).

And I never let the yeast sit in the milk/water for an hour - it's just not necessary. Put your yeast in the warm milk, then assemble your other ingredients in the bowl, pour in the liquid yeastie mixture, and then set it in the oven to warm. You should have bread that will rise just as easily as if you had done it the original way. Punch it down (deflate it), put it in your loaf pans, and let it rise in a warm, draft-free area again. Then bake in a hot oven.

Another tip - sugar is food for yeast, so if your recipe calls for sugar, you can add some of that in the warm milk & yeast mixture.

There is a real legitimate reason for multiple risings. It develops more flavor.

I have a delicious buttermilk bread recipe that can easily be wipped up for dinner, and it has yeast. It only needs one rise, and I bake it in the shape of a circle right on the baking pan. What could be easier?

[snoozin]

There's a lot of work in baking with yeast; but it's also therapeutic (pounding that dough does wonders when you're mad!)... and there's nothing like the smell of a yeast bread!
I may have to change my favorite cartoon to "Bad milk, no biscuit!"

[WDWJAMBA]

My mom's side of the family is Polish/Ukrainain and we have a Polish Easter bread called Paska. I wonder if it's the same thing but called a different name? I, too, spent ALL DAY with 2 loaves of bread from the proofing to the baking to the tasting! I only learned to make it last year, but it brings me a bit of NY home to my Montana abode.
I plan to make it every year only at Easter. It's definitely time consuming, but when I taste it--my Grandma (who's still with us) could be right here in MT!

I also just finished the potato salad...

[CRCrazy]

I do!

I don't bake nearly as often as I used to - no time - but I made my Cinnamon Bunny Bread (an old Family Circle recipe) last night.

Tradition says - gotta do it!

There is nothing that says love like homemade breads!

I too do plenty of time savers - This particular bread calls for scalding the milk/butter, then cooling. I melt the butter in the microwave, then add milk, and nuke again till the mixture is the correct lukewarm temperature.

I also use my Kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook to do most of the kneading - so it really doesn't take a lot of time. Sometimes I don't bother with the machine - I really like kneading, and it is a good workout when you're working with a good stiff dough.

The rising times don't require effort on my part - just patience! There are always plenty of other jobs to do during the rising time. I often use a quick action yeast to help out if time is short.

[TwoTigersMom]

I use a kitchen aid mixer as well. The only suggestion I haven't seen here yet is use your microwave to let the dough rise. I use cloth diapers for covering my bread (never used lol) so I wet them with really hot water and wring them out before putting them over the dough. I take a coffee cup about 3/4 full of water and heat it in the microwave for 3 minutes on high. Then I put in my covered dough and leave the door cracked just a hair. My dough usually rises in about 30-40 minutes.

[alismom]

Originally Posted by TwoTigersMom

I use a kitchen aid mixer as well. The only suggestion I haven't seen here yet is use your microwave to let the dough rise. I use cloth diapers for covering my bread (never used lol) so I wet them with really hot water and wring them out before putting them over the dough. I take a coffee cup about 3/4 full of water and heat it in the microwave for 3 minutes on high. Then I put in my covered dough and leave the door cracked just a hair. My dough usually rises in about 30-40 minutes.

I hope you don't mind I totally stole this tip and sent it to my Mom who makes homemade sourdough bread and rolls all the time. Thanks it is a great tip.

[lilfredi]

I bake plazcek every year for the last couple. It is polish tradition and you really should go and bless the baskets on Easter Saturday in order to hear the meaning year after year at why we eat what we do on Holy Sunday.

It is a major pia but well worth it.

[Desurae]

I bake bread for the family about three times a week. Basic sandwich bread, dinner rolls, french bread, etc..... Like everyone else said, once you get used to it you find all the lovely ways to make it a little easier. I love doing it and I have no problem with it taking all day.