FAST ACTIVE YEAST RECIPES

Steps:

• Scald milk (bring just to a boil and remove from heat immediately).
• Stir in sugar, salt, and butter. Set aside and allow to cool to lukewarm.
• In a large bowl mix warm water and yeast. Stir until dissolved.
• Stir in lukewarm milk mixture.
• Add beaten eggs.
• Stir in half the flour. Beat until smooth. Add remaining flour gradually, mixing as you go. You may need a bit more or less than the total 4 1/2 cups called for in the recipe, depending on the humidity and other factors.
• Your dough should be elastic and slightly stiff but not dry.
• Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead until smooth and very elastic. This usually takes 8-10 minutes.
• Butter the inside of a large mixing bowl. Put dough in bowl and turn dough over a couple of times to coat it all with the butter.
• Cover bowl and place in a warm place so it can rise.
• It will take about 1 hour to double in bulk.
• At that time punch dough down and turn out onto a lightly floured board to shape.
• At this point, you can shape and fill as desired. To make dinner rolls, pinch off about 2-3 tablespoons of dough and shape into a ball. Place each one in a buttered muffin tin or baking pan, barely touching each other, do not crowd rolls.
• Cover prepared rolls and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, again about 1 hour.
• Rolls should now touch each other. (A little more rising will occur during baking.)
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees when rolls are about 10 minutes from being ready for baking. When ready to bake place rolls in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. They should be browned nicely and smell so good and yeasty!
• Brush tops of rolls with melted butter immediately when removed from the oven.
• Allow rolls to sit for at least 10-15 minutes before eating.

Steps:

• 1. Finely chop the candied peel, and quarter the glacé cherries. Finely grate the orange zest.
  2. Place all of the dried fruit into a bowl with the orange zest. Squeeze the orange juice into a pan, add the brandy or rum and heat to just below boiling point, then pour it over the dried fruit. Mix well, then set aside for 1 to 2 hours to allow it to plump up.
  3. Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods, then grind to a powder in a pestle and mortar (roughly ¼ of a teaspoon).
  4. Spoon the yeast into the bowl of a free-standing mixer, then add the sugar.
  5. In a pan, heat the milk until just warm, add to the yeast and whisk to combine. Set aside for 5 to 10 minutes, until the yeast has formed a thick, foamy crust on the milk.
  6. Add the flour, spices and ½ teaspoon of sea salt. Using a dough hook, combine the butter, egg and vanilla, then mix for 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
  7. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and set aside.
  8. Roughly chop the almonds and pistachios.
  9. Pour away about half the liquid from the soaked fruit, then add the fruit and remaining liquid to the dough, along with the nuts. Mix again.
  10. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly for 1 minute. Shape the dough into an oval shape, about A4 size.
  11. Roll the marzipan into a neat log, about 4cm shorter than the length of the dough, and place in the middle of the oval.
  12. Brush one long edge of the dough with milk and fold it over, completely encasing the marzipan, and press the edges together to seal.
  13. Carefully lift the dough onto the baking sheet, cover loosely with oiled clingfilm and leave to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until nearly doubled in size.
  14. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas 4.
  15. Remove the clingfilm, then bake the stollen for 30 minutes, or until golden, risen and the underside sounds slightly hollow when tapped.
  16. Leave to cool on a wire rack before dredging with icing sugar to serve.