Basic Sweet Dough

I have made plenty of sweet breads, and I always favored the Hungarian Coffee Cake and Swedish Tea Ring. This sweet dough recipe is my mother's, and this works out really well because it is an old recipe. I have also used others which were more recent and still turned out well, but this one is the best I have found. Use this recipe for the basis of your sweet breads.

• Preparation Time: 25 mins
• Cooking Time: 25 mins
• Total Time: 50 mins
• Calories: 104 Calories

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons shortening
• 8 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons melted shortening
• 1 ¼ cups cold water
• 2 (0.6 ounce) cakes compressed fresh yeast

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Scald milk in a medium saucepan. Add cold water to scalded milk. Remove 1/4 cup liquid; mix yeast into liquid when cooled to lukewarm. To liquid in saucepan, add salt, sugar, shortening, and eggs. Add dissolved yeast to saucepan. Mix well.

Step 2

Sift and measure the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the flour, and pour the liquids into the well. Stir with a large wooden spoon until liquid disappears.

Step 3

With one hand, mix dough in bowl using swinging rotary motion. Gradually form dough into smooth ball, then knead in bowl for 2 minutes. Brush top with melted shortening. Cover, and allow dough to rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

Step 4

Punch down dough. Use dough for any sweet bread recipe.