Basic Yeast Dough Recipe

The basic yeast dough recipe is prepared using only the basic dough ingredients: water, yeast, flour, salt, sugar and oil. It doesn’t contain any of the extra ingredients that improve the dough’s taste and texture or make it crispier.

You can use today’s basic yeast dough recipe to prepare pizza crust or various middle eastern pastries, know as “Muajanat” or “Fataer”. As I mentioned in my previous posts, over the years I have tried dozens of dough recipes until I finally settled on two favorite ones. Today’s recipe is one of them!

Most of the time I use the Pizza Dough Recipe that I posted previously. I use today’s  basic yeast dough recipe when I want to prepare a vegan dough, or when I want to prepare pastries that are best prepared with a dough that is not very crispy, such as Arabic spinach pastries “Muajanat Sabanekh”.

And, before I forget, to prepare the best dough each and every time, don’t forget to read my two posts on preparing the perfect dough: Great Dough Part 1, and Great Dough Part 2. They include the A, B, Cs of preparing yeast dough!

Today’s recipe portion is enough to prepare the crust for two 36 cm (14 inches) pizzas. Just divide the dough into two parts, and spread each part on the bottom of one 36 cm aluminum tray. When I am preparing mini pizzas or Arabic Muajanat I double the portion.

Basic Yeast Dough Recipe

Prep time: 4 hours                 Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1       cup warm water
1       tablespoon instant yeast
1½    teaspoon sugar
3       cups flour
1       teaspoon salt 
1/4    cup oil (corn, sunflower or canola)

How to make basic yeast dough

• Mix the warm water with the sugar and instant yeast. Set aside until yeast grows and forms a foamy top layer. If you don’t see the foamy layer, that means the yeast didn’t react to the water and start growing and reproducing; so don’t use it! It is very important to remember to use lukewarm water of a temperature similar to our body temperature. Read my post Great Dough Part 1 to see why this is important.

• In a large bowl we mix the flour and salt. We then add the oil and rub it with the flour mixture.  Use fingers to rub the oil and flour together.

• Then add the water and yeast mixture to the flour mixture and mix. Mix first with a spoon and then start kneading the dough. Knead the dough on a flat surface vigorously for 5 to 10 minutes. Keep kneading the dough until it is soft and elastic. To test if dough is ready, take a small piece of dough and stretch it between your fingers as you would a gum to make a balloon. If the dough breaks easily you need to knead it more, but if it stretches and forms a thin dough layer, the dough is ready. Read my post Great Dough Part 2 to know why this step is important.
• Grease the inside of the bowl with 1 teaspoon oil, and place the dough inside.

• With wet hands sprinkle water droplets on a clean kitchen cotton towel till half of it is covered with droplets. Cover the bowl with the damp towel and place it in a warm place. I like to leave it inside my oven that is warm from the pilot flame.

• Set the dough aside to rest and rise (doubles its size). It is very important that we give the dough enough time to rise. To check if the dough is ready, press your thumb in the dough and remove it. If the dough springs back quickly then it needs more time to rest, if the hole made by your figure doesn’t fade, then your dough is ready.

• After the dough has risen, we knead again for about one minute, and leave it in a warm place to rest and rise again. The resting period this time is much shorter.

• After the dough has risen the second time it is ready, and we can start preparing our pizza or pastries (Muajanat).

Hope you enjoyed today’s easy recipe: Basic Dough Recipe. Bon appetite.
Next recipe is Safeeha. Sheeha is Middle Eastern minced meat pizzas. Which do you prefer: pizza or Muajanat?  

اضغط الرابط للحصول على وصفة عجينة الخميرة الأساسية باللغة العربية