Cooking from scratch can take a lot of time if you don’t have some strategies in place. A lot of us love bread. But how do you bake all the sandwich bread you need in a week, plus the buns, rolls, cinnamon rolls, etc. without becoming burnt out? That my friends is why having an all purpose bread dough is so important. This yogurt bread dough recipe can be turned into anything you wish, from sandwich bread, to hamburger buns, garlic knots to cinnamon rolls.
You really can do whatever you like with this dough recipe, allowing your creativity to be unleashed in the kitchen, while still being hugely productive. Plus, thanks to the yogurt, this bread is super soft!
What you’ll need to make this yogurt bread dough
This dough will use eight basic ingredients that can be adjusted based on your personal taste preferences. You’ll need:
- Warm water, about 110°F
- Whole fat yogurt, make your own to make this recipe even more affordable. You can opt to use a low fat yogurt, its just a lot more cost effective to make whole fat yogurt.
- Melted butter, salted or unsalted. You can also substitute olive oil, coconut oil, or avocado oil
- Honey, buy local honey to support your community’s agriculture. You can add more or less honey to this dough depending on how you would like to use it. Sweet treats? Add more. Savory sides? Add less.
- Eggs, if you can afford it, pastured eggs are best. However, the cheap eggs are better than nothing.
- Active dry yeast, you can also use instant yeast in the same amount. We use active yeast because we can buy a pound bag at a time instead of small individual packets.
- Sea Salt, we love Redmond’s Real Salt, but any unrefined mineral salt will be perfect. You can even use table salt if that is all you have.
How to make yogurt bread dough
Since we are using active dry yeast, our first step will be activating it. Combine in a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, the warm water, yeast, and honey. Cover it for about five minutes to proof. The bloomed yeast will look like foam on top of the water and will give off the distinct smell of bread. While it’s proofing you can measure out your other ingredients, or prep your counter space for shaping later.
For the sake of taking a clear photo, I activated the yeast in a glass jar with the honey and water already mixed. There’s really no need to activate the yeast outside of the mixing bowl, though. Save yourself a few extra dishes 🙂
Once the yeast is activated, we will add the yogurt, butter, and salt. I like to add the salt before the flour so that it incorporates evenly. Pockets of salt do not make for an enjoyable eating experience 😜 Thoroughly combine all ingredients before moving on to the flour.
Add the eggs and flour starting with about half the flour called for. From there, add one cup at a time until the dough forms a cohesive ball and cleans the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or until it passes the window pane test. You can knead either by hand or in the stand mixer with a dough hook. I love kneading by hand when I have the time because the process is so relaxing. However, the stand mixer makes this go super fast so that you can get more done in a shorter amount of time.
When the dough has passed the window pane test, cover the dough and let it rise for about one hour. If you get distracted or things come up during that time where you can’t get back to the dough right away you can punch down the dough. That’ll give you another hour if you need it.
What is the windowpane test?
Take a golf ball sized piece of dough in your (floured) hands and gently stretch it. If you can stretch it and see light through it, you’re good to go. If you stretch it and it immediately breaks, it needs to knead for a few more minutes.
This recipe will make four loaves of bread. If you’re mixer can’t handle that amount, go ahead and halve the recipe. I really like our Bosch because it can handle the larger amounts, making my time more efficient. Each loaf equivalent can be turned into whatever you like. We use this dough for hot dog buns, dinner rolls, slider buns, and my sons’ favorite is garlic knots. Of course we also make quite a bit of sandwich loaves as well :D.
After it’s finished rising, divide the dough into four equal parts. To shape into sandwich loaves, gently knead the dough into a log, fold the ends under it and place it in a greased bread pan. To make rolls, divide one portion of dough into 8, 10, 12, 14, 16…. well divide it into as many rolls as you would like. We prefer smaller rolls so we divide the dough into 12 parts.
Allow the sandwich loaves to rise for an additional hour before baking. Use that time to cook your rolls, buns, or knots. Those items do not need to rise again after being shaped.
The recipe card below will contain the instructions for turning this recipe into sandwich loaves. But stay tuned for more variations with this dough. Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments below, and share whatever creations you come up with. I’d love the inspiration 😀
All Purpose Yogurt Bread Dough
Cooking from scratch can take a lot of time if you don't have some strategies in place. This yogurt bread dough recipe can be turned into anything you wish, from sandwich bread, to hamburger buns, garlic knots to cinnamon rolls.
Ingredients
- 2 cups warm water, about 110°F
- 2 cups whole fat yogurt
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast
- 4 tsp sea salt
- 9-11 cups all purpose flour, organic, unbleached
Instructions
- In a large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer, combine warm water, honey, and yeast. Cover for about five minutes to proof. Add yogurt, butter, and salt, stir.
- Add eggs plus five cups of flour to the dough. Allow to fully incorporate. Then add flour, one cup at a time until the dough forms a cohesive ball and cleans the sides of the bowl.
- Knead for 5-10 minutes, or until the dough passes the window pane test.
- Cover and let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
- Generously flour a clean work surface, the dough will be sticky! Turn out the dough onto the floured surface and gently knead the dough to form a ball. This will make dividing the dough easier. Add more flour to hands and work surface as needed.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal parts. Gently knead each part into a log, tuck the ends underneath and place in greased bread pans. Cover and let rise for 1 more hour. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Bake the bread for 30-40 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 190° F. If you don't have a thermometer, tap the dough. It should sound hollow. Remove from bread pans onto a cooling wrack or cutting board.
- Allow to cool for ten minutes before slicing... if you can wait that long 😉
- Wrap in plastic wrap, beeswax wrap or a Ziploc bag at room temperature for 3-5 days, in the fridge for a week, or several months in the freezer.
Notes
The acidity in the yogurt helps to break down the gluten resulting in a super soft bread.
Use one loaf equivalent to turn into your other baked goods such as rolls and buns. Once those are shaped they are ready to be baked right away. Bake those while the loaves are rising in their bread pans.
Frozen bread keeps very well and tastes just as fresh after being thawed. You can thaw it directly on your counter, or to mimic fresh baked bread, wrap your loaf in tin foil and place directly on the rack. Set the oven temperature to 250-300° F (depending on how frozen your bread is). After 30 minutes check to see if it's fully thawed.
If you are using a Kitchen Aid, it's likely your machine won't be able to handle the amount of dough this recipe will make. Go ahead and halve the recipe to only make two loaves, or you can make this by hand using a large mixing bowl.
You can easily adjust the sweetness of this dough by adding more or less honey. If you are making a dessert, add more. If you are making something savory, add less.
Leave a Reply