Professionals, of course, know that cakes are the "closest relatives" of gingerbread cookies.
Unleavened pastry is the basis of gingerbread and cakes, and therefore it is clear what result you should strive for in making dough for cakes: on kefir, sour cream or milk, or even on water.
It’s clear, because not only in the vastness of our vast country, but even beyond its borders, Russian gingerbreads have long been famous.
Gingerbread dough is also used for making crusts.
Actually, the difference between gingerbread and cakes is only in the name. True, according to old recipes, gingerbread cookies were prepared only on a honey basis, but in modern cooking the difference has almost disappeared. After all, the recipes of gingerbread dough appeared among the Slavs back in the days of paganism, and the gingerbreads themselves, fashioned in the form of figures of birds or animals served as a sacrifice in the ancient Slavic pagan rites.
In the old days, sugar was a rarity and expensive pleasure, but now the situation with the ingredient for gingerbread dough has changed in the opposite direction: real honey is expensive, and finding it is a problem, so it’s easier to make sugar syrup from an inexpensive product.
Another discarded distinction between gingerbread and cakes, which is reflected in the name of these types of pastries - spices. The root of the word directly indicates the presence of spicy spices in the dough. It was believed that shortbread or gingerbread - a simpler, everyday type of baking, not belonging to the category of cult. Although, in other cuisines of the world, very far from Slavic roots, small pieces, and large semi-finished products for cakes, from gingerbread and other types of unleavened pastry, were called crusts or crusts - that is, flat cakes made of dough, which often included spices , Russia appeared only with the advent of Christianity, the establishment of trade with Asia and the East. These and other historical milestones important for the development of the state and society over the centuries have expanded the culinary boundaries of world cuisine, allowing not only to assimilate, say, European cuisine - traditional oriental spices, but also to learn from the experience of preparing different dishes, making dough and ways to bake sweet products.
Kefir onion - basic technological principles
In addition to the already mentioned spices, sugar or honey, the composition of the gingerbread dough, as well as the test for shortcakes on kefir or other dairy products, includes butter or other types of fat, flour, eggs. As additional ingredients, you can use dried fruits, nuts, jam, chocolate or fruit glaze (for decoration). Ammonium (powder), baking soda, baking powder and other additives are used to create a porous texture of fresh dough.
If the liquid basis of the gingerbread dough is a fermented milk product, then a small amount of baking soda is sufficient as a baking powder, which in this case does not need to be repaid with acid, because lactic acid, reacting with an alkaline medium (soda), will provide a loose and light structure of the dough.
The next important technological moment: after kneading, it is necessary to let the dough “rest”, covering it with any airtight material so that the gas released as a result of the interaction of soda or other disintegrants with lactic acid does not escape, but is distributed in the layers of the dough, creating its porous structure.
The amount of those or other components may vary depending on the composition of the recipe or the desired texture and taste of kefir on kefir.
The increased fat content provides a crumbly structure similar to shortcrust pastry. Whipped butter will make the dough more tender. Beat eggs, along with soda and fermented milk products, saturate the dough with oxygen, ensuring the splendor of products from unleavened dough. Eggs, kefir and butter are products containing proteins that, when whipped, form fatty protein fibers that trap air in the layers of the dough, combining also with gluten contained in flour.
To prepare a yeast-free dough, it is advisable to use whipping in order to improve the quality of ready-made kefir cake.
Of course, you need to pay attention to the quality of the flour or flour mixture for kefir pastries, since the percentage of gluten in the flour is important for the quality of baking.
Korzhiki can be a sweet addition to tea and replace bread when serving unsweetened dishes. In this case, cottage cheese, cheese, other unsweetened ingredients and spices that are not classified as confectionery spices are used as additional ingredients.
The main advantages of this baking should include the speed of their preparation and the variety of assortment, low level of complexity. Biscuits are baked for 10-15 minutes, at 180ºϹ, and together with the time taken to prepare the dough and the formation of semi-finished products, a total of no more than 45 minutes will be needed.
Recipe 1. Korzhiki on kefir: vanilla with nut powder
For the main test:
Premium wheat flour 700 g
Kefir (or yogurt) 150 ml
Water (or milk) 100 ml
Eggs 3 pcs.
Soda 15 g
Oil (or spread) 120 g
Sugar 150 g
Vanillin 3 g
For powder:
Almond chips 70 g
Syrup, vanilla 50 ml
Cooking:
Add soda, vanilla powder, a small pinch of fine salt to the sifted flour. Shuffle. In the beaten eggs, gradually add sugar, a soft spread at room temperature. Add 100 g of flour to the milk, whisking the mixture with a whisk until the lumps are removed. Heat this mixture without stopping stirring on the stove until thickened and let cool. Pour kefir, beaten eggs and butter into a warm mass. Add the flour mixture gradually. Knead the dough, as for dumplings, and leave it in a sealed container.
Prepare vanilla syrup from 1 g of vanillin, 50 g of sugar and 50 ml of water. Combine the ingredients and bring the mass to a boil. Make almond shavings or use any variety of nuts of your choice by chopping them into crumbs.
Roll out the dough (0.7-0.8 cm) and cut out round cakes or give kefir on kefir any arbitrary shape. Put on a prepared baking sheet, grease with syrup and sprinkle with chips. Bake as above. After taking the hot cakes out of the oven, cover them with a linen napkin until they cool.
Recipe 2. Honey Kefir on Kefir
Ingredients:
(see recipe number 1)
In addition, honey, liquid 100 g
Cooking:
Combine honey, sugar, milk (or water), mix the mass, heat to dissolve the sugar. Remove the dishes from the heat, drive one egg at a time, stirring with a whisk. Allow to cool slightly, add the spread, kefir, without stopping mixing the dough. In the flour mixture (flour, soda, salt), add vanilla half less than in the previous recipe. Combine the dry and liquid parts of the dough, knead, roll the ball and, covering it, leave it on the work surface.
Cut the rolled layer with the help of the notches for the dough, brush with melted honey mixed with water (1: 1) or sugar syrup. Sprinkle with chips and bake.
Recipe 3. Korzhiki on kefir with raisins and rum
Ingredients:
Flour 500 g
Sugar 150 g
Ammonium 20 g
Eggs 1 pc.
Rum 50 ml
Kefir 100 ml
Oil 72.5%
Raisins 180 g
Vanilla 2 g
Icing sugar 50 g
Cooking:
Sift flour, add sugar, ammonium, vanilla, salt. In a flour mixture, chop the butter on the work surface, preparing a homogeneous mass. Gather everything in a bowl, after making a deepening, add prepared raisins, beaten egg, combined with kefir, and rum. Knead the dough and put in the cold. Divide into 120 g portions, roll round flat crusts and bake. Sprinkle the finished cooled products with powder.
Recipe 4. Korzhiki on kefir with fruit glaze
Ingredients:
Sugar 100 g
Flour 400 g
Zest, orange 30 g
Rum essence 7-8 drops
Vanilla 1 g
Eggs 3 pcs.
Oil 75 g
Kefir 150 ml
Soda 15 g
Fruit glaze 1 pack (100 g)
Cooking:
Mix the sifted flour with the dry ingredients. Combine the beaten eggs with kefir, essence and fresh orange zest. Combine both sides, adding softened butter, knead the dough. Having formed oval flat cakes from rolled dough, lay them on a baking sheet and bake. When the products have cooled, apply on their surface the icing prepared as indicated on the package.
Recipe 5. Kefir Marble Cake
Ingredients:
See the composition of products in recipe number 1;
In addition, 50 g of cocoa powder
Cooking:
Mix the flour with the dry ingredients for the dough. Divide the mixture in half and add cocoa powder to one of the parts.
Beat the eggs, add a soft spread or butter, kefir to them. Divide the liquid mass into two parts and add to each of the prepared dry mixes. Knead the dough with cocoa, and then white dough. Roll out two layers from the prepared dough and lay one of them on top of the other. Fold the layers twice and continue to roll out the dough until a marbled pattern is formed. Cut the finished dough into a round recess with serrated edges (3-4 cm in diameter) and bake.
Recipe 6. Korzhiki on yogurt with cherry jam
Ingredients:
Cherry jam, pitted 150 g
Oil 120 g
Flour 400 g
Rum 50 ml
Kefir 100 ml
Soda 20 g
Cooking:
Combine flour with soda and melted butter. Combine the whole-seedless jam with rum and kefir, and then add to the flour and butter, knead the dough and distribute it into the prepared silicone molds - baskets. Bake until cooked.
Recipe 7. Korzhiki on kefir with banana and semolina
Ingredients:
Kefir 300 ml
Banana, peeled 240 g
Semolina 250 g
Eggs 3 pcs.
Oil 120 g
Vanilla
Soda 25 g
Sugar to taste
Coconut flakes 50 g
Strawberry Syrup 30 ml
Cooking:
Pour kefir into a large deep container. Grind the peeled bananas and add to the kefir. Drive eggs here, pour sugar and vanilla powder, put softened butter. Beat the mass until doubled in volume and combine with semolina and soda. Mix well, cover the bowl with a film so that the dough does not oxidize from the air and refrigerate until the semolina swells: the dough should acquire the consistency of thick sour cream. Pour it into prepared cupcake tins and bake. Coat the cooled products with strawberry syrup on top and sprinkle with coconut.
Kefir Korzhiki - useful tips and tricks
In korzhiki with honey, you should not add a large number of flavorings, so as not to muffle the smell of honey.
Choux pastry products are not stale for a long time.
If there is not enough gluten in the flour, then brewing the dough will help to achieve the desired texture.
Do not forget to salt the sweet dough: a small pinch of salt emphasizes the taste and aroma.
Remember that an excess of soda in the unleavened dough can ruin the baking: the products come out overdried, with cracks on the surface, dark in color and with a characteristic unpleasant odor. It is better to add a little less soda and wait more until a well-mixed dough ripens during proofing.
