Expert: Elyse Grau - 2/17/2010

Question
I am having problems with getting my cinnamon yeast dough crescents to rise. This is my grandmothers recipe and it calls for yeast. I make sure the yeast is activated before I add it to the all purpose flour. Also calls for 1/4 c milk, butter, vanilla extract, almond extract, salt. The dough is very sticky and requires refrigeration overnight. It just doesn't rise like when I lived in Wisconsin. I now live in SC. I know we are at a lower altitude. Is there something I can do to help? Even after rolling the crescents out and letting them rise for 5 hours they are still not very puffy. Would using skim milk instead of whole affect it?

Answer
Mary:
Changing the milk won't effect how the dough rises, no. Five hours seems quite a long time - are you sure they didn't rise and then fall in that time? Are they too heavy when baked or do they rise up in the oven OK? One thing you can try after the dough has returned to room temperature and risen no more than 1/2 hour beyond that, is to put it in a cold oven and set it to the baking temperature. The heat should give it some extra rising. The dough should also have risen some in the refrigerator. If it didn't its possible that you are kneading it too much, causing the gluten strands to break as they rise.

Elyse