Rich and Light Yeast Dough for Cakes and Loaves

Between you and me, this is the best yeast dough in the book. A meltaway dough that will keep its softness all week so long as it’s stored airtight, it’s the base of the uniquely luscious Polish babka loaves and yeasted fruit and streusel sheet cakes. The particular texture owes in part to the high volume of eggs. There are stories of bakeries whose large batches of placek doughs use as many as 100 egg yolks— but maybe that’s just legend. As with plenty of good things, this dough takes a bi