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to leaven the dough

to leaven the dough

4.4
To make the dough rise and become light by adding yeast or baking powder
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : fermentar la masa
  • She forgot to leaven the dough, so her bread turned out dense and flat.

As the dough starts to leaven, what happens to the raisins within the dough?

Examples

  • Yeast is commonly used to leaven the dough in traditional bread recipes.

  • You need to leaven the dough properly for a good rise.

  • Before baking, it is important to leaven the dough to achieve a light texture.

  • Why didn't you leaven the dough before shaping it?

  • Before baking, it is important to leaven the dough with yeast so that it becomes fluffy and light.

  • Adding baking powder will help leaven the dough and make your biscuits rise perfectly.

  • To make a successful pizza crust, you must leaven the dough before spreading the sauce.

Synonyms

to raise
vsto leaven the dough
8 4.8

To make dough become light and puff up before baking

focuses on using a leavening substance rather than general lifting
to leaven
vsto leaven the dough
4 6.6

Make dough rise by adding yeast or baking powder

is the phrase that says the object being made to rise
to yeast
vsto leaven the dough
  • Specialized
7.1

To add a very small living thing to dough or liquid so the mixture rises and ferments

describes the same result but not limited to a specific microorganism

Antonyms

94 3.7

To press something so it takes less space

How Light

to leaven the dough
4.4
unrisen
6.5

Surface Forms

leaven the dough infinitive
leavened the dough past participle
leavening the dough present participle
leavens the dough third person singular

Morphology

leaven + the + dough

The verb 'leaven' literally means to cause dough to become light, and when combined with 'dough' the phrase names that specific cooking action; the article 'the' does not affect compositional meaning. This is a straightforward verb + object construction common in recipe language and cross-linguistically parallel, so a learner who knows the constituent words will understand it.

Etymology

Leaven the dough comes from baking, where cooks add a small, living leaven like yeast to the dough. The yeast makes bubbles that lift the dough and make it 'light', so the phrase means 'to make the dough rise and become light'.