I recently saw a recipe for quick cinnamon buns and, immediately, visions of quick babka and quick rugelach danced before my eyes. But when I tried to parvify the recipe (and, yes, I hereby declare “parvify” a word) it was a disaster. By disaster, I mean not edible. As in, the whole thing went into the trash, because no one would eat it. But I wanted to make this work, because many of us who would love to show off a platter of homemade buns or rugelach are daunted by the very idea of yeast cake. And besides, who has time to plan ahead, as you must with doughs that need resting time? I don’t want a prima donna dough, I want a dough with grit! (I mean that figuratively, not literally!)  

So I set out to create a dough that could puff up nicely with chemical leaveners instead of yeast, and I present the results below. Beware that the dough I concocted differs from yeast dough in both taste and texture. Still, it makes a very respectable substitute. And how cool is it to start a babka and serve it one hour later?