Bread, cakes, and biscuits

As soon as the loaf is lifted out of the oven turn it on its side, or support it so that the air will get all round it. Otherwise the side resting on the table gets soft, and if placed flat on the side that was underneath in the oven this will become wet and blistered, as the steam in the loaf cannot escape. Let the loaves get thoroughly cold before putting them in the bread pan, and wipe this out well before they are placed in it. It cannot be too often repeated that the most scrupulous cleanliness is an indispensable factor in successful bread-making. Adirondack Bread. — Warm 2oz. of butter, being careful not to let it oil in the least, or cream it with your hand or a wooden spoon, as you please; beat the yolks of five eggs till light, then whisk them into a pint of milk, adding in gradually from 5oz. to 6oz. of Indian corn meal and 4oz. to 5oz. of wheat flour, and beat it altogether till smooth ; now mix in the softened batter, working it well in, and finally mix in a full tablespoonful of sugar, a heaped teaspoonful of baking powder, and the whites of the eggs whisked to a stiff froth. Stir these all together as quickly and lightly as possible, and pour the mixture into a well-buttered tin which should be both broad and shallow in shape, and bake forty minutes in a moderately sharp oven (390° Fahr.), and serve hot. (This is an American recipe.) Aerated Bread. — Such bread is made by Dr Dauglish’s recipe, with flour, water, and salt through which carbonic acid gas is forced by powerful machinery when the previous ingredients have been worked into a dough. This bread is said to be specially nourishing, and is much liked by some people, though others dislike its peculiar flavour greatly. Its original great merit, its freedom from handling in the making, is now shared by other kinds of bread. Naturally, exactly this bread cannot be produced at home, but a form which possesses a good many of its merits may be made thus : Sift together %oz. of bicarbonate of soda, half a drachm of carbonate of ammonia, 4 drachms of common salt, and 51b. of previously sifted flour ; then mix into this 5 drachms of hydrochloric acid dissolved in two and a half imperial pints of water, work it quickly to a light dough, with no kneading, shape or mould into loaves, and bake at once in a rather quick oven till nicely browned and crusty. Made into two loaves, this will take rather over half an hour to bake. Kneading will make this bread heavy. It should be mixed and worked with a wooden spoon (not the hands) as quickly and lightly as possible, remembering not to get the dough too stiff. This bread keeps better, and is proved to be far more digestible for weak stomachs than ordinary bread. Baking-powder Bread. — Sift together well four full pounds of flour, a heaped teaspoonful of salt, and three dessertspoonfuls of baking powder. When this is all thoroughly blended, work it to a nice dough gradually, with about a quart of milk, milk and water, or water ; shape it as quickly as possible into four loaves, and bake for one to one and a quarter hours, in a fairly heated oven. This must be put into the oven the moment it is shaped, and must be mixed as quickly as may be, on account of the baking powder.