Bread, cakes, and biscuits

Mannheim Bread. — Make a firm dough with two whole eggs, 6oz. of fine flour, 2oz. caster sugar, and 1/2oz. powdered anise seed. When well mixed, divide the dough, rolling these pieces into long rolls 12in. or so long and 2in. or 3in. across ; lay these rolls on a buttered tin, score them down their length with a knife, brush them over with the yolk of an egg, and bake in a hot oven. They may be served whole, or sliced and lightly dried in the oven, as rusks. Milk Bread. — This is a particularly nice American bread, and well worth the little trouble it entails. Set a sponge (or ferment) thus : Pour a full half-pint of boiling water on to six hops, and let it stand till lukewarm, then strain off the water, squeezing the hops well, and add to it as much more water as will produce exactly three-quarters of a pint of liquid, and dissolve in this half a cake of yeast ; when this is all blended, add 1lb. of fine flour, sifted after measuring, and mix it lightly together in a basin that will hold three quarts. Cover this down closely with a flannel and set it in a warm place to rise for two and a half to three hours, by which time the basin or pan should be quite three-quarters filled with the dough ; measure and sift 1lb. more flour with a dessertspoonful (level) of salt, and turn it into a pan double the size of the first one, add to it a dessertspoonful of butter or lard and a tablespoonful of caster sugar, and work it all well together ; now pour into it the sponge, wash out the basin containing this with three-quarters of a pint of single cream or new milk, and add this to the contents of the second pan. Use this milk cold in hot weather, and tepid in winter ; if it must be scalded, be sure it is quite cool before using it. Work this all well together, then turning it on to the floured board or slab, and kneading it to a soft elastic dough ; use 2oz. to 4oz. of flour more in this mixing, if necessary, according to the consistency you wish your bread to be, but remember, if too much flour is used the resulting bread will be hard and tough, Now return the bread to the pan, cover it closely, and leave it in a warm place out of draughts for six or eight hours, or all night if started in the evening. By this time it should very nearly, if not quite, fill the basin ; now again turn it out, and knead it just sufficiently to form it into loaves, only using the smallest possible quantity of flour in this mixing. Have ready some square tins, and fill these half full with the dough, prick the tops well, and set them, covered, to rise in a decidedly warm place for an hour or so until the dough has rather more than doubled in volume. Now bake for ten minutes in the warmest part of the oven, but direct ly the top is lightly coloured shift the loaves to a cooler part, or reduce the heat a little, and bake for thirty-five minutes longer. Let this bread stand in the kitchen till perfectly D 2 cold before it is put away in the breadpan. This bread is not nearly so good fresh as when from twenty-four to thirty-six hours old, and, if protected from chills and draughts, will keep in perfect order for a week.