Blue Ribbon cook book

BREADS Five-Hour Process Straight Dough Method —12 cups (sifted) flour, 4 cups scalded milk, or milk and water, or potato water, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, 3 teaspoons salt, 2 cakes compressed yeast. (These ingredients make 4 one-pound loaves.) Pour hot liquid over salt, sugar and shortening. Let stand until lukewarm. Do not have too hot or it will kill the yeast. Add the yeast which has been mixed to a paste with a little lukewarm water. Beat in enough flour to make a batter. Beat this batter until it is full of bubbles, then add more flour to make a soft dough. When too stiff to beat, rub a little flour on the bake board, and turn the dough out. Kneading— Dust a little flour on the dough, and on the palms of your hands. Fold the edge of the dough farthest from you toward the centre of the mass, immediately pressing the dough down and away from you with a gentle rolling motion of the palms of the hands twice repeated. Turn the dough, so that what was the right-hand part of it shall be the farthest away from you, fold over and knead as before; continue to do this, turning the dough and flouring your hands and the board to keep the dough from sticking. Should it stick to the board, scrape it free with a dull knife, and flour the board anew. Knead the dough until it does not stick to your hands or the board, is smooth on the surface, feels spongy and elastic, and rises quickly after being indented. This takes about 1 hour to prepare. First Rising—Replace the dough ball in a buttered bowl, cover and set in a warm place. Second Rising—When the dough has risen to twice its original bulk, lift it on the board and shape into small loaves, handling lightly, and using little or no flour. Put into buttered pans and let it stand in warm place covered with a clean cloth, until it has again doubled in bulk. Breads 63 Baking—When nearly risen, test the oven. It should be hot enough to turn a piece of writing paper dark brown in 5 minutes. Bake 45 to 60 minutes. For the first half hour bread needs a hot oven. For 15 minutes the loaf should continue rising, and then begin to brown, and continue this for 15 or 20 minutes. The last 15 minutes it should finish baking. The oven should be about 400° Fahrenheit when the bread goes in, and this, after 15 minutes, can be decreased gradually to 350°. Avoid opening the oven door unless absolutely necessary. When done a loaf shrinks from the pan, and when tapped with the finger gives a hollow sound. If a more tender crust is desired, brush with melted butter 3 minutes before removing from oven. Overnight Bread—The above recipe may be used for overnight bread, in which case only 1 yeast cake will be needed. Sponge Method—A sponge is made by mixing the yeast, liquid, half of the sugar and about half of the flour. Let rise till double in bulk. It will then fall at the touch of a finger. Then add the other ingredients, and the rest of the flour to make a soft dough. Knead, set to rise, and continue process as in “‘straight dough” method. When other material, especially egg, is to be added, a sponge method is preferable. Stir extra ingredients in before adding the last half of the flour. When nothing is to be added there seems to be no advantage in using the ‘‘sponge”’ method.