Foods and home making

What kind of flour should be used for yeast breads ? When we learned how to make muffins, pastry flour was advised. (See page 80.) It is well to use soft wheat or pastry flour for mixtures leavened with baking powder. For yeast mixtures hard wheat or bread flour is better. There is in dough a tough , elastic substance called gluten. Dough made from bread flour contains more gluten than that made from pastry flour. Although carbon dioxide is formed in both yeast and baking-powder mixtures, the gas is formed more slowly in yeast mixtures than in baking-powder mixtures. Therefore, if the dough is tough and elastic, the bubbles formed by the yeast will be held in the dough and will not break through and escape. Some housekeepers like to use a kind of flour called all-purpose flour for both yeast bread and baking-powder mixtures. All- purpose flour is made from a mixture of soft and hard wheat. While very good results can often be obtained by using this kind of flour, the use of bread flour for yeast mixtures and pastry flour for all other flour mixtures is generally better. Whole-wheat and Graham flours as well as other coarse- grained flours may be used for making yeast bread. How is yeast bread made ? If we keep in mind that yeast is a plant which must grow when bread dough is being prepared for baking, we shall understand better the mixing of bread dough. Liquids mixed with yeast should be lukewarm. An easy way to tell whether a liquid is lukewarm is to let a drop of the liquid fall on the inside of the wrist where the blood vessels come near the surface of the skin. If the liquid feels neither cooler nor warmer than the wrist, it is about lukewarm. Yeast Breads 429 YEAST BREAD (2 loaves) 2 tablespoons sugar 2 teaspoons salt 2 tablespoons fat \ to 1 cake compressed yeast \ cup lukewarm water Bread or hard wheat flour (7 or 1 pint boiling water or scalded milk 8 cups) and water In a mixing bowl, put the sugar, salt, and fat. Add the boiling water or mixture of hot milk and water. Stir to dissolve the sugar and salt and to melt the fat. Then set aside until the mixture is lukewarm. (Use the greater quantity of yeast if you want the dough to rise quickly.) Break the yeast cake into bits. Add the lukewarm water and stir. Pour this yeast mixture into the other lukewarm mixture. Through a sifter, add enough bread flour to make a stiff dough. Mix the flour into the liquid by means of a knife. Flour a bread board slightly. Turn the dough onto the board and knead it. The dough should be kneaded until it is elastic. One can tell when the dough is elastic by denting it with the finger. If the dough is elastic, the dent will quickly disappear. Put the dough back into the bowl. Rub luke- warm water over its surface. Cover the bowl. Set it aside in a warm place so that the yeast plants will grow and the dough will rise. Let the dough rise until it has at least doubled its bulk. In order to break the larger bubbles and distribute the gas more evenly the dough should be kneaded again. Loosen the dough from the bowl and put it on the board dusted lightly with flour. Knead the dough until the large gas bubbles have disappeared.