Bread

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoonfuls of flour
• a little sugar
• lukewarm water
• 48 oz. or 3 lb. of flour

Method

1. 1

   Each child receives 6 tablespoons of flour and yeast.

2. 2

   They mix it with sugar and lukewarm water, knead it, and place it to rise in a warm place for at least 1 hour.

3. 3

   After rising, the dough is shaped and placed in a greased tin to rise for 10 minutes before baking in a hot oven.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from Instruction in cookery (Methuen's text-books, Thompson) (1908) by A. P. Thompson, page 9. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

6 table- spoonfuls of flour (6 oz.) to each child. The yeast is portioned out to each child, allowing a proper fraction of the amount given in the recipe. They are then allowed to mix it with a little sugar and lukewarm water, and proceed as above, mixing with a wooden spoon or fingers ; but the teacher must be very careful not to allow them to make it too moist. After that they must knead it. Then half the class place their portions together in one bowl, and half in the other. Two girls at a time in turn knead the larger quantity; the rest of the class may be employed in washing the basins and some other light work, such as peeling potatoes, etc. Some children have very little idea of kneading, and so it will be necessary to give them a thorough practice in this very 2 — 2 20 INSTRUCTION IN COOKERY necessary accomplishment. The quantity (6 o z.) may to the inexperienced seem as bad as the teaching of roast- ing by using mutton chops, but it must be remembered in a class of 18 children (allowing two monitors) at least 48 o z. or 3 lb., nearly a quartern, of flour is kneaded by each child when the dough is put together. A quartern will make four good-sized loaves, a very usual baking for a small family. In consequent revisions a quartern may be mixed by the child, and that is the limit any child of twelve can knead. Tea-cakes are more difficult than bread, as they are mixed moister, and therefore are not so easy for a beginner to handle. I have always found it easier for them to knead it at the board, picking up the dough with the tips of their fingers and pounding it with their closed fists. When quite smooth the bread may be put to rise in a warm place — the top of the gas stove when the oven only is lighted is very good, or in front of a coal stove with a screen round, or even on the top of a steamer with the water simmering very gently underneath ; but the heat must be even and steady, or the bread will not rise to time, and it is always important in a bread lesson to waste no time. This will make the dough begin to rise, but great care must be taken not to apply too great heat to the bottom, as this will cook the dough and practically make it useless. It is absolutely necessary to let the dough rise well for at least 1 hour, as, if not, it rises after shaping too much. Whilst the children’s dough is rising, the teacher may shape her own loaves. It would be well to show the children how to make the ordinary tin loaf a good shape. The tin should be warmed and greased* and a piece of dough should be selected to half fill it, BREAD AND BREAD-MAKING 21 kneaded lightly, and then grasped firmly with both the hands and rolled backwards and forwards till quite smooth on the under side. It should then be placed in the tin upside down, lightly pressed with the knuckles into the corners, pricked three or four times with a fork, and put to rise for io minutes in a warm place. A very good substitute for a tin is a i-lb. stone jam jar, warmed and greased, which has the advantage of taking up very little room on the baking-sheet, and also of making a very nice crust. The loaf bakes in a round cake shape, and it is a good shape for using for cut bread and butter or sand- wiches, if the bottom is cut first. The shaping of the cottage and Coburg loaves is not so difficult, but it is well to be careful in the very light handling of these as compared with the previous process of kneading. After the teacher has shaped her loaves and put them to rise, the children may be employed in scullery work or other cooking until their dough is sufficiently light to shape ; they also should write the bread recipe in their books. The teacher may put her bread now to bake in a hot oven, and explain clearly that the heat must be lowered after the first io minutes. Then comes the dividing of the dough for the children’s loaves. Cut it up into as many pieces as there are children. By this time it will be doubled in bulk, so there ought to be about enough for two loaves for each child, and one may be a Coburg and the other a tin loaf or baked in a jam jar. If there is not enough, half the class might make one kind and half the other. These may then be put to rise, and the boards and tables scrubbed. The monitors must now be responsible for baking the bread. The class should be made to understand that 22 INSTRUCTION IN COOKERY the oven must be much hotter for a large quantity than for a small quantity, and that it is well sometimes to move the bread about. The teacher’s bread ought to be baked before the children’s goes into the oven. The best way to' test it is to tap it, and if it sounds hollow, it is well baked. It should be put in a sieve to cool, and if a shiny appearance is liked, the loaves may be brushed over with a little warm milk while still hot. In order to ensure a thorough practical knowledge of bread-making, it is well for a second lesson to follow the above lesson the next time the class meets, and then in any sub- sequent lesson to allow two girls to make about i lb. each until all the class have practised. The second lesson may be managed as follows : Prepare warm flour, water, etc., as before. Directly the children have washed their hands, the warm bowls and flour should be portioned out, the yeast should be prepared and mixed with lukewarm water

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.