Bread

Ingredients

• one yeast cake
• one pint of liquid
• about three pints of flour

Method

1. 1

   Dissolve the yeast in the warmed liquid.

2. 2

   Mix in the flour gradually until a dough forms.

3. 3

   Knead the dough until smooth.

4. 4

   Allow it to rise until doubled in size, then shape into loaves and let rise again before baking.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Principles of cookery (1910) by Anna Barrows, page 40. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

breads, cake, and pas- Light try may be classified according to the means used to make them light. Yeast has been known to the human race from a very early period, the others are much later inventions. The principal means are these : The. mechanical introduction of air, as by beating or by the addition of eggs or by the folding of pastry, or in the aerated or Daughlish bread. The use of yeast, the growth of a plant filling the dough with gas. The chemical combination of a bi-carbonate of soda, with some acid substance. Yeast F°r practical use in every-day life it is essential to remember that yeast must be treated like other forms of plant life and if we want it to grow, we must pro- vide the right kind of soil, sufficient moisture, and suit- able temperature. After its work is done, the vitality of the yeast must be destroyed by heat. BREAD. lot It may be desirable to know how to manufacture yeast at home and how to utilize the dried yeast cakes in emergencies, though compressed yeast cakes are now so generally used that it is hardly necesary. A com- pressed yeast cake should be firm and solid, not soft and past)- ; it should look something like fresh cheese, not dark colored and moldy. When only part of a USEFUL UTENSILS. yeast cake is to be used, it should be cut off squarely and the remainder wrapped smoothly in tin foil again, when it may be kept a few days longer. BREAD The essential ingredients in bread making are yeast, liquid, and flour ; the proportions may be varied ac- cording to conditons. Sugar and shortening are commonly used, but if they were omitted wholly it would be possible to have palatable, nutritious bread. Salt is essential to suit the taste of most persons, but as bread is usually combined Yeast Cakes 102 PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY. Causes of Slow Rising Kinds of Flour with salted butter its absence would be less noticeable, and bread might be made without it. Fermentation is- hindered by the presence of salt, a small amount of sugar hastens the process. Sugar in large quantities makes the dough dense and the yeast cannot expand so readily. An excess of short- ening has much the same effect. If a dough is made stiff with flour it rises more slowly. A stiff dough usually has small air cells and is finer grained than when the dough is made softer. The liquid may be milk, whole or skimmed, or water, or half of each. The milk supplies some sugar, fat and nitrogenous matter and produces a more nourishing loaf than that which is made with water. Mashed po- tatoes or sifted squash or cooked cereals are some- times added to a bread dough for variety, but the proc- ess is not changed by such additions. The best bread flour is made from spring wheat and pastry flour from winter wheat, though they may be used interchangeably if necessary. The spring wheat flour contains more gluten and less starch, so that less of the bread flour is required to produce a dough of a given consistency. The entire or whole wheat flours provide more bone making materials than white flour, otherwise there is little difference in the nutritive value of the better grades of each. The presence of gluten makes wheat the favorite flour for yeast dough, Gluten is adhesive when moist- BREAD. j 03 ened and thus retains the gas bubbles formed by the yeast in somewhat the same way that egg-whites hold air when they are beaten. Old recipes for mixing yeast bread usually give di- order of rections for rubbing shortening into the flour and then Mixing "BREAD CAKE" OR BUN BREAD. adding the other ingredients with liquid to make a dough that can be kneaded. The best authorities to- day reverse the order, thus saving time and energy and producing a better result. The liquid is warmed that the fat, sugar, and salt Li(luid may readily blend with the other ingredients and that the dough may rise more rapidly. When it is below too F, or cool enough to avoir] cooking the yeasty Warmed 104 PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY. Double Process Bread Amount oi' \east Short Process is added and well mixed through the liquid. Sufficient flour then is mixed in to give the desired consistency for kneading. At first the mixture may be stirred with a spoon, but as it becomes stiffer a knife will more easily serve to produce a smooth dough. The process of mixing bread may illustrate the bat- ter and drop batter or muffin mixture as well as the dough. To make a sponge, half the quantity of flour to be used is mixed with the liquid and this allowed to rise till foamy, when the remainder of the flour is add- ed. The advantages of this double process are that a trifle less flour is required since the first has time to expand before the second is put in, and that the process is somewhat shortened because in the first stage there is less resistance for the yeast to overcome and the whole sponge becomes full of yeast for the second stage. Sometimes it is more convenient to use a small por- tion of yeast and allow the dough to rise for a longer time, and again to use more yeast and thus do the work more quickly. Until the scientists decide which is real- ly the better method, the- housekeeper will find it de- sirable to vary the quantity of yeast according to her conditions. Time, temperature, and quantity of yeast must be considered, — if one must be diminished, the others should be increased. For common use, a short process is to be preferred to the old custom of letting the dough rise oyer night, BREAD. 105 When it rises by day we can regulate the temperature and stop the process at the right time. One yeast cake to one pint of liquid and about three pints of flour

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