When you put the bread on the board, pat it lightly. Do not _press
down_, but let all motions be as elastic as possible. Knead with
the _palm_ until the dough is a flat cake, and then fold. Keep
doing this until the dough is light and smooth and will not stick to
the board or hands. Use as little flour as possible in kneading. Do
not stop until you have fully finished, for bread that has "rested" is
not good. Milk can be used instead of water in mixing. It should
always be first scalded, and then allowed to cool to blood heat. One
table-spoonful of lard or butter makes the bread tenderer when water
is used.
In cold weather some kitchens grow cold very quickly after the fire is
out. In this case the bread should be made earlier in the evening, and
set in a warmer place (about eighty or ninety degrees); because if it
begins to rise within the first two hours, it will continue to rise,
unless the temperature falls to the freezing point. The reason for
letting the rolls rise longer than the loaves is that the former,
being smaller, are penetrated by heat much more quickly than the
loaves are, and, of course, fermentation is stopped sooner; therefore,
the rolls do not rise as much in the oven as the loaves.
Rolls should be made into smooth little balls, and should be placed in
even rows in a shallow pan. Breakfast rolls, are first made into
little balls and then rolled between the hands until three inches
long. They are placed close together in even rows in the pan. Dinner
and French rolls, after being made into little balls, are put on a
well-floured board, and a little, well-floured rolling-pin, two and a
half inches in diameter, is pressed nearly through their centre. The
rolls are to be so placed in pans as not to touch each other. Being so
small, and baking so quickly, they have a sweet taste of the wheat.
The best-sized pan for loaves is made of block tin; is eight and a
half inches long, four and a half wide, and three deep. Those for
wheat bread should be greased very slightly with either butter or
lard. For rye, Indian, or Graham, they must be greased thoroughly, as
the dough clings more to the tins. There are many kinds of bread that
can be made readily and safely after once learning to make good common
bread. It is difficult to give exact rules for flour, as it varies,
some kinds requiring much more water than others. The "new process"
flour has so much more starch, and packs so much more closely than the
"old process," that one-eighth less is required, or one-eighth more of
liquid; but if the flour is weighed, the same amount of water is taken
for a pound of flour made by either process. The best flour is always
the cheapest for bread. As there is no one article of food of so great
importance for the health and happiness of the family as bread, make
it as nearly perfect as possible.
Yeast.
Put two quarts of water and two table-spoonfuls of hops on to boil.
Pare and grate six large potatoes. When the hops and water
_boil_, strain the water on the grated potatoes, and stir well.
Place on the stove and boil up once. Add half a cupful of sugar and
one-fourth of a cupful of salt. Let the mixture get blood warm; then
add one cupful of yeast, or one cake of compressed yeast, and let it
rise in a warm place five or six hours. When well risen, turn into a
stone jug. Cork this tightly, and set in a cool place. As poor yeast
is the chief cause of poor bread, pains should be taken to make yeast
properly and to keep it well. It must never be allowed to stand in a
warm room after it has risen, and the jug in which it is kept should
be carefully washed and _scalded_ each time the yeast is renewed.
As much care must be taken with the stopper as with the jug. When it
is convenient to get fresh cakes of Fleischmann's compressed yeast, it
will be much better and cheaper to use them than to make your own.
This yeast is wholly free of any injurious substance, and with it good
bread can always be made, provided the flour is good and the rules are
followed.
Yeast Bread, No. 1.
With these materials two loaves can be made: Two quarts of flour, half
a cupful of yeast, nearly a pint and a half of water, half a table-
spoonful each of lard, sugar, and salt. Sift the flour into a bread-
pan, and, after taking out a cupful for use in kneading, add the salt,
sugar, yeast, and the water, which must be about blood warm (or, say
one hundred degrees, if in cold weather, and about eighty in the hot
season). Beat well with a strong spoon. When well mixed, sprinkle a
little flour on the board, turn out the dough on this, and knead from
twenty to thirty minutes. Put back in the pan. Hold the lard in the
hand long enough to have it very soft. Rub it over the dough. Cover
closely, that neither dust nor air can get in, and set in a warm
place. It will rise in eight or nine hours. In the morning shape into
loaves or rolls. If into loaves, let these rise an hour where the
temperature is between ninety and one hundred degrees; if into rolls,
let these rise an hour and a half. Bake in an oven that will brown a
teaspoonful of flour in five minutes. (The flour used for this test
should be put on a bit of crockery, as it will have a more even heat.)
The loaves will need from forty-five to sixty minutes to bake, but the
rolls will be done in half an hour if placed close together in the
pan; and if French rolls are made, they will bake in fifteen minutes.
As soon as baked, the bread should be taken out of the pans and placed
on a table where it can rest against something until cool. It should
then be put in a stone pot or tin box, which has been thoroughly
washed, scalded and dried, and be set away in a cool, dry place.
Yeast Bread, No. 2.
One cupful of Indian meal, two quarts of flour, one pint and a half of
boiling water, one table-spoonful of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt,
half a cake of compressed yeast. Pour the boiling water on the Indian
meal. Stir well, and set away to cool. When blood warm, add the yeast,
salt and sugar to it. Stir this mixture into the flour, and proceed as
for yeast bread, No. I.
Bread Made with Dried Yeast.
Two quarts of flour, one yeast-cake, one generous pint of water, blood
warm; one table-spoonful of sugar, one of butter, one teaspoonful of
salt. Dissolve the yeast in the water, and stir gradually into one
pint of the flour. Set in a warm place for two hours. It will then be
risen to a sponge. Stir it into the remainder of the flour. Knead
well, and put in a warm place to rise. It will rise in about five
hours if the heat is about seventy-five or eighty degrees. Or, it will
rise during the night in a heat of sixty degrees. In the morning treat
like yeast bread, No. I.
Sticks.
Four cupfuls of flour, one table-spoonful of sugar, one-fourth of a
cupful of butter, one cupful of boiled milk, the white of an egg, one-
fourth of a cake of compressed yeast, one scant teaspoonful of salt.
Dissolve the butter in the milk, which have blood warm. Beat the white
of the egg to a stiff froth. Dissolve the yeast in three table-
spoonfuls of cold water. Add all the other ingredients to the flour,
and knead well. Let the dough rise over night, and in the morning make
into balls about the size of a large English walnut. Roll each of
these balls into a stick about a foot long. Use the moulding board.
Place the sticks about two inches apart in long pans. Let them rise
half an hour in a cool place, and bake twenty-five minutes in a very
moderate oven. Sticks should be quite dry and crisp. They cannot be if
baked rapidly.
Graham Bread.
With this material two loaves or two dozen muffins can be made: One
pint of water or milk, one of flour, one _large_ pint of Graham,
half a cupful of yeast, half a cupful of sugar, one teaspoonful of
salt. Have the milk or water blood warm, and add the yeast. Sift the
flour into a deep dish. Add the milk and yeast, gradually, and beat
until wholly smooth. Set in a rather cool place (about sixty degrees)
to rise over night. In the morning add the salt and sugar and then the
Graham, a little at a time, beating vigorously all the while. When
thoroughly beaten, turn into pans, and let it rise an hour in a
temperature of from 90° to 100°. Bake an hour.
Togus Bread.
Three cupfuls of sweet milk and one of sour, three cupfuls of Indian
meal and one of flour, half a cupful of molasses, one teaspoonful of
saleratus, one of salt. Steam three hours.
Brown Bread.
One cupful of rye meal, one of Indian meal, one of molasses, two of
flour, one pint and a half of sour milk, a teaspoonful of soda, an
egg, one teaspoonful of salt. Mix the dry ingredients together.
Dissolve the soda in two table-spoonfuls of boiling water. Add it and
the milk to the molasses. Stir well, and pour on the other mixed
ingredients. Beat the egg and add it. Mix thoroughly, and pour into a
well-buttered tin pan that holds two quarts. Steam four hours, and
then put in the oven for half an hour.