Put into a pitcher or some suitable deep vessel 2 cups of mashed potato
to which has been added 1 cup of sugar and 1 qt. of warm water. Cover
and let stand in a warm room for from 1 to 3 days or until covered with
a foam almost like the meringue on a pie. Mix some of this foam with 1
cup of warm mashed potato, let stand in a warm place 1-2 hrs., add 1
tablespn. of salt and set away in a cool place.
To the original yeast add 1-2 qts. water, 2-3 teaspns. salt and warm
flour to knead; when light, stir down, and put into pans the second
time it rises. Be careful not to let it get over light in the pans
before baking.
For the next baking, add 1 cup of sugar and the 1 cup of potato
reserved from the last baking, to 2 cups of fresh mashed potato; take
out 1 cupful as before, let stand in warm place 1 hr., add 1 tablespn.
of salt and set in a cool place.
To the 2 cups of potato add a little water and set in a warm place
until light, when water to make 2 or 3 qts. may be added and the bread
kneaded up.
This bread needs to be eaten to be appreciated.
The yeast may be used in universal crust, raised cakes and wherever
other yeast is used, with delightful results.
=Boston Brown Bread. Corn and Rye=
1 pt. warm water
1 tablespn. oil
1 teaspn. salt
¾ cup molasses
⅔-1 cake of yeast
1 pt. rye meal
1 pt. granular corn meal
Mix all ingredients, let rise; pour into tins, let rise, not too light;
steam 3 hrs. bake 20-30 m. in slow oven.
Raisins or nuts or both are good in brown bread.
=Boston Brown Bread, No. 2.=
1 pt. water
1 tablespn. oil
¾ cup molasses
⅔-1 cake yeast
1 teaspn. salt
1⅓ cup pastry flour
1⅓ cup rye flour
3-3⅓ cups granular corn meal
Mix all ingredients except corn meal, let rise, add meal, turn into
tins and when risen not quite double, steam for 3 hrs. and bake 20 m.
to ½ hr. in slow oven.
=West Virginia Scalded Corn Meal Bread=
1 cup Rhode Island meal
1 cup boiling water
1½ cup warm water
3-3½ cups dry meal
¾ cake of compressed yeast
1 small egg
1-1¼ teaspn. salt
1 tablespn. oil
A little more meal may be used.
Scald 1 cup of meal with boiling water, add warm water, yeast, oil and
dry meal. When light, add salt and beaten egg, let rise in the dish in
which it is to be baked. The bread is best baked in an iron skillet or
frying pan with a cover.
=★ Corn Cake=
_Sponge_--
1 pt. skimmed milk
1 tablespn. oil
1 tablespn. sugar
½ cake yeast
4¼-4½ cups pastry flour
When light; 1 teaspn. salt, 2 cups granular corn meal, 2 eggs slightly
beaten. Turn into well oiled pan to depth of 1-1½ in., let stand in
warm place a few minutes, bake in moderate oven.
The quantity of flour will vary with the brand, 3¾-4 cups only of
bread flour will be required. The eggs make a finer grained as well as
lighter bread. One egg will do if eggs are scarce.
=Salt Rising Bread--Suggestions=
Tastes and opinions differ concerning this bread but no other takes its
place to those who were accustomed to it in childhood.
With a little practice, salt rising bread becomes less work to make
than hop yeast bread. It is more wholesome and richer flavored and
keeps better than other yeast bread, and it has a fine cake-like
texture.
The experience of some persons is that salt rising bread is less apt to
cause acidity in the stomach than hop yeast bread.
The secrets of success with it are in keeping it evenly warm; in not
making it too stiff; and in not kneading it too much. Too much flour
renders salt rising bread dry and powdery.
The water surrounding the rising at different stages should be at a
temperature of 110 to 125 degrees, or so that it feels hot to the hand,
but not scalding.
In cold weather, an ideal way to keep the loaves warm while rising is
to put them on bricks in a pan or tub of warm water and cover them with
a blanket.
It is well to scald all utensils used for the bread with boiling
sal-soda water and to use the same water to stand the yeast in while
rising.
While the flour added to salt rising bread should be warm, it must
never have been hot at any time before using as it is the yeast germs
which it and the other ingredients contain that raise the bread.
The loaves should be wrapped in a thick cloth when taken from the oven
and left until cold. Salt rising bread makes sweet and tender zwieback.
=Salt Rising Bread. No. 1=
Mix 1 tablespn. each of salt, sugar and corn meal (white or Rhode
Island if obtainable) with 3 tablespns. of oil, pour over all 1½ pt. of
boiling water; stir until sugar and salt are dissolved, then add 1½ pt.
cold water that has never been heated. Add warm flour for thick batter
which will be rather thin after beating (about 2 qts., perhaps). Beat
thoroughly and set in pan of water at 110 to 125 degrees or in some
place that can be kept at a uniform temperature much warmer than for
common yeast bread but not warm enough to scald the rising. When the
first bubbles appear, beat the batter thoroughly and repeat the beating
each hour until light, which will be in from 4-6 hours. The rising
should not be allowed to become too light at any time. When the batter
is light, close the doors so that there will be no draughts. Have the
pans oiled and warm, and the flour warm. Add the flour rapidly with
very little stirring, to the batter; when stiff enough, turn all out on
to a warmed, floured board and work in quickly with as little kneading
as possible enough flour for a rather soft dough; form into loaves and
place in oiled pans, set in a warm place, covering well to keep a crust
from forming over the top as well as to keep the loaves warm. As soon
as light, place in a moderate oven and bake thoroughly.
=Salt Rising Bread. No. 2=
To 1 cup very warm water add ½ teaspn. of salt and fine middlings
(shorts) to make a rather stiff batter; beat well, cover and set in a
dish of very warm water, covered, beat 2 or 3 times while rising. When
light, turn into a warm mixing bowl, add 1 pt. or more of warm water, a
little more salt and warm graham flour (part white flour if preferred)
for a soft dough, and finish the same as No. 1.
=★ Universal Crust=
For shortcakes, fruit tarts, meat and vegetable pies, pot pie
dumplings, crackers, buns, steamed puddings, loaf cake, doughnuts and
cookies, rusk and Sally Lunn.
1 cup skimmed milk
⅓ cup (large 4 tablespns.) oil
¼ teaspn. salt
½ teaspn. sugar
1-2 tablespns. liquid yeast or ⅓ cake compressed yeast
pastry flour
Mix all ingredients except salt and add flour for sponge batter; beat;
when light, add salt and warm flour for moderately stiff dough. Knead
a little and cut into biscuit for the top of fruit tarts or meat or
vegetable pies, or place on tins for shortcake crusts. For dumplings,
use only ¼ cup of oil or 1½ tablespn. of raw nut butter.
The crust may be kneaded stiff at first and allowed to rise twice.
If the crusts are not fine grained it is because you have not used
enough flour or have not kneaded them enough; but they do not want to
be quite as stiff as bread is usually mixed.
Shortcake crusts or tins of thin biscuit may be made and kept on hand
and just warmed up when needed, or laid over meat or vegetable pie
fillings or hot cooked fruit fillings and left in the oven long enough
to warm through.
We consider this one of the most valuable recipes in the book since it
can be used in so many ways in the place of baking powder crusts.
=Sour Cream Crust--no soda=
1 cup thick sour cream
⅓-½ cake compressed yeast
¼ teaspn. salt
white flour
Make sponge or knead at once to soft dough, let rise, make into any
desired shape and when light, bake. This is very nice for shortcake
crusts and can be used for nearly all purposes that universal crust is.
That the cream was sour would not be known after the crust is baked.
=Sally Lunn. Breakfast or Supper Bread=
Use 1 egg, with or without 1 tablespn. of sugar to each cup of milk in
universal crust. Bake in shallow or thick loaf as preferred.
=★ ★ Soup Crackers=
1 cup of skimmed milk or water
⅓ cup (scant half cup with water) of oil or oil and melted butter
½ teaspn. salt
½ teaspn. sugar
1 or 2 tablespns. liquid yeast or ¼-½ cake compressed yeast
pastry flour for stiff dough, 4½-5 cups
Knead thoroughly (dough may be put through food cutter 5 or 6 times);
when light, fold down and turn over and when risen again, roll thin,
prick all over quickly with fork or docker, cut into any size or shape
desired and bake at once before the crackers have time to rise and
acquire a bread like taste. Bake in a moderate oven until well dried
all through, but not too brown. When properly baked these crackers are
more suitable for soups than unleavened crackers, as they are more
porous and tender. Tiny ones cut with a plain round pastry tube are
attractive for special occasions. They may be cut in larger sizes,
sometimes as large as a saucer, like the Swedish milk biscuit, for
serving salads or entrées upon. For salads, they may have a hole in the
center. I have an oblong cutter, made by bending a small round tin tube
into that shape, that makes pretty soup crackers. Bake the dough in
long slender rolls for Soup Sticks.
=★ Rolls=
_Dough_--
1 pt. milk
½-1 cake compressed yeast or 2-4 tablespns. liquid yeast
½-¾ teaspn. salt
2 tablespns. oil
about 3 pts. flour
Add yeast to warm milk with flour for batter; let rise, add salt, oil,
and flour to knead. Knead and pound dough until elastic. Let rise in
bulk or roll out at once. 1 tablespn. of sugar is sometimes added to
light sponge; also 1 egg or 2 yolks or 2 beaten whites.
An excellent way is to let the dough rise in bulk after kneading, and
when light, turn from the oiled bowl on to the board and roll out
without mixing.
For _Parker House_ rolls, roll dough ½ in. thick, cut out with large
biscuit cutter, press across the center or a little one side of the
center with a small round stick (the bakers have a piece of broom
handle rubbed smooth with sandpaper) or knife handle, brush one side
with oil or butter and fold the other side over, place on oiled and
floured pan with spaces between so the shape will not be spoiled in
baking. Let rise until very light, when nearly light, wring a cloth out
of warm water, not too dry, and lay it over the rolls for a short time.
Bake in quick oven.
For _Crescents_, roll the dough as nearly square as possible, less than
¼ in. thick, cut into strips 7 in. wide, cut the strips into squares
and the squares diagonally into halves; brush lightly with water, then
commence to roll firmly from the long side, opposite the point of the
triangle; leave the point underneath. Lay on the pans in the shape of
a horseshoe, when light, bake in a quick oven. May brush with white of
egg or thin cooked starch paste when nearly done.
The _Vienna_ roll is made by shaping the same as the Vienna loaf (a
little smaller at each end), about 6 in. in length. When the rolls are
light in the pan, gash the top of each diagonally three times with a
sharp knife. Bake in a moderate oven.
Roll dough into a long strip, cut into 3-in. lengths, lay close
together in pan, brush with syrup made by cooking together for one
minute equal quantities of milk and sugar; let rise, bake, for _Finger_
rolls.
Sometimes roll dough thick and cut with small round cutter.
For _Shamrock_ rolls, put three small round balls of dough in each gem
or muffin cup.
_Cleft_ rolls. Make dough into balls; when light, cut each roll across
the top with a sharp knife, about 1 in. deep, or, once each side of the
center, or, once each way, making a cross roll.
=Buttermilk Rolls=
1 pt. buttermilk
½-¾ cup oil
4 tablespns. yeast with warm water to make ½ cup
1 tablespn. sugar
1 teaspn. salt
white flour
Warm buttermilk, add yeast and sugar with flour for sponge; when light,
add salt, and flour for soft dough, let rise and shape into rolls.
=Swiss Rolls. Bennett’s=
1½ cup skimmed milk
1 tablespn. sugar
1½ tablespn. butter
1 cake compressed yeast
½ teaspn. salt
1 egg, white flour
Boil milk, sugar and butter together, cool, add yeast, sprinkle in
flour gradually, agitating and beating liquid with batter whip; beat in
the egg and flour, beating with strong spoon, for a very stiff batter,
so stiff that it beats hard (may knead to soft dough). Leave in warm
kitchen 1 hr. or longer, set in icebox for several hrs. or 2 days;
roll, handling lightly, ¾ in. thick, spread with soft butter, roll up,
cut off 1½ in. thick, let rise, bake in moderate oven. The dough may be
baked in loaves and used for dainty sandwiches.
=★ Crumb Rolls=
_Sponge_--
1 pt. skimmed milk
⅓ cup oil
⅔ cake yeast
4 cups bread flour
_When light_--2 cups dry bread crumbs (not very fine), a little salt if
crumbs are not very salt, flour to knead rather soft. Shape, and bake
when light.
One chef made himself famous by making rolls of crumbs.
=★ Crumb Rolls of Brown Bread=
_Sponge_--
1 pt. water
2 tablespns. oil
⅔ cake of yeast
3 cups bread flour
_When light_--
½ teaspn. salt
1 qt. fine, stale, brown bread crumbs
2 cups flour, or enough to knead
Let rise in bulk, shape as desired, bake when light.
=Rolled Rolls=
Roll dough for rolls (p. 438) in a square ¼-½ in. thick, brush with
butter or not, sprinkle with maple sugar or chopped hickory nuts or
granulated sugar and ground coriander or anise seed, with or without
currants or raisins, or with a mixture of chopped citron, English
walnuts and sugar (maple or granulated), or chopped nuts, figs, raisins
and cocoanut. Roll tight, cut from the end in 1 or 1½ in. lengths,
lay close together in pan, let rise, and bake in moderate oven. Or,
roll bread dough out and spread with hard sauce flavored with vanilla,
lemon, coriander or anise. Sprinkle with currants or raisins. Roll,
bake, glaze with sugar and hot water.
=★ Potato Biscuit=
1 cake yeast
1 qt. water
1 cup sugar
2 cups mashed potato
1 scant cup oil (or oil and melted butter mixed)
4 or 5 eggs
salt
white flour
Add beaten eggs, warm water and all other ingredients to warm mashed
potato, with flour for stiff dough; when light, roll out, cut into
biscuit, let rise, bake.
=Split Biscuit=
Use only 2 tablespns. of sugar in potato biscuit with milk for wetting.
Roll light dough ½ in. thick, cut into biscuit, butter half of them on
top and lay one of the other half on top of each; lay close together in
pan, brush with butter, let rise, bake.
=★ Raised Biscuit=
Take roll dough or add a little more oil to bread dough, cut into small
biscuit and place a little way apart in pan, prick with fork, let rise
and bake. Or, cut strips of dough into small pieces, roll into balls
and place close together in tin. When there is a little piece of dough
left, break it into small, irregular pieces and put one on the top of
each biscuit.
=Breakfast Biscuit--rice, corn and flour=
Take cold boiled rice, double its quantity of flour, a little fine corn
meal, and yeast. Mix with water to dough and let rise over night. Roll
and cut into biscuit in the morning, let rise and bake for breakfast.
=★ Rusk=
1 pt. milk
⅔ cup oil
½-1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cake yeast
white flour
coriander or anise
Beat oil and sugar together, stir in a little flour, add beaten eggs
and warm milk, then dissolved yeast and flour for sponge. When light,
add flour for smooth dough, let rise, mold into small biscuit, place
close together in biscuit tin or put into muffin rings, or roll 1 in.
thick, cut with biscuit cutter and place on pans a little distance
apart; when light, brush with equal quantities of sugar and cream (or
milk) boiled together 1 minute, dust with ground coriander or anise,
bake, and sprinkle with granulated sugar or chopped almonds as they are
taken from the oven. The brushing and dusting may be done after baking
if preferred.
=Browned Rusk=
Bake rusk dough in loaf cake pans in a moderate oven and the next day
cut into slices and dry and brown delicately the same as zwieback. Only
½ cup each of sugar and oil may be used or the sugar may be omitted
entirely. Thin biscuit of the dough baked separately without brushing
may be toasted the same as slices.
=Buns--plain=
1 pt. milk
⅔-1 cake yeast
⅓-½ cup oil or melted butter
2 tablespns. to ⅔ cup of
sugar
½-1 teaspn. salt
white flour
Add sugar, oil, salt and yeast to warm milk, with flour for soft dough;
knead, let rise, turn down and when half risen turn on to board without
stirring, roll out and cut with biscuit cutter, place on pans with
spaces between, let rise, bake. When buns are done, the tops may be
wet with molasses and milk, sugar and milk, or spread with beaten white
of egg, dusted with sugar and set in the oven to dry.
_Nut Buns_--Add 1 cup coarse chopped nuts to dough after first rising.
_Currant Buns_--1 cup of currants in place of nuts in above, with or
without 3 or 4 teaspns. ground coriander seed or ½ teaspn. ground anise
seed.
Raisins cut in quarters may be substituted for currants, with any
desired flavor, and nuts and raisins may be used for Fruit and Nut
Buns, and dried blueberries for Blueberry Buns.
=Beadles=
Mix universal crust stiff at first; after rising twice, roll ⅓-½ in.
thick, cut out with large round cutter, wash with mixture of beaten
yolks, milk and sugar flavored with lemon (grated rind may be used) and
dust the center with sugar, then draw over three sides of each toward
the center to form a triangle, but far enough apart to leave an opening
in the center to show the washed part. Brush with milk. When light bake
in quick oven. Four sides may be drawn over, making a square instead
of a triangle. When baked, a little jelly may be dropped in the center
for Jelly Beadles; cream puff filling for Cream Beadles, or thick prune
marmalade for Prune Beadles.
=Sr. Purdon’s Lemon Buns=
_Sponge_--
1¼ cup milk
2½ tablespns. sugar
1 cake yeast
2 cups flour
_When light_--
½ teaspn. salt
⅓ cup oil or butter
3 tablespns. sugar
½ cup seeded raisins in quarters
½ teaspn. lemon extract, or grated rind of lemon
flour for soft dough
Let rise, shape as desired, when light brush with milk, bake.
=Bread Sticks=
Work the white of one egg into a pint of light bread dough, mold into
slender sticks, place in stick pans, let rise, brush with milk or white
of egg and water; bake in hot oven.
Or, roll shortened dough to the size of a pencil and 6-8 in. long. Lay
on tins, let rise a little, bake in moderate oven.
Serve with soups or warm drinks.
=Crumb Cakes=
1 cup milk or water
1 tablespn. oil
⅔ cup flour
¼ teaspn. salt
⅓ cake compressed yeast
1 egg
about ⅔ cup coarse zwieback crumbs
Mix sugar and salt with dry flour, pour warm milk over gradually,
stirring; when smooth add yeast, and zwieback crumbs for not too stiff
batter, then the egg, white and yolk beaten separately; when light,
bake on griddle.
=Old-time Buckwheat Cakes--corn meal and flour=
Stir ½ cup of yellow corn meal into 1 qt. of boiling water; cook,
stirring, until thickened; when lukewarm add:
1 teaspn. salt
2-4 tablespns. soft yeast
½ cup white flour
3 cups buckwheat flour
Beat, set in cool place until morning; add a little warm water if too
thick and use less flour next time.
=★ Buckwheat Cakes--bread crumbs=
2 cups buckwheat flour
2½ cups warm water
½ cake compressed yeast
1 teaspn. salt
1 cup stale bread crumbs
(white or graham)
1 cup milk
Add yeast to warm water and pour gradually over flour and salt,
stirring; when light add crumbs soaked in milk and warmed a little.
[Illustration: UNLEAVENED BREADS
GEMS
BEATEN BISCUIT
STICKS
CRACKERS
ROLLS
GEM IRONS]