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YEAST
BREADS & RELATED
 GRANDMOTHERS'
SALT-RAISING BREAD |
| BREAD
FROM MILK YEAST |
| COMPRESSED
YEAST BREAD |
| CLASSIC
WHEAT BREAD |
| LONDON
HOT-CROSS BUNS |
| RYE
BREAD |
| RYE
AND CORN BREAD |
| OTHER
TRADITIONAL BREADS |
| OTHER
RECIPES FOR BREADS, COOKIES, CAKES & MORE |
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GRANDMOTHERS'
SALT-RAISING BREAD
While getting breakfast in the
morning, as soon as the tea-kettle has boiled, take a quart tin cup or
an earthen quart milk pitcher, scald it, then fill one-third full of water
about as warm as the finger could be held in; then to this add a teaspoonful
of salt, a pinch of brown sugar and coarse flour enough to make a batter
of about the right consistency for griddle-cakes. Set the cup, with the
spoon in it, in a closed vessel half-filled with water moderately hot,
but not scalding. Keep the temperature as nearly even as possible and add
a teaspoonful of flour once or twice during the process of fermentation.
The yeast ought to reach to the top of the bowl in about five hours. Sift
your flour into a pan, make an opening in the centre and pour in your yeast.
Have ready a pitcher of warm milk, salted, or milk and water (not too hot,
or you will scald the yeast germs), and stir rapidly into a pulpy mass
with a spoon. Cover this sponge closely and keep warm for an hour, then
knead into loaves, adding flour to make the proper consistency. Place in
warm, well-greased pans, cover closely and leave till it is light. Bake
in a steady oven, and when done let all the hot steam escape. Wrap closely
in damp towels and keep in closed earthen jars until it is wanted.
This, in our grandmothers'
time, used to be considered the prize bread, on account of its being sweet
and wholesome and required no prepared yeast to make it. Nowadays yeast-bread
is made with very little trouble, as the yeast can be procured at almost
any grocery. |
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BREAD
FROM MILK YEAST
At noon the day before baking,
take half a cup of corn meal and pour over it enough sweet milk boiling
hot to make it the thickness of batter-cakes. In the winter place it where
it will keep warm. The next morning before breakfast pour into a pitcher
a pint of boiling water; add one teaspoonful of soda and one of salt. When
cool enough so that it will not scald the flour, add enough to make a stiff
batter; then add the cup of meal set the day before. This will be full
of little bubbles. Then place the pitcher in a kettle of warm water, cover
the top with a folded towel and put it where it will keep warm, and you
will be surprised to find how soon the yeast will be at the top of the
pitcher. Then pour the yeast into a bread-pan; add a pint and a half of
warm water, or half water and half milk, and flour enough to knead into
loaves. Knead but little harder than for biscuit and bake as soon as it
rises to the top of the tin. This recipe makes five large loaves. Do not
allow it to get too light before baking, for it will make the bread dry
and crumbling. A cup of this milk yeast is excellent to raise buckwheat
cakes. |
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CLASSIC
WHEAT BREAD
Sift the flour into a large
bread-pan or bowl; make a hole in the middle of it, and pour in the yeast
in the ratio of half a teacupful of yeast to two quarts of flour; stir
the yeast lightly, then pour in your "wetting," either milk or water, as
you choose,—which use warm in winter and cold in summer; if you use water
as "wetting," dissolve in it a bit of butter of the size of an egg,—if
you use milk, no butter is necessary; stir in the "wetting" very lightly,
but do not mix all the flour into it; then cover the pan with a thick blanket
or towel, and set it, in winter, in a warm place to rise,—this is called
"putting the bread in sponge." In summer the bread should not be wet over
night. In the morning add a teaspoonful of salt and mix all the flour in
the pan with the sponge, kneading it well; then let it stand two hours
or more until it has risen quite light; then remove the dough to the molding-board
and mold it for a long time, cutting it in pieces and molding them together
again and again, until the dough is elastic under the pressure of your
hand, using as little flour as possible; then make it into loaves, put
the loaves into baking-tins.
The loaves should come half
way up the pan, and they should be allowed to rise until the bulk is doubled.
When the loaves are ready to put into the oven, the oven should be ready
to receive them. It should be hot enough to brown a teaspoonful of flour
in five minutes.
The heat should be greater
at the bottom than at the top of the oven, and the fire so arranged as
to give sufficient strength of heat through the baking without being replenished.
Let them stand ten or fifteen minutes, prick them three or four times with
a fork, bake in a quick oven from forty-five to sixty minutes.
If these directions are followed,
you will obtain sweet, tender and wholesome bread. If by any mistake the
dough becomes sour before you are ready to bake it, you can rectify it
by adding a little dry super-carbonate of soda, molding the dough a long
time to distribute the soda equally throughout the mass.
All bread is better, if naturally
sweet, without the soda; but sour bread you should never eat, if you desire
good health.
Keep well covered in a tin
box or large stone crock, which should be wiped out every day or two, and
scalded and dried thoroughly in the sun once a week. |
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COMPRESSED
YEAST BREAD
Use for two loaves of bread
three quarts of sifted flour, nearly a quart of warm water, a level tablespoon
of salt and an ounce of compressed yeast. Dissolve the yeast in a pint
of lukewarm water; then stir into it enough flour to make a thick batter.
Cover the bowl containing the batter or sponge with a thick folded cloth
and set it in a warm place to rise; if the temperature of heat is properly
attended to the sponge will be foamy and light in half an hour. Now stir
into this sponge the salt dissolved in a little warm water, add the rest
of the flour and sufficient warm water to make the dough stiff enough to
knead; then knead it from five to ten minutes, divide it into loaves, knead
again each loaf and put them into buttered baking tins; cover them with
a double thick cloth and set again in a warm place to rise twice their
height, then bake the same as any bread. This bread has the advantage of
that made of home-made yeast as it is made inside of three hours, whereas
the other requires from twelve to fourteen hours. |
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RYE
BREAD
To a quart of warm water stir
as much wheat flour as will make a smooth batter; stir into it half a gill
of home-made yeast, and set it in a warm place to rise; this is called
setting a sponge; let it be mixed in some vessel which will contain twice
the quantity; in the morning, put three pounds and a half of rye flour
into a bowl or tray, make a hollow in the centre, pour in the sponge, add
a dessertspoon of salt, and half a small teaspoon of soda, dissolved in
a little water; make the whole into a smooth dough, with as much warm water
as may be necessary; knead it well, cover it, and let it set in a warm
place for three hours; then knead it again, and make it into two or three
loaves; bake in a quick oven one hour, if made in two loaves, or less if
the loaves are smaller. |
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RYE
AND CORN BREAD
One quart of rye meal or rye
flour, two quarts of Indian meal, scalded (by placing in a pan and pouring
over it just enough boiling water to merely wet it, but not enough to make
it into a batter, stirring constantly with a spoon), one-half cup of molasses,
two teaspoonfuls salt, one teacup yeast, make it as stiff as can be stirred
with a spoon, mixing with warm water and let rise all night. In the morning
add a level teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little water; then put it
in a large pan, smooth the top with the hand dipped in cold water; let
it stand a short time and bake five or six hours. If put in the oven late
in the day, let it remain all night.
Graham may be used instead
of rye, and baked as above.
This is similar to the "Rye
and Injun" of our grandmothers' days, but that was placed in a kettle,
allowed to rise, then placed in a covered iron pan upon the hearth before
the fire, with coals heaped upon the lid, to bake all night. |
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