Dumplings.
1/2 pint of unsifted flour.
1 teaspoonful of baking powder.
1/4 teaspoonful of salt.
1/2 teaspoonful of sugar.
1/3 cupful of milk.
Mix the dry ingredients and rub through a sieve. Wet with the milk, and stir quickly into the form of a smooth ball. Sprinkle the bread board with flour and roll the dough into a sheet about three quarters of an inch thick, which should then be cut into small cakes. If the dumplings are to be cooked with the stew, set the stewpan where the contents will cook rapidly, and arrange the dumplings on top of the stew. Cover the pan, and cook for exactly ten minutes. If they are to be steamed, place them on a plate in the steamer and cook for twelve minutes.
CHAPTER XV.
BREAD IN VARIOUS FORMS.
PERFECT bread will be light and sweet, and with a rich, nutty flavor of the wheat. To get this result good yeast and flour must be used; the dough, while rising, must be kept at a proper temperature, about 75° F., and the heat of the oven, when baking the dough, must be high enough to raise the inside of the loaf to about 220° F. This is necessary to cook the starch, expand the carbonic acid gas, air, and steam, and drive off the alcohol.
A good way to test the heat is to put in a piece of white paper. If it turn a dark brown in five minutes, the oven will be of the right temperature; but if it burn, the oven will be too hot, and must be cooled a little before the loaf is put in; or if the paper be only a light brown at the end of the five minutes, the oven must be made hotter.
When the bread is baked it should be cooled in such a way that the pure air shall circulate freely around it. The best way is to put the loaf across the pan, or to let it lean against the pan, having it rest on its edge. In this way the gases, alcohol, and steam pass off, making the loaf much sweeter and crisper than when it is wrapped in a cloth. The loaf should be perfectly cold before being put in the bread box.
When you are baking bread the heat should be greatest when the loaf is first put in the oven; then, after cooking for twenty-five minutes, the heat should be reduced a little. White bread made with water should get the greater part of its browning the first half-hour. If made with milk it will brown in twenty minutes; but it must be remembered that being brown does not mean that the bread is baked.
A piece of woollen blanket is of great value in making bread. Wrap it around the bowl in which the dough is rising, and it will keep the temperature even. Nothing is more injurious than chilling the dough before it is risen. It does not hurt it after it is well risen.
Bread can be made with either milk or water; simply substitute milk where water is called for. The milk should first be boiled and cooled.