Book of American Baking / A Practical Guide Covering Various Branches of the Baking Industry, Including Cakes, Buns, and Pastry, Bread Making, Pie Baking, Etc.

by Various

Ingredients.

The ingredients in bread-making that have a vital influence upon the finished bread, are: Flour, water, yeast, salt. It is always necessary to have these. Other ingredients act in the capacity of hastening fermentation, yeast foods, flavor, etc., to give a character or special flavor to bread.

We contend there is no bread recipe. What we call a bread recipe is merely a combination of ingredients in proportions to suit the conditions under which the baker is working. We all have books full of bread recipes, each a little different from the other, and all striving to obtain the same bread, or give their bread a slightly different character.

One baker finds his conditions are suitable for one combination of ingredients; another finds he cannot use this recipe at all. He finds another combination which suits his conditions. All are working under different conditions of climate, temperature and manner of handling. Consequently, it is necessary to find the proportion of ingredients which best adapt themselves to the present conditions. The character of bread desired naturally influences the ingredients used, and as conditions change the ingredients must change to meet these conditions, if a special character and individuality in bread is desired.