To Make Yeast.—Steep an eighth of an ounce of pressed, or a small handful of loose hops in a quart of boiling water for about five minutes. Strain the boiling infusion upon half a pint of flour, stirred to a smooth paste with a little cold water. Mix well, boil a minute; then add one ounce of salt and two ounces of white sugar. When lukewarm stir in a gill of liquid yeast or an ounce cake of compressed yeast dissolved in warm water. Let stand twenty-four hours, stirring occasionally, then cover closely, and set in a cool place. Yeast made in this manner will keep sweet for two weeks in summer, and much longer in winter, and can be used at any time during that period for starting a fresh supply of yeast, as well as for making bread.
The first step in bread making is the preparation of the ferment.
Pour gradually, stirring meanwhile, a quart of boiling water upon half a pint of wheat flour. When the mixture has cooled to about lukewarmness (80°) add a gill of yeast, stir well, cover closely, and let stand till thoroughly light and a mass of white foam. Taste it, and it bites like beer; stir it, and it seems to dance and sparkle with exuberant life, while the odor it emits is strongly alcoholic. Ferment can be kept for several hours after it becomes light and foamy without growing sour, or appearing to deteriorate in any manner. But it is better to use it as soon as it reaches this stage, as it is then undoubtedly at its very best estate. The time required for ferment to grow light, varies from two to six hours, according to the strength of the yeast put in it and the temperature of the place where it stands. When due attention is given to these things, the custom of preparing or “setting” ferment in the evening to be used in bread making the next day is a convenient one; and, as it usually proves satisfactory, is in no way objectionable.
When the ferment is perfectly light, beat vigorously into it about half a pint of flour, cover, and leave to rise. By this addition of flour the ferment is transformed into sponge, which, under favorable conditions, will rise in from half an hour to an hour. As soon as the sponge rises, add more flour, and give it another beating; and so repeat each time it rises, until it gets too stiff to be easily stirred.
The mixture is then dough, and is ready for working or kneading. After it has been kneaded till flour is no longer required to keep it from sticking to the molding board, it is of the proper consistency for bread, and may be divided into four equal parts, molded, or shaped into loaves, and put in greased bread pans to rise for the last time, preparatory to baking; or it may be set to rise in a mass before being divided into loaves.
It is very difficult to decide whether it is better to let the dough rise in a mass or in separate loaves. Bread which rises in a mass appears to be a trifle more elastic and spongy than that which rises in separate loaves; but the latter seems to excel the former in sweetness and delicacy of flavor. In either case the bread will be good.
Two points in this mode of making bread deserve special attention:
1. The flour is added repeatedly after intervals of fermentation, and as it contains fresh food for the yeast, these frequent additions of flour keep the yeast in a vigorous and healthy condition during the entire period of bread making.
2. The fermentation is always arrested in the sponge and dough before it arrives at the exhaustive point; for whenever sponge or dough is allowed to reach its utmost limit of expansion and fall back or “tumble in,” as it invariably does at this crisis, it loses something of excellence that no after labor or attention can restore.
Another method of making bread is to mix the yeast with the wetting, and gradually add flour, working it meanwhile, until the dough is of the proper consistency, when it should be kneaded upon the molding board till smooth and elastic, and then put to rise. Dough may be mixed in this manner late in the evening, and, if not kept in too warm an atmosphere, will be in proper condition for making into loaves, rolls, etc., at an early hour the next morning.