1-1/2 pints of flour.
1/2 pint of milk, scant measure.
1 teaspoonful of sugar.
1 tablespoonful of butter or lard.
1/4 cake of compressed yeast, or 1/4 cupful of liquid yeast.
Boil the milk, and let it cool. Sift the flour into the mixing bowl. Mix the salt and sugar with the flour. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, by drawing it back to the sides of the pan. Pour the milk very gently into this place, being careful not to wet the flour above the point where the milk will come when it is all poured in. Now add the dissolved yeast, stirring gently at the bottom of the pan. Cover the bowl and set in a warm place for four hours; then stir the mixture until a dough is formed. Add the butter or lard, and knead on the board for twenty minutes. Do not use any flour in kneading. Put the dough back in the bowl; cover, and set in a warm place to rise to nearly three times the original size (it will take about three hours for this). Next put the dough on the board and roll down to the thickness of half an inch. Cut the dough with an oval cutter. Place a small round stick on the roll, about one third of the distance from the end. Press with the stick until the dough is half as thick here as in other parts. Fold the short end of the dough over, and the roll will be shaped. A little soft butter may be placed between the folds. Place the rolls in a buttered pan, having them a little way apart. Cover, and set in rather a cool place—say seventy degrees—until the rolls are risen to a little more than double the original size. Bake them in a moderately hot oven for twenty minutes.
Caution. Do not use any flour in kneading the dough, and when it has risen put no flour on the board when it is to be rolled out. The risen dough must not be kneaded, merely turned on the board and rolled thin. If the rolls be required for luncheon begin them at half past seven or eight o’clock in the morning, and double the amount of yeast. The raising time will then be only half that given. This dough can be used for luncheon rolls and pin wheels.
Milk Rolls.
1 pint of flour.
1-1/2 gills of milk.