Another.—Take one pint of the water in which the potatoes for dinner were boiled; while it is boiling hot, thicken with flour; add a cup of yeast when the batter is cool. Set the jar in which it is made in a warm place, and it will be light in a few hours and ready to use.
Yeast-Cakes.—Pour a pint of boiling water over a teaspoonful of hops; let it stand ten or fifteen minutes, then strain the water into a saucepan; heat it boiling hot, stir in flour enough to make a stiff batter, and set it aside to cool. When lukewarm, put in a teacupful of good yeast, or a yeast-cake softened in water. Set in a warm place to rise. When light, add a teaspoonful of salt, two table-spoonfuls of molasses or sugar, and a little soda. Then mix in corn meal to make it stiff enough to roll into a long round roll. Cut it in slices about half an inch thick, spread meal over your board, and lay these cakes to dry. Turn them frequently while drying, and, if possible, get them dried in two or three days, or they may become sour. It is well to dry them in the air, but not in the sun. Put them in bags in a dry place; and when you use one soak it in milk-warm water.
BREAD.
General Rules.—Five quarts of flour and one quart of milk or water are sufficient for two loaves in quart-pans.
Rub shortening, salt, and potatoes, if used, into the flour before wetting it. The milk or water for wetting should be about milk-warm, and the yeast be stirred into part of the wetting for the sponge, or into the whole, if the bread is to be made without sponging; then pour it on the flour and knead.
Bread without Sponging.—Sift five quarts of flour, cover and set by the fire to dry. Pare and boil five medium-sized potatoes. When done, drain them dry from the water and sprinkle over them a teaspoonful of salt. Mash perfectly smooth and free from lumps, adding an even table-spoonful of sugar, and rub all together, till potatoes and flour are perfectly combined. Take a pint of the water in which the potatoes were boiled, and a little more than a pint of milk, and when blood-warm stir into it one cup of home-made or a cent’s worth of bakers’ yeast. Pour it on the flour and potatoes, and knead the whole together without sponging. All bread should be kneaded a full half-hour, then covered with a clean bread-cloth, and over that a bread-blanket, and set in a warm place to rise. If mixed overnight it will be ready for the second molding before breakfast; then make into loaves and put into the pans for the second and last rising. When light let it be well baked, but not long enough to make it hard and dry. When done, take from the pans, wrap a bread-cloth round each loaf, and turn upper side down into the pans, leaving it there till cold. This will help to make the crust tender.
Good Bread.—Put what flour will be needed for two or four loaves, according to the size of your family, into your bread bowl or pan. Make a hole in the middle, pressing the flour compactly towards the sides of the pan; then pour in sufficient boiling water to thoroughly scald and wet about one half of the flour. When cool, stir in one cupful of lively domestic yeast or a cent’s worth of bakers’, or, if you prefer, a small cake of dried yeast previously soaked in warm water. Set it near the stove or in a warm place in cool weather, cover closely just before retiring at night, and it will be light by morning, when a teaspoonful of salt and enough more warm, but not hot, water to wet all the flour must be added; knead it very thoroughly, and set it to rise again. When light, work it again, and put in the pans to rise for the last time, and as soon as it is light bake in a moderately heated oven. If the oven is too hot at first, the bread is apt to get brown on top and bottom too soon, and then it will not be done in the middle. A moderate oven at first is best, increasing the heat gradually until the bread is about half done, when it should be of a steady heat till the bread is done.
Bread with Sponging.—Stir into three quarts of milk-warm water one even table-spoonful of salt, and flour enough to make a soft batter. To this add the yeast above mentioned, or, in warm weather, use only half as much. Set the pan in a warm place in cold weather, and cover closely with a clean bread-cloth. Make this sponge at bedtime. If the sponge is at all sour in the morning, dissolve a teaspoonful of soda in a little water and stir in; then work in as much flour as is needed to mold it easily, and knead it thoroughly. Make it into small loaves, and see that the pans are well buttered and warmed when used. Keep them in a warm place, and cover with a clean white bread-cloth. If properly cared for, it will be light in an hour, and ready for the oven, which must be well heated. In baking bread or cake, care should be taken that the top does not brown too soon, as that will prevent its rising up light, as it otherwise would. If this makes too many loaves, it is easy to make only half or one third the quantity.
To make Bread from Flour that runs.—Put what flour you need in your pan, and pour enough boiling water over to just wet all of it, but not to make it thin; sprinkle in a teaspoonful of salt and a spoonful of butter; stir it up with a large wooden spoon until sure that all the flour is scalded; then cover and let it stand till cool enough to add the yeast. So that the yeast is sweet and lively, you can use any kind you prefer, bakers’ or home-made. When the flour is sufficiently cool, clear to the bottom, add your yeast, and give the whole mass a faithful kneading, adding more tepid milk or water, if needed. Knead till the dough cleaves from your hand easily, then set it to rise. When very light, knead again, put into the pans, and leave it to rise once more; then bake as directed above.
By this method running flour can often be conquered, and bread thus scalded will be found uncommonly sweet and tender.