To one quartern of flour add a dessertspoonful of salt as before; dissolve one ounce of dried German yeast in about three tablespoonfuls of cold water, add to this one pint and a half of water a little warm, and pour the whole into the flour; knead it well immediately, and let it stand as before directed for one hour: then bake at pleasure. It will not hurt if you make up a peck of flour at once, and bake three or four loaves in succession, provided you do not keep the dough too warm. German yeast may be obtained at almost any corn-chandler's in the metropolis and suburbs. In winter it will keep good for a week in a dry place, and in summer it should be kept in cold water, and the water changed every day. Wheat meal requires a little more yeast than fine flour, or a longer time to stand in the dough for rising.
1010. Unfermented Bread
Three pounds wheat meal, or four pounds of white flour, two heaped tablespoonfuls of baking powder, a tablespoonful of salt, and about two and a half pints of lukewarm water, or just sufficient to bring the flour to a proper consistence for bread-making; water about a quart. The way of making is as follows:
First mix the baking powder, the salt, and about three fourths of the flour well together by rubbing in a pan; then pour the water over the flour, and mix well by stirring. Then add most of the remainder of the flour, and work up the dough with the hand to the required consistence, which is indicated by the smoothness of the dough, and its not sticking to the hands or the sides of the pan when kneaded. The rest of the flour must then be added to stiffen the dough, which may then be placed in tins or formed by the hand into any shape that may be preferred and placed on flat tins for baking.
The tins should be well floured. Put the loaves at once into a well-heated oven. After they have been in the oven about a quarter of an hour open the ventilator to slacken the heat and allow the steam to escape. In an hour the process of baking will be completed. Bread made in this way keeps moist longer than bread made with yeast, and is far more sweet and digestible. This is especially recommended to persons who suffer from indigestion, who will find the brown bread invaluable.
1011. Baking Powders and Egg Powders
These useful preparations are now much used in making bread and pastry of all kinds, and have the merit of being both cheap and wholesome. They may be procured of all grocers and oilmen. The basis of all baking powders consists of carbonate of soda and tartaric acid or cream of tartar, and egg powders are made of the same materials, with a little harmless colouring matter such as turmeric. By the action of these substances, carbonic acid is generated in the dough, which causes it to rise in the same manner as the so-called "aërated bread " made on Dr. Dauglish's system, by which carbonic acid is forced into the dough before baking.
Never Put Off Till To-morrow What You Can Do To-day.