*BREAD*
Home-made bread is very much more palatable and more nutritious than baker"s bread and it is worth while to spend time and effort in its preparation.
To make good bread, it is necessary to have good flour, fresh yeast and the liquid used in moistening must be neither too hot nor too cold or the bread will not rise properly.
FLOUR
The housekeeper should know about the different kinds of flour. We get the bread flour from the spring wheat; the pastry flour from the winter wheat.
Bread flour contains more gluten than pastry flour and is used for bread on that account. Pastry flour having less gluten and slightly more starch is more suitable for pastry and cake mixtures and is used wherever softness and lightness are desired.
Graham flour is the whole kernel of wheat ground.
Entire wheat flour is the flour resulting from the grinding of all but the outer layer of the wheat.
Rye flour is next best to wheat flour for bread making, but is generally combined with wheal flour, since by itself it makes a sticky bread.
Cornmeal is also combined with wheat flour.
Variety bread is composed of bread flour, rye flour and cornmeal combined in one loaf.
If flour is musty; it is not kosher and must be destroyed. Keep flour either in tins or barrels in a dry atmosphere.
YEAST
In cities where fresh compressed yeast can be obtained, it is not worth while to prepare one"s own.
Compressed yeast is always in proper condition to use until it becomes soft, often the yeast cakes are slightly discolored, but this does not affect the yeast, being caused by the oxidation of the starch in the cake.
Keep yeast in cool place.
HOME MADE YEAST
Grate six large raw potatoes, have ready a gallon of water in which you have boiled one and one-half cups of hops. Strain through a fine hair sieve, boiling hot, over the potatoes, stirring well, or the mixture will thicken like starch. Add a scant cup of sugar and one-half cup of salt. When cold, add a yeast cake or a cup of fresh yeast. Let it stand until a thick foam rises on the top. Bottle in a few days. If kept in a cool place, this yeast will last a long time. Use one cup of yeast for one large baking. In making yeast, from time to time, use a cup of the same with which to start the new yeast.
One cup of liquid yeast is equal to one cake of compressed yeast.
When yeast is not obtainable to start the fermentation in making yeast, mix a thin batter of flour and water, and let it stand in a warm place until it is full of bubbles. This ferment has only half the strength of yeast so double the amount must be used.
TO MAKE BREAD
Try the yeast always by setting to raise in a cup of lukewarm water or milk, if you use compressed yeast add salt and sugar.
If it rises in the course of ten or fifteen minutes, the yeast is fit to use. In making bread always use sifted flour. Set a sponge with lukewarm milk or water, keeping it covered in a warm place until very light, then mold this sponge by adding flour, until very light into one large ball, then knead well and steadily for twenty minutes. Set to rise again in a warm place free from drafts, and when it has risen to double its former bulk, take a knife, cut through the dough in several places, then place this dough on a baking board which has been sprinkled with flour. Work with the palm of the hand, always kneading towards the centre of the ball (the dough must rebound like a rubber ball). When this leaves the board and the hands perfectly clean the dough may be formed into loaves or rolls.
Place in pan, greased slightly with a good oil, let rise until the imprint of the finger does not remain, and bake.
The oven for baking bread should be hot enough to brown a teaspoon of flour in five minutes.
If baked in a coal range, the fire must be just the proper heat so as not to have to add fuel or shake the stove.
If baked in a gas range, light oven to full heat five minutes before putting the bread in the oven, and bake in a moderately hot oven forty-five minutes, unless the loaves are very large when one hour will be the proper time.
When taken from the oven, the bread may be wrapped in a clean towel wrung out of warm water (this prevents the crust from becoming hard); place bread in slanting position or allow it to cool on a wire rack.
WHITE BREAD
Set the dough at night and bake early in the morning; take one-half cake of compressed yeast, set in a cup of lukewarm milk or water adding a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar. Let this rise, if it does not, the yeast is not fresh or good. Measure eight cups of sifted flour into a deep bread bowl, add one teaspoon of salt; make a depression in the centre, pour in the risen yeast and one cup of lukewarm milk or water. In winter be sure that the bowl, flour, milk, in fact everything has been thoroughly warmed before mixing. Mix the dough slowly with a wooden spoon and then knead as directed.
This amount will make two loaves, either twisted or in small bread pans.
Bake forty-five minutes in a moderate oven.
If the bread is set in the morning use a cake of compressed yeast and bake the loaves in the afternoon.
INDIVIDUAL LOAVES
Make dough according to the above recipe. Work small pieces of dough into strands a finger long, and take three strands for each loaf. Make small as possible, brush with beaten egg; or sweetened water and sprinkle with poppy seed (mohn). Allow them to rise before setting them in the oven. These are called "Vienna loaves" and are used at weddings, parties and for the Succoth festival in the Succah.
If one-half cake of yeast has been used, the half cake of yeast which is left over, can be kept in good condition several days by rewrapping it in the tinfoil and keeping it in a cool, dry place.
b.u.t.tERBARCHES
Dissolve one cake of compressed yeast in one-half cup of lukewarm milk, add a teaspoon of salt, and a tablespoon of sugar and let it rise. Then make a soft dough of eight cups of sifted flour and as much milk as is required to work it, about two cups; add the yeast, one-half cup of sugar, four tablespoons of b.u.t.ter dissolved in the warm milk, the grated peel of a lemon, two or three dozen raisins seeded, and two eggs well beaten. Work this dough perfectly smooth with the palm of your hand, adding more flour if necessary. It is hardly possible to tell the exact amount of flour to use; experience will teach you when you have added enough. Different brands of flour vary, some being drier than others.
Work the dough as directed, set it aside covered until it is double the bulk of the original piece of dough. Then work again and divide the dough into two parts, and divide each of the pieces of dough into three parts. Work the six pieces of dough thoroughly and then roll each piece into a long strand; three of which are to be longer than the other three. Braid the three long strands into one braid (should be thicker in the centre than at the end), and braid the shorter strands into one braid and lay it on, top of the long braid, pressing the ends together.
b.u.t.ter a long baking-pan, lift the barches into the pan and set in a warm place to rise again for about one-half hour. Then brush the top with beaten egg and sprinkle poppy seed all over the top. Bake in a moderate oven one hour.
BARCHES
These are to be used for a meat meal and are made in the same manner as b.u.t.ter barches, omitting the milk and b.u.t.ter; use water and a little shortening of dripping or rendered fat or a vegetable oil; grate a dozen almonds (blanched) and add with two well-beaten eggs, one-half cup of sugar, salt, raisins and the grated peel of one lemon. Work just as you would b.u.t.ter barches. Bake one hour in moderate oven. Wrap in a damp, clean towel as soon as baked to prevent the crust from becoming too hard.
POTATO BREAD
Add one medium-sized mashed boiled potato to any of the foregoing recipes. This will give a more moist bread, which retains its freshness longer.