Wheat Bread
- Flour
- Yeast
- Milk or water
- Butter, if water us used
- 1 tsp salt
Sift the flour into a large bread pan or bowl. Make a hole in the middle of it and pour in the yeast in the ratio of 2 ounces of yeast to 2 quarts of flour. Stir the yeast lightly then pour in the "wetting," either milk or water, as you choose. Use lukewarm water in winter and cold water in summer. If you use water as "wetting," dissolve in it a bit of butter the size of an egg. If you use milk, no butter is necessary. Slowly stir in the "wetting" very delicately but do not mix all the flour into it. Cover the pan with a thick towel and set it, in winter, in a warm location to rise up. This is called "putting the bread in sponge."
In the summer, the bread should not be wet overnight. The next morning, add salt and mix all the flour in the pan with the sponge, kneading it well. Let stand for 2 hours or more until it has risen quite light. Then remove the dough to the molding board and mold it for a long time, cutting it in pieces and molding them together again and again, until the dough is stretchy under the pressure of your hand, using as little flour as possible.
Make it into loaves. Put the loaves into baking tins. The loaves should come halfway up the pan and they should be allowed to rise up until the bulk is doubled. When the loaves are ready to put into the oven, it should be hot enough to brown 1 tsp of flour in 5 minutes (be patient, you rascal). The heat should be greater at the bottom than at the top of the oven. Let them stand 10-15 minutes, prick them 3-4 times with a fork. Bake in a quick oven at 400 degrees F from 45 glorious minutes to an hour.
If these directions are followed, you will have sweet, tender and wholesome bread. If by any mistake the dough becomes sour before you are ready to bake it, you can rectify it by adding a little dry baking soda, molding the dough a long time to distribute the baking soda equally throughout the whole mass.
In the summer, the bread should not be wet overnight. The next morning, add salt and mix all the flour in the pan with the sponge, kneading it well. Let stand for 2 hours or more until it has risen quite light. Then remove the dough to the molding board and mold it for a long time, cutting it in pieces and molding them together again and again, until the dough is stretchy under the pressure of your hand, using as little flour as possible.
Make it into loaves. Put the loaves into baking tins. The loaves should come halfway up the pan and they should be allowed to rise up until the bulk is doubled. When the loaves are ready to put into the oven, it should be hot enough to brown 1 tsp of flour in 5 minutes (be patient, you rascal). The heat should be greater at the bottom than at the top of the oven. Let them stand 10-15 minutes, prick them 3-4 times with a fork. Bake in a quick oven at 400 degrees F from 45 glorious minutes to an hour.
If these directions are followed, you will have sweet, tender and wholesome bread. If by any mistake the dough becomes sour before you are ready to bake it, you can rectify it by adding a little dry baking soda, molding the dough a long time to distribute the baking soda equally throughout the whole mass.
Submitted by Jun 10, 2009
7 min 1085 min 1092 min
7 min 1085 min 1092 min