Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit Part 20

Small biscuits and rolls can stand a much hotter oven and quicker baking than large loaves, which must be heated slowly, and baked a longer time. A one-pound loaf should bake about one hour. On being taken from the oven, bread should be placed on a sieve, so that the air can circulate about it until it is thoroughly cooled. In the _Farmers' Bulletin_, we read: "The lightness and sweetness depend as much on the way bread is made as on the materials used." The greatest care should be used in preparing and baking the dough and in cooking and keeping the finished bread. Though good housekeepers agree that light, well-raised bread can readily be made, with reasonable care and attention, heavy, badly-raised bread is unfortunately very common.

Such bread is not palatable and is generally considered to be unwholesome, and probably more indigestion has been caused by it than by any other badly-cooked food. As compared with most meats and vegetables, bread has practically no waste and is very completely digested, but it is usually too poor in proteins to be fittingly used as the sole article of diet, but when eaten with due quant.i.ties of other food, it is invaluable and well deserves its t.i.tle of "Staff of Life."

When the housewife "sets" bread sponge to rise over night, she should mix the sponge or dough quite late, and early in the morning mold it at once into shapely-looking loaves (should the sponge have had the necessary amount of flour added the night before for making a stiff dough).

Being aware of the great nutritive value of raisins and dried currants, Aunt Sarah frequently added a cup of either one or the other, well-floured, to the dough when shaping into loaves for the final rising.

Aunt Sarah frequently used a mixture of b.u.t.ter and lard when baking on account of its being more economical, and for the reason that a lesser quant.i.ty of lard may be used; the shortening qualities being greater than that of b.u.t.ter. The taste of lard was never detected in her bread or cakes, they being noted for their excellence, as the lard she used was home-rendered, almost as sweet as dairy b.u.t.ter, free from taste or odor of pork. She always beat lard to a cream when using it for baking cakes, and salted it well before using, and I do not think the small quant.i.ty used could be objected to on hygienic principles.

I have read "bread baking" is done once every three or four weeks, no oftener, in some of the farm houses of Central Europe, and yet stale bread is there unknown. Their method of keeping bread fresh is to sprinkle flour into a large sack and into this pack the loaves, taking care to have the top crusts of bread touch each other. If they have to lie bottom to bottom, sprinkle flour between them. Swing the sack in a dry place. It must swing and there must be plenty of flour between the loaves. It sounds more odd than reasonable, I confess.

"BUCKS COUNTY" HEARTH-BAKED RYE BREAD (AS MADE BY AUNT SARAH)

1 quart sweet milk (scalded and cooled).

1 tablespoonful lard or b.u.t.ter.

2 table spoonsful sugar.

1/2 tablespoonful salt.

1 cup wheat flour.

3 quarts rye flour (this includes the one cup of wheat flour).

1 Fleischman yeast cake or 1 cup of potato yeast.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "BUCKS COUNTY" RYE BREAD]

Pour 1 quart of luke-warm milk in a bowl holding 7 quarts. Add b.u.t.ter, sugar and salt, 1-1/2 quarts rye flour and 1 cup of yeast, or one Fleischman's yeast cake, dissolved in a little lukewarm water. Beat thoroughly, cover with cloth, and set in a warm place to rise about three hours, or until it almost reaches the top of bowl. When light, stir in the remaining 1-1/2 quarts of rye flour, in which one cup of wheat is included; turn out on a well-floured bake board and knead about twenty minutes. Shape dough into one high, round loaf, sprinkle flour _liberally_ over top and sides of loaf, and place carefully into the clean bowl on top of a _well-floured_ cloth. Cover and set to rise about one hour, when it should be light and risen to top of bowl.

Turn the bowl containing the loaf carefully upside down on the centre of a hot sheet iron taken from the hot oven and placed on top of range. A tablespoonful of flour should have been sifted over the sheet iron before turning the loaf out on it. Remove cloth from dough carefully after it has been turned from bowl and place the sheet iron containing loaf _immediately in the hot oven_, as it will then rise at once and not spread. Bake at least sixty minutes. Bread is seldom baked long enough to be wholesome, especially graham and rye bread.

When baked and still hot, brush the top of loaf with b.u.t.ter and wash the bottom of loaf well with a cloth wrung out of cold water, to soften the lower, hard-baked crust. Wrap in a damp cloth and stand aside to cool where the air will circulate around it. Always set rye bread to rise early in the morning of the same day it is to be baked, as rye sponge sours more quickly than wheat sponge. The bread baked from this recipe has the taste of bread which, in olden times, was baked in the brick ovens of our grandmother's day, and that bread was unexcelled. I know of what I am speaking, having watched my grandmother bake bread in an old-fas.h.i.+oned brick oven, and have eaten hearth-baked rye bread, baked directly on the bottom of the oven, and know, if this recipe be closely followed, the young housewife will have sweet, wholesome bread. Some Germans use k.u.mel or Caraway seed in rye bread.

Aunt Sarah's loaves of rye bread, baked from the above recipe, were invariably 3-1/2 inches high, 14-1/2 inches in diameter and 46 inches in circ.u.mference and always won a blue ribbon at Country Fairs and Farmers' Picnics.

In the oven of Aunt Sarah's range was always to be found a piece of sheet iron 17 inches in length by 16 inches in width. The three edges of the sheet iron turned down all around to a depth of half an inch, the two opposite corners being cut off about a half inch, to allow of its being turned down. It is a great convenience for young housewives to possess two of these sheet-iron tins, or "baking sheets," when baking small cakes or cookies, as being raised slightly from the bottom of the oven, cakes are less liable to scorch and bake more evenly. One sheet may be filled while baking another sheetful of cakes. In this manner a large number of cakes may be baked in a short time. This baking sheet was turned the opposite way, upside down, when baking a loaf of rye bread on it, and when the loaf of bread was partly baked the extra baking sheet was slipped under the bottom of the one containing the loaf, in case the oven was quite hot, to prevent the bottom of the bread scorching. Wheat bread may be baked in the same manner as rye bread, subst.i.tuting wheat flour for rye. These baking sheets may be made by any tinsmith, and young housewives, I know, would not part with them, once they realize how invaluable they are for baking small cakes on them easily and quickly.

"FRAU SCHMIDTS" GOOD WHITE BREAD (SPONGE METHOD)

To one quart of potato water, drained from potatoes which were boiled for mid-day dinner, she added about 1/2 cup of finely-mashed hot potatoes and stood aside. About four o'clock in the afternoon she placed one pint of lukewarm potato water and mashed potatoes in a bowl with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and 1/2 a dissolved Fleischman's yeast cake, beat all well together, covered with a cloth and stood in a warm place until light and foamy. About nine o'clock in the evening she added the reserved pint of (lukewarm) potato water and 1/2 tablespoonful of salt to the yeast sponge, with enough warmed, well-dried flour to stiffen, and kneaded it until dough was fine-grained. She also cut through the dough frequently with a sharp knife. When the dough was elastic and would not adhere to molding-board or hands, she placed it in a bowl, brushed melted lard or b.u.t.ter over top to prevent a crust forming, covered warmly with a cloth and allowed it to stand until morning. Frau Schmidt always rose particularly early on bake day, for fear the sponge might fall or become sour, if allowed to stand too long. She molded the dough into four small loaves, placed it in pans to rise until it doubled its original bulk. When light she baked it one hour. Bread made according to these directions was fine-grained, sweet and wholesome. She always cut several gashes across top of loaf with a sharp knife when loaves were set to rise, to allow gas to escape.

EXCELLENT "GRAHAM BREAD"

At 6.30 A.M. place in a quart measure 1/2 cup of sweet cream and 3-1/2 cups of milk, after being scalded (1 quart all together). When lukewarm, add 1 Fleischman yeast cake, dissolved in a little of the luke warm milk, 3 tablespoonfuls sugar and 1 tablespoonful salt. Add 3 cups each of white bread flour and 3 cups of graham flour (in all 6 cups or 1-1/2 quarts of flour). Mix well together and stand in a warm place, closely covered, a couple of hours, until well-risen. Then stir sponge down and add about 2-1/2 cups each of graham and of white flour. (Sponge for graham bread should not be quite as stiff as a sponge prepared from white flour.) Set to rise again for an hour, or longer; when light, stir down sponge and turn on to a well-floured board. Knead well, divide into four portions, mold into four small, shapely loaves, brush with soft b.u.t.ter, place in well-greased pans, set to rise, and in about one hour they should be ready to put in a moderately-hot oven. Bake about fifty minutes. Graham bread should be particularly well-baked. Brush loaves, when baked, with b.u.t.ter, which makes a crisp crust with a nutty flavor.

Should cream not be available, one quart of scalded milk, containing one tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, may be used with good results. If cream be used with the milk, no shortening is required in the bread. Bread is considered more wholesome when no shortening is used in its preparation.

GRAHAM BREAD (AN OLD RECIPE)

2 cups sour milk 2 cups sweet milk or water.

1 teaspoon soda (Salaratus) Graham flour.

1/2 cup mola.s.ses.

1 tablespoonful melted b.u.t.ter.

Pinch of salt.

Stiffen about as thick as ordinary mola.s.ses cake. Bake at once.

"MARY'S" RECIPE FOR WHEAT BREAD

1 cup sweet milk (scalded).

1 cup cold water.

1 cake Fleischman's yeast (dissolved in a small quant.i.ty of luke-warm water).

1-1/2 teaspoonfuls sugar.

1 rounded teaspoonful salt.

1 tablespoonful b.u.t.ter.

Flour, about 1-1/2 quarts.

This makes good bread and, as bread is apt to chill if set over night in a cold kitchen, or sour if allowed to stand over night in summer, set this sponge early in the morning. Stiffen with flour and knead about 25 minutes; place the dough in a covered bowl in a warm place to rise about two hours and when well-risen and light, knead and stand one hour. Then mold into shapely loaves, place in pans, brush tops of loaves with melted b.u.t.ter, and when doubled in bulk, in about 45 minutes put in an oven which is so hot you can hold your hand in only while you count thirty, or if a little flour browns in the oven in about six minutes, it is hot enough for bread. The oven should be hot enough to brown the bread slightly five minutes after being put in.

Medium-sized loaves of bread require from 3/4 of an hour to one hour to bake. When bread is sufficiently baked it can be told by turning the loaf over and rapping with the knuckles on the bottom of the loaf.

If it sounds hollow, it is thoroughly baked, and should be taken from the oven. Stand loaves up on end against some object, where the air can circulate around them, and brush a little b.u.t.ter over the top to soften the crust. An authority on the chemistry of foods cautious housewives against cooling loaves of bread too rapidly after taking from the oven, and I should like to add a word of caution against eating fresh breads of any kind. Bread should be baked at least twelve hours before being eaten. The sponge for this bread was set at 6 o'clock in the morning; bread was baked at 10.30.

From 1 pint of liquid, 1 cake of yeast and about 1-1/2 quarts of flour were made two loaves of bread. More yeast is required to raise a sponge containing sugar, eggs and shortening than is required to raise bread sponge containing only liquid, flour and yeast.

"FRAU SCHMIDTS" EASILY-MADE GRAHAM BREAD

Should you care to have a couple of loaves of graham bread instead of all-wheat, take a generous cup of the above sponge before it is stiffened beyond a thick batter, and add one tablespoonful of brown sugar or mola.s.ses, stiffen with graham flour (not quite as stiff as when making wheat bread), rub b.u.t.ter or lard on top of dough, cover and set in a warm place to rise. When light, mold into one small loaf (never make graham bread into large loaves), place in oblong pan, cover, let stand until light, about 1-1/2 hours, when it should have doubled in size; put in oven and bake thoroughly. When the loaf is taken from the oven, brush b.u.t.ter over the top. This keeps the crust moist.

If a wholesome loaf of "Corn Bread" is wished, use fine, yellow, granulated cornmeal to stiffen the sponge instead of graham flour; do not make dough too stiff.

WHOLE-WHEAT BREAD

1 pint boiling water.

1 pint sweet milk.

1/2 Fleischman's yeast cake dissolved in luke-warm water.

1/2 tablespoon salt.

Flour.

When the milk and water are lukewarm add the yeast cake and salt. Then add enough whole wheat flour to make a thin batter. Let stand in a warm place three or four hours. Then stir in as much wheat flour (whole wheat) as can be stirred in well with a large spoon, and pour into well-greased pans. Let rise to double its bulk; then bake from three-fourths to one hour, according to the size of the loaves. This quant.i.ty makes three loaves.

NUT BREAD

3 cups graham flour.

1 cup wheat flour.

4 teaspoons baking powder.

1 cup chopped English walnuts.

1 cup sugar.

1 small teaspoon "Mapleine" flavoring (if liked).

1/2 cup milk.

Pinch salt.