THE SPONGE

This is made from warm water or milk, yeast and flour (some add mashed potatoes, which should be mashed quickly while tender, hot and mealy, being careful to remove all lumps, or mash through a colander, then add a littls flour with a spoon, and stir, then a lit- tle water, and stir, and so on, mixing the flour and water with the

10 BKEAD-MAKINO.

potatoes gradually) mixed together in the proportion of one pint wetting (water or milk) to two pint? of sifted flour. If milk is used it should be new, and must be first scalded, and then cooled to blood heat. The scalding tends to pre- vent souring. In using water bring c«iaua.,r. it to blood heat. If the "wetting" is too hot, the bread will l)e coarse. When water is used a tablespoon* of lard or butter makes the bread more tender. Bread made from milk is, of course, more tender and nutritious, but it has not the sweet taste of the wheat, and will not keep as long as that made from water. When mixed with milk it requires less flour and less kneading. In summer, care must be taken not to set sponge too early, at least not before eight or nine o'clock in the evening. Sponge mixed with bran water, Avarm in winter and cold in summer, makes sweeter bread. Boil bran in the proportion of one pint to a quart of water and strain. In very hot weather, sponge may be made with cold water. In winter, mix the batter with water or milk at blood warmth, testing it with the finger, and making it as warm as can be borne ; stir in the flour, which will cool it sufficiently for the yeast ; cover closely and place in a warm and even temperature. A good plan is to fold a clean blanket several times, and cover with it, providing the sponge is set in a very large crock or jar, so that thero is no danger of its running over. As a general rule, one small tea-cup of yeast and three pints of "wet- ting" will make sponge enough for four ordinary loaves. In all sponges add the yeast last, making sure that the sponge is not hot enough to scald it ; when placed to rise, always cover closely. In cold weather

When it rises well for the first two hours it will go on rising unless the temperature falls below the freezing point. It is an im- provement to heat the sponge thoroughly, like batter for a cake, for fifteen minutes or longer. Never set sponge in tin, but always in stoneware, because a more steady and uniform heat can be main-

*Whenever, in this book, the worrls cupful, eoffee-cu'f"!, tea-cupful, table-spoonful, etc., occur, the terminiition "ful" is dropped, for the sake of brevity

BREAD-MAKING. 11

tained in a stone jar than in tin. Use a six-quart jar for the sponge, which when light enough to mix will have risen almost to top of jar and be covered with fine white bubbles. If left standing too long the sponge will sink in the middle, which is an indication that it is slightly sour, and soda must be used to sweeten before using, in the proportion of a half-teaspoon to a quart of wetting. To make good bread — Always be

"Up in the morning early, just at the peep of day,"

in summer time, to prevent the sponge becoming sour by too long standing, and in winter to be getting materials warmed and in readi- ness for use. A large, seamless, tin dish pan with handles and a tight-fitting cover, kept for this purpose alone, is better than a wooden bowl for bread. A fourteen-quart pan is a good size when three pints wetting is used. It should be thoroughly washed and scalded every time it is used. Measure and sift the flour. It is convenient to keep two quart cups, one for dry and the other for liquid measur- ing. In the winter always warm the flour (by placing it in a pan in a warm oven for a few minutes or by setting it overnight where it will be kept at the same temperature as the sponge), and also the sponge. Put the flour in a bread pan, make a large well in the cen- ter, into which pour the sponge, adding two level teaspoons of salt (this is the quantity for four loaves of bread) ; mix well, being care- ful not to get the dough too stifi"; turn out on the bread-board, rub the pan clean, and add the "rubbings" to the bread. Knead for from forty-five minutes to one hour, or until the dough ceases to stick to either the board or hands. Do not stop kneading until done. Any pause in the process injures the bread. The process of knead- ing is very important; use just as little flour in kneading as will prevent sticking, and practice will enable one to make a little flour go a great way. Some good bread-makers knead with the palms of the hands until the dough is a flat cake, then fold once, repeating this operation until the dough is perfectly smooth and elastic ; oth- ers close their hands and press hard and quickly into the dough with the fists, dipping them

12 BREAD-MAKIXG.

the whole mass and drop or dash it with considerable force upon the mixing-board or table for several minutes. No exact directions can be given in regard to kneading, but experience and practice will prove the best guides. There are one or two machines for kneading bread that save labor, and which may be purchased in any house- furnishing store in the larger cities. After the bread is thoroughly kneaded, form into a round mass or large loaf, sprinkle the bread- pan well with flour, and, having placed the loaf in it, sprinkle flour lightly on the top (some grease the top with salted lard or butter in- stead of sprinkling with flour), cover closely, /^^^ and set to rise in a warm temperature, 70° to t^^^^'^^^^^^Os^ 80° ; let it rise to twice its original size this time, *^-^^=^^^-"v^^^^=» or until it seams or cracks on top, say from one V ^ mff; to two hours, differing in time with the season \ 4.^^^^^ of the year. Have the baking pans already ^^^^^^^^ greased with fresh, sweet lard, or American BnaiPuiUKh .. ...r. Cooking Oil (as butter burns more easily), knead the dough down in the pan, cut into equal parts, place one at a time on the board, mold each into a smooth, oblong loaf (handling as little as possible), not too large, and put one after another into the prepared baking- pan ; grease the tops of the loaves with salted lard or butter, greas- ing between them also, when several are baked in one pan, to insure eas}' and even separation, and set to rise. Or the loaves may be made by buttering the hands, and taking enough from the mass to form a loaf, molding it into shape in the hands, without using flour. This insures a nice, brown, tender crust. Loaves made in the French style, long a

after it is molded and placed in the ^ .^

pans, because here is the point where J ^ — ' ->^ W

observation and judgment are so in- I ^^^M^}^-0M/({'//^/'^ \ dispensable. In hot weather, when |^||^^^|^^||^|j|g|^||^^J the yeast is very good and the bread Broad set to Rise.

very light, it must not stand over fifteen minutes before placing to bake. If it is cold weather, and the yeast is less active, or the bread

BREAD-MAKING. 18

not perfectly raised, it may sometimes stand an hour in the pans without injury. When it is risen so as to seam or crack, it is ready for the oven ; if it stands after this it becomes sour, and even if it does not sour it loses its freshness and sweetness, and the bread be- comes dry sooner after baking. Bread should undergo but two fer- mentations ; the saccharine or sweet fermentation, and the vinous, when it smells something like foaming beer. The housewife who would have good, sweet bread, must never let it pass this Bread Rea.iy lor Oven. chaugc, becausc tlic tlilrd or acctous

fermentation then takes place. This last can be remedied by adding soda in the proportion of one teaspoon to each quart of wetting ; or, which is the same thing, a teaspoon to two quarts of flour ; but the bread will be much less nutritious and healthful, and some of the best elements of the flour Avill be lost. Always add salt to all breads as the dough Avill rise better, hut never salt sponge. The best to use is an English salt, as it has less of the fish}^ taste than American salt and a much more delicate flavor. A small quantity of white sugar is an improvement to all bread dough and some add a little lard, but if any shortening is used the American Cooking Oil is much nicer for either bread, rolls or biscuits. Bread should always be mixed as soft as it can he handled., but in using the "new process" flour made from spring wheat, the dough requires to be much harder than is necessary when using that made from winter wheat.

Good bread-makers differ widely as to the number of times bread should rise, some insisting that the rule of our good grand- mothers, who only allowed it to rise once, insures the sweetest and most nutritious bread, and that in all subsequent fermentations a decomposition takes place that is damaging to the wholesome qual- ities of the "staff of life."

In making the French loaf, an easy way is to bake it in Vienna Roll pan.

A new innovation in bread-making is the use of compressed yeast, tending much towards simplifying and shortening the process, and by many con- sidered a most perfect method. The recipe given hereafter is a complete guide.

14 BREAD-MAKING.

Every housekeeper should provide herself with what is called by bakers a "proof-box" for placing bread, biscuit, rolls, etc., (already in the bread-pan) in during the process of rising. This is nothing more nor less than an air-tight wooden ^, ,, box that can be made by anyone at all familiar with K..ui..icur,.tr.dKrtadPBn. the use of tools, and its size should of course depend upon the size of the family, which in turn regulates the quantity of dough to be raised. Beside giving the dough this protection, the careful bak- er also folds a cloth or towel around it before putting on the close. fitting cover of the box. Kept thus excluded from the air the out- side of the loaves or rolls is as fresh and tender when put in the oven as the inside. Set the box near the range where it will receive the necessary warmth, and be sure that it is kept perfectly sweet and clean, using it for no other purposes whatever. Air and dry the box thoroughly each time before using.