Bread
The following formula will require approximately eight hours for maturing.
Flour, 200 lbs.
Formula Water, 118 lbs. (variable).
Salt, 3½ lbs.
Sugar, 3 lbs.
Malt extract, 2 lbs.
Yeast, 2 lbs.
Milk powder, 3 to 6 lbs. or Condensed milk, 8 lbs.
Flour, 120 lbs.
Sponge Water, 72 to 75 lbs.
Yeast, 1 lb.
Malt extract, ½ lb.
Method Dissolve the yeast and malt extract in 3 qts. of water and place to one side. Put the balance of the water, flour and the dissolved yeast into the mixer and mix until the sponge is smooth and elastic. The sponge should be 76 to 78 degrees when mixed. Put the sponge in a trough and allow it to ferment about 5½ hours.
Doughing Dissolve the balance of the yeast in 3 qts. of water and place to one side. Put the balance of the water into the mixer, and the salt, sugar, malt extract and milk powder and stir to dissolve the added ingredients.
Now add the sponge and break it up. Then add the balance of the flour and the yeast and begin mixing. After these ingredients have been incorporated add the shortening and mix until the dough is smooth and elastic. The dough should be 78 degrees when mixed. Allow the dough to rise 1½ hours, cut it over and allow it to rest 3/4 hour and then cut it over. Allow the dough to rest 15 minutes when it will be ready for the divider. There is a slight increase in the absorption when the sponge method is employed but a small decrease in the number of loaves produced by this manner, due probably to the evaporation and loss in fermentation over the long period allowed for the dough to rise.
This is a commercial bakeshop formula written for a mixer, a trough and a mechanical divider — 320 lbs of flour in total, or roughly 400 one-pound loaves. It scales down cleanly, but two figures in the printed formula need attention before you touch it.
- The salt figure is wrongThe salt figure is out of proportion -- 32 lbs of salt against 320 lbs of flour is 10 percent, far more than any dough could carry, and is plainly a misprint. Ordinary bakery salt levels were on the order of 2 percent of total flour; what number the printer meant cannot be recovered from the page. Set salt by percentage of your own flour weight, not by the figure given.
- Shortening is missing from the listThe doughing method calls for shortening but the formula never gives a quantity. White pan bread of this type ran 2 to 3 percent of total flour — around 6 to 10 lbs here, or about 2 percent in a scaled batch. Add it last, after the flour is hydrated, exactly as the method says.
- Scaling to a home batchDivide everything by 100: sponge of 1 lb 3 oz flour, 12 oz water, 5 g fresh yeast, 2 g malt extract; dough of 2 lb flour, 1 lb 3 oz water, 14 g sugar, 9 g malt, 10 g yeast, 15 to 30 g milk powder, plus about 30 g shortening. That is roughly 3¼ lb of flour in all -- nearer four one-pound loaves than two. Salt cannot be scaled from the page; use about 2 percent of the flour weight.
- YeastThe 3 lbs total is compressed (fresh) baker's yeast, just under 1 percent of flour. If you are using instant dry yeast, use one-third of the weight and add it to the flour rather than dissolving it.
- Malt extractNon-diastatic malt syrup gives colour and flavour only; the diastatic kind supplies the amylase that flour of the period was often short of. Modern bread flour is usually already malted, so treat this as optional -- a half-teaspoon per loaf is plenty, and more will make the crumb gummy.
- Temperatures matter more than clock timeThe 76-78F sponge and 78F final dough are the whole control system in a formula with no refrigeration. Use water temperature to hit them and check with a probe; a sponge that starts at 70F will not be ready in 5½ hours, and one at 84F will be over-fermented and sour before you dough it.
- "Cut it over" and "the divider"Cutting over is folding and degassing the dough in the trough — a punch-down and fold, not a division. The divider is the machine that scales the dough into loaf-sized pieces; by hand, weigh and pre-shape at that point.
- Hydration and the missing bakeTotal water is about 60 percent of flour, a stiff pan-bread dough by current standards. The formula stops at the divider because make-up, proof and bake were separate shop operations: expect roughly 45 to 60 minutes final proof at 80F and a bake around 400-425F for a one-pound pan loaf, to an internal 200F.
Baker's Weekly was a trade paper for professional bakers, and this page is shop instruction rather than domestic cookery he the quantities measured in pounds of flour. The sponge-and-dough method it describes was a backbone of American commercial bread, and it remained in wide commercial use long after later systems such as continuous-mix and no-time doughs appeared: a portion of the flour is fermented long and loose to build flavour and dough strength, then the balance of the flour, the enrichments and the fat are mixed in for a much shorter second fermentation. The milk powder and condensed milk alternatives are worth noting or bbells for crust colour, softer crumb and the keeping quality that a wrapped, shelf-sold loaf demanded. The closing note about fewer loaves from the same flour is the honest trade arithmetic behind the method: eight hours of fermentation costs you weight in carbon dioxide and evaporation, and the baker had to decide whether the flavour was worth the loss.