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New England Bread
Formula Hard wheat flour, 100 lbs.
Water, 60 lbs. (variable).
Salt, 134 to 2 lbs.
Sugar, 34 lb.
Malt extract, 1 lb.
Yeast, 1 lb. 3 ozs.
Milk powder, 3 lbs. or Sweetened condensed milk, 4 lbs.
Shortening, 134 lbs.
Method Dissolve the yeast and half of the malt extract in 2 qts. of water and place to one side. Put the balance of water, salt, sugar, malt extract and milk powder into the mixer and stir to dissolve the ingredients. Now add the flour and begin mixing. Then add the yeast. After these ingredients have been incorporated, add the shortening and continue mixing until the dough is smooth and elastic. The dough should be from 80 to 82 degrees when mixed.
Fermentation If a 4 hour fermentation period is required to mature the dough, this period may be divided as follows: First rising, 2¼ hours; second rising, 1 hour; third rising, ½ hour. Allow the dough to rest 15 minutes when it will be ready to be divided.
When the sweetened milk is used, the cane sugar should be eliminated.
This is a commercial bakeshop formula built on 100 lbs of flour, not a home recipe. Read it as baker's percentages and scale to whatever flour weight your mixer and oven can handle.
- Scaling downDivide every weight by 100 to get baker's percentages: water 60%, salt about 1.75-2%, sugar 0.75%, malt extract 1%, yeast about 1.2%, milk powder 3%, shortening about 1.75%. A 1,000 g flour batch gives roughly 600 g water, 18 g salt, 7 g sugar, 10 g malt extract, 12 g fresh yeast, 30 g milk powder, 17 g shortening.
- The yeast is compressed, not dryA commercial bakeshop of this period meant fresh compressed yeast. Use about 40% of that weight in active dry, or a third in instant, and add instant directly to the flour rather than dissolving it.
- Hard wheat flourThis means high-protein bread flour, around 12-13% protein. All-purpose will absorb less than 60% water and give a slacker, weaker dough.
- Malt extractNon-diastatic or diastatic barley malt syrup, both still sold to bakers. At 1% it feeds the yeast and colours the crust; without it the loaf bakes paler and ferments a little more sluggishly. Honey is not a substitute for the enzyme activity of diastatic malt.
- Milk powderMost likely dry skim milk, as trade formulas of the period generally intended. Milk powders vary in heat treatment, and low-heat powders can slacken a dough, so look for high-heat or bakers' grade if the dough goes unexpectedly soft.
- Dough temperature80-82F is the whole control point here. Adjust water temperature to hit it: friction from a machine mixer adds several degrees, so use cooler water than you would by hand.
- The punches, not just the clockThe four-hour fermentation is broken by two knock-backs, which degas, redistribute yeast and even out temperature. On a smaller home batch with modern yeast the dough will mature faster; judge by volume and a poke test rather than the stated hours.
- Sweetened condensed milk optionThe note to drop the cane sugar when using sweetened condensed milk is because that product is roughly 45% sugar by weight. The 4 lbs of it carries far more sugar than the 3/4 lb it replaces, so the crust will colour faster and the loaf will be noticeably sweeter.
- BakingNo oven instruction is given, as the bakeshop would have known it. Pan loaves of this type are usually baked somewhere around 400-425F, until the internal temperature reaches roughly 200F.
Formulas like this one were written as working documents for shop foremen, which is why everything is stated per 100 lbs of flour and why the fermentation schedule is spelled out to the half hour while the oven is not mentioned at all. The name suggests a rich white pan loaf carrying milk solids, sugar and shortening, softer and sweeter than a lean water bread. The milk powder is a telling detail: dry skim milk became widely available in the 1920s and was taken up by bakers because it improved crust colour, extended keeping quality and let a shop claim a milk loaf without handling perishable liquid. The alternative of sweetened condensed milk, with the instruction to drop the cane sugar, suggests a formula written for whichever of the two a shop happened to have on hand.