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Sweet Rye Raisin Bread
Formula Hard wheat flour, 80 lbs.
Patent rye flour, 20 lbs.
Water, 57 lbs. (approximately).
Salt, 1/2 lbs.
Molasses (light), 1 qt.
Malt extract, 1 lb.
Yeast, 1/2 lbs.
Shortening, 1 lb.
Raisins, 30 to 45 lbs.
Method Dissolve the yeast and malt extract in 3 qts. of water and place to one side. Put the balance of the water, salt, and molasses in the mixer and stir to dissolve the molasses and salt. Now add the wheat flour and rye flour and begin mixing. Add the yeast. After the yeast has been incorporated, add the shortening. After the shortening has been incorporated add the raisins and continue mixing until the dough is smooth. The raisins should be separated before they are put into the dough. This insures an even distribution.
Fermentation If a four hour fermentation period is employed it may be divided as follows: First rising, 24 hours; second rising, 1 hour; third rising, ½ hour. Allow the dough to rest 15 minutes, when it will be ready to be divided.
This is a trade formula written for a bakery mixer, based on 100 lb of flour and yielding something close to 240 lb of dough. Everything below assumes you will scale it down and supply the baking instructions the original leaves out.
- Scaling to a home batchDivide by 20 for a workable batch: 4 lb hard wheat (bread) flour, 1 lb rye, about 2 lb 13 oz water, about 0.4 oz salt, about 3 tablespoons molasses, 3/4 oz malt extract, 3/8 oz fresh yeast, 3/4 oz shortening, and 1 1/2 to 2 1/4 lb raisins. Weigh rather than measure; the formula is built on a 100 lb flour base and only behaves if the ratios hold.
- The 24-hour rising is a misprintThe text says a four-hour fermentation may be divided as 24 hours, 1 hour, and 1/2 hour. Read the first figure as 2 1/2 hours, which is what makes the arithmetic work. Punch down at 2 1/2 hours, again at 1 hour, again at 1/2 hour, then rest 15 minutes before dividing.
- Salt is unusually lowHalf a pound per 100 lb of flour is 0.5%, a quarter of what most bread formulas use now. With this much molasses and fruit the loaf will still taste sweet rather than flat, but if it reads insipid to you, 1.5 to 2% is the modern norm.
- Patent rye flourThis means white or light rye, milled from the endosperm only, not the whole-grain dark rye sold in health food aisles. Light or medium rye is the correct substitute; dark rye will make a heavier, sourer loaf than intended.
- Malt extract and yeastBarley malt syrup, sold for bagel making, is a workable stand-in, though the malt extract in trade formulas of this period may well have been diastatic. The half pound of yeast is compressed fresh yeast at 0.5% of flour weight; use about a third that weight of instant dry yeast, dissolved with the malt in the reserved water as directed.
- Handling the raisinsThe instruction to separate the raisins before adding them is the hinge of the method. Clumped fruit tears the gluten and leaves voids in the crumb. Break the clusters apart by hand and add them at the very end, mixing only until distributed, or the skins will bleed and grey the dough.
- Baking, which the formula omitsDivide into 1 lb 8 oz pieces for standard loaf pans, proof until the dough crowns the rim, and bake at 375-400F for 35 to 45 minutes. Molasses, malt and raisin sugars all brown early; tent with foil once the crust colours and take the loaf to an internal 200-205F rather than judging by colour.
- YieldThe full formula makes roughly 190 to 210 lb of dough, which at the 1 lb 8 oz division size above is somewhere around 130 loaves. The scaled version gives about seven.
Baker's Weekly was a trade paper for commercial bakers, and formulas like this one were printed for men working with barrel-sized mixers, not for home cooks. The combination here is a commercial baker's compromise: enough patent rye for character, but 80% hard wheat flour to give the dough the strength to carry up to 45 lb of fruit per hundredweight of flour. Malt extract appears in many American bread formulas of the period, supplying fermentable sugar and crust colour at a time when flour was not routinely malted at the mill. Raisin bread was widely promoted in the United States in the 1920s, including by California raisin growers' cooperative advertising, and bakers worked up a range of variants, of which a sweet rye was one.