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Flour Mixtures Continued: Bread and Other Yeast Mixtures: Knead
RYE BREAD (One loaf) 1 cup of scalded-and-cooled 1/3 to I whole cake of com- milk pressed yeast 1/2 teaspoonful of salt 1/4 cup of lukewarm water 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar 2 cups of sifted rye flour 2 tablespoonfuls of butter About 2 cups of wheat flour Knead ten minutes; use white flour in kneading. Bake about three-fourths of an hour.
GLAZED CURRANT BUNS 1 Cake of compressed yeast 1/2 teaspoonful of salt 1/4 cup of scalded-and-cooled 1 egg milk 1/2 cup of cleaned currants 1 cup of scalded-and-cooled About 2 cups of flour milk 2 level teaspoonfuls cornstarch 1 3/4 cups of bread flour 3/4 cup of boiling water 1/4 cup of sugar Granulated sugar 1/4 cup of melted shortening Cinnamon if desired Soften the yeast in the quarter cup of liquid, add to the rest of the liquid and beat in the first quantity of flour. Beat until the sponge is very smooth, then cover and set to rise. When light add the sugar, salt, shortening, egg, currants and flour and mix to a soft dough. Knead until elastic, cover and set to rise. When doubled in bulk turn upside down on a board, roll into a sheet about half an inch thick and cut into rounds. Set these in a baking pan close together or a little distance apart, according as to whether a soft or crusty exterior is desired. When doubled in bulk bake about twenty-five minutes. Dilute the cornstarch with a little cold water, pour on the boiling water and let simmer ten minutes. When the buns are nearly baked, brush over the top with the starch and dredge thickly with sugar or sugar and cinnamon mixed and return to the oven. Repeat the application of paste and sugar if needed. GRAHAM BREAD 1/3 cake of compressed yeast 1 teaspoonful of salt 1/2 cup of lukewarm water 1/4 cup of molasses 1 1/4 cups scalded-and-cooled 2 1/2 cups of graham flour milk 1 1/2 cups of white bread flour 2 tablespoonfuls of butter Soften the yeast cake in the water. Melt the butter in the milk, add the salt, molasses, yeast in the water and stir in the flour. Mix very thoroughly. The dough is not firm enough to knead. Cover and let stand overnight. In the morning cut the dough through and through with a knife, turning it over and over; meanwhile, turn it into two buttered bread pans. Make smooth with a knife, and let stand to become nearly doubled in bulk. Bake about one hour. DARK COLORED GRAHAM BREAD Use the recipe given above, increasing the quantity of molasses to half a cup. Cut down the quantity of scalded milk to one cup.
Three yeast doughs from a book written for two people, with the terse ingredient lists typical of 1900s bread chapters. The oven temperature is never stated in any of them, and the yeast is not the yeast you will buy.
- Oven temperatureNone of the three gives a number. Loaves of this size are usually baked around 375F, and buns rather hotter, nearer 400F for the twenty-five minutes given; treat both as starting points. The recipe puts the starch glaze on when the buns are "nearly baked", and says to repeat the paste and sugar if needed.
- Compressed yeastA cake of compressed (fresh) yeast of the period was commonly about 0.6 oz. As a rough substitute allow something like 2 teaspoons of active dry or instant yeast per whole cake, so a third of a cake is roughly 3/4 teaspoon. Rise times will be broadly similar, but watch the dough, not the clock.
- Scalded-and-cooled milkScalding is generally explained as destroying enzymes and whey components in raw milk that slacken gluten, along with any bacteria. With modern pasteurised milk the step is usually held to be unnecessary; warm it to about 105F and proceed. If you do scald, cool to that same temperature before the yeast goes in.
- Graham and rye flourGraham flour is coarsely milled whole wheat; whole wheat flour is the nearest thing on a shelf today. The rye flour here is most likely a light or medium rye rather than a dark pumpernickel meal, and both breads lean on white bread flour for structure, since rye and coarse graham give weak structure on their own.
- How the currant bun quantities divide upThe currant bun list gives milk twice, a quarter cup and a cup, and both figures were checked against the printed page. The quarter cup softens the yeast, the cup goes with the bread flour to make the sponge, and the remaining flour is worked in later with the sugar, egg and currants.
- Currants"Cleaned currants" means dried Zante currants picked over for stems and grit, not fresh redcurrants. Packaged currants today need only a rinse; soaking them in warm water for ten minutes and drying them keeps them from scorching on the bun tops.
- The graham bread's overnight riseThis is a batter dough, too wet to knead, left to stand all night. In a warm modern kitchen it may overproof; if your room is warm, an overnight rise in the refrigerator is the safer course, letting the dough come back to room temperature before the final rise in the pans.
- Cornstarch glazeTwo teaspoons of cornstarch simmered ten minutes in 3/4 cup water makes far more thin paste than one batch of buns needs. Brush it on hot and dredge immediately so the sugar sticks; it dries to a matte, slightly crisp shell rather than an egg-wash shine.
- YieldThe rye is given as one loaf, the graham is divided between two bread pans, and the bun dough will make perhaps a dozen rounds depending on the cutter.
Cookbooks aimed at small households were a genuine publishing category in the early twentieth century, when boarding houses and shrinking family size made large standard bread recipes wasteful. The three breads here sketch out the era's range of "other than white": rye, associated with immigrant bakeries in Northern and Eastern European neighbourhoods; graham flour, named for Sylvester Graham, the 1830s temperance preacher whose campaign for coarse unsifted wheat gave the flour and the cracker their name; and a sweetened enriched bun glazed with cornstarch paste rather than egg. The dark graham variant, made by increasing the molasses and cutting the milk, is a reminder that molasses served as a colouring agent as well as a sweetener in American baking, and that a dark loaf was often read as a wholesome one.