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Flour Mixtures Continued: Bread and Other Yeast Mixtures
THE INGREDIENTS FOR BREAD MAKING THE ingredients required for making yeast bread are: flour, yeast, salt and liquid. Sugar is sometimes used.
PROPORTIONS OF THE INGREDIENTS The quantity of liquid used determines the size of the finished loaf. One cup of liquid with one-fourth a cup of liquid yeast (or compressed or dry yeast diluted with one-fourth a cup of liquid) will make one loaf of bread of a size to bake in what is known as a "brick-loaf pan" ; or it will make about one and three-fourths pounds of bread dough. The quantity of flour used, together with the manipulation of the ingredients, has much to do with the texture of the bread. For a firm, fine-grained loaf from three to four and more measures of flour to one of liquid are needed. For bread of more open texture from two and one-half to three measures of flour to one of liquid will suffice. Take half a teaspoonful of salt for each loaf of bread. A tablespoonful of butter or other shortening to each cup of liquid will make the bread more tender. The quantity of yeast to be used will depend upon the time given to the process and the temperature at which the dough is kept. For bread mixed at night, to be baked in the morning, one-third a cake of compressed yeast will be required for each pint of liquid. A larger proportion, accordingly, of yeast, as one-fourth a cake is necessary when but one loaf is made.
YEAST Floating everywhere around us in the air are microscopic organisms that more nearly resemble plant than animal life. To certain of these organisms the name yeast is applied. These organisms, in a suitable environment, feed on sweet and nitrogenous bodies, or substances, and grow and multiply very rapidly. Chemical change (fermentation) is the result of this growth. The conditions essential to the growth of these minute plant organisms are warmth, moisture, air and something sweet and nitrogenous to feed upon. All these conditions may be secured when the plants are mixed in moistened flour and left in a temperature between 75 deg to 95 deg F. As the plants feed upon the sweet substances in the flour a rearrangement of the molecules of flour takes place, the sugar in composition is broken up and alcohol and carbon dioxide are formed. The carbon dioxide lightens the dough.
In any variety of yeast used we have a collection of yeast plants massed together in such a manner that the life of the plants may be preserved for a time.
Dry, home-made and compressed yeast, all will give good results, but as compressed yeast can now be purchase almost everywhere, the recipes will be written for this form of yeast. In using home-made yeast allow half a cup to each pint of liquid to be used in making bread. Compressed yeast may be kept for several days or a week; dry yeast for a much longer time, but eventually the plants will die.
EFFECT OF HEAT AND COLD ON YEAST PLANTS In working with yeast mixtures we must keep in mind that we are dealing with plant life and treat the mixtures accordingly. If you pour boiling water over a sprouting seed or a young plant, you would not expect it to continue to grow. Yeast plants are of the same nature, and if you pour boiling water or scalding hot milk over a yeast cake to soften it, you need not expect the plants to grow and multiply and thus lighten the mixture into which you stir them. When the properly treated plants have done their work and you have no longer use for them, then the heat of the oven is needed to drive off the alcohol and carbon dioxide and to set the glutinous cell walls, to keep the dough light.
Yeast plants bear cold much better than heat; life is kept in a dormant state at about 30 deg F. Thus yeast cakes may be kept in good condition some days in a refrigerator. In a refrigerator bread and rolls about ready for the oven may be kept in that condition some hours or over night, and be ready for banking at any moment.
In practice, when set into the refrigerator, bread should not be quite as light as rolls or bread in individual portions, for some time must elapse before the cold penetrates entirely through the loaf, and during this time the loaf will be growing lighter or more porous.
THE KIND OF FLOUR FOR BREAD MAKING A bread flour is one that takes up a large quantity of liquid; a pastry flour, one that takes up but little liquid. Then less in quantity of bread flour than of pastry flour would be needed with one cup of liquid, the measure for a loaf of bread. With a little experience one may easily learn to distinguish these flours. Bread flour is granular and goes through the sieve easily. Pastry flour is more solid, is oily and keeps its shape when pressed in the hand. As to variety, rye, graham, whole wheat (brown in color) and corn flour, as also rye and oat meal, may be used in bread, but for the best results white flour should be combined with these. The proportion of white flour may be varied from time to time, but it should never be less than one-fourth of the full amount taken.
UTENSILS FOR BREAD MAKING A knife is the proper utensil for mixing dough. An earthen bowl is easily cleaned, and for evident reasons is to be desired when mixing is to be done with a knife. A close-fitting tin cover, with three or four tiny holes in the top, through which gases may escape, with a brick-loaf tin for baking, complete the list of necessary utensils. For cutting biscuit and Parker House rolls a rolls a round cutter with sharp edge is desirable, but the cover of a baking powder box, in which a few holes have been made with a nail and a hammer, will answer the purpose. Many rolls are shaped with the hands. That measuring cups and spoons are needful ought to be a foregone conclusion, understood by the time one essays her first loaf of bread. MIXING THE DOUGH In making bread with compressed yeast it is customary to add all the flour to the liquid, that is, the mixing of the bread is completed at once. In making biscuit or rolls, in which shortening, sugar, etc., are used, a "sponge" is first made, and when fermentation is assured, the shortening, sugar and rest of the flour are added and the mixture is again set to rise. Thus bread dough rises twice, once after mixing and again after it is set in the baking pan, while biscuit dough rises three and sometimes four times. The repetition of the fermenting process affects the flavor of the finished product, and thus gives an opportunity to diversify the flavor of yeast mixtures. This fact should receive due attention, for bread is a very important staple in our food supply.
In the recipes two varieties of "sponge" will be noted. As salt, sugar and fat retard the growth of the yeast plants, none of these are added until the "sponge" is light. Sometimes we take all the liquid that is to be used in making the bread or rolls, and into this stir and beat the softened yeast and enough flour to make a batter. Cover the batter and let it stand until puffy and well filled with bubbles. As there is only a small quantity of flour for the plants to feed upon, the sponge is soon ready for use. After the rest of the flour has been added, the mixture will soon double in bulk, which is the sign that a dough is ready to be cut down and made ready for the oven. Another way of making a "sponge" is to soften the yeast in the quantity of water required (one-fourth a cup for one loaf of bread), and into this stir flour to make a stiff dough; knead this, then set it into the warm liquid of which the bread is to be made; when the little ball of dough floats on the liquid, a light and puffy "sponge," add the rest of the ingredients and mix the whole to a dough.