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Boston Brown Bread (Set a sponge of the following)
Set a sponge of the following ingredients: 2 cups lukewarm skim milk 1/4 cake compressed yeast 1 cup cornmeal 1/2 cup rye meal or Graham flour (use the bran) 2/3 cup thoroughly dried bread crumbs When this sponge is light, which will be in about three hours, add the following to make a dough: 3/4 cup warm molasses 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup thoroughly dried bread crumbs 1/2 cup raisins, washed Mix thoroughly, and set in a warm place to rise again. When light, stir it down well, then put it in an oiled brown-bread tin, cover the tin, and put it at once in the steamer. Steam two hours. This is nice made the day before it is to be used, and then warmed up by steaming.
Baked Doughnuts (sixteen) Set a sponge of the following ingredients: 1 cup lukewarm milk 1 cake compressed yeast 10 ounces sifted pastry flour When this sponge is light, stir into it: 1/4 cup sugar 1/3 cup oil Allow it to rise again. When light, add: 1/4 cup sugar 2 beaten eggs 1 teaspoon salt 8 ounces sifted pastry flour Mix thoroughly. This will be too soft to knead. Set it in a warm place to rise. When it is light, knead it together. Take the dough out onto a floured board, roll it out three-fourths inch thick, and cut with a doughnut cutter. Lay the doughnuts on an oiled pan one inch apart, and set in a warm place to rise. Allow them to rise about one-eighth inch, not more, and then bake. Make a sugar sirup by dissolving 1/4 cup sugar in a 1 tablespoon hot water. When the doughnuts are baked, brush each one over with the sirup, and roll in granulated sugar.
A yeast-raised steamed brown bread rather than the more familiar soda-and-buttermilk version, so the timings depend on the dough being genuinely light before it goes into the steamer.
- Compressed yeastThe small compressed (fresh) yeast cakes of this era usually weighed in the region of 0.6 oz, though cake sizes varied by maker. On that basis the quarter cake here works out at roughly 1/2 teaspoon of active dry or instant yeast; the quantity is small because the three-hour sponge does much of the work.
- Rye meal and Graham flourRye meal is coarsely ground whole rye, closer to a medium rye flour than to the fine white rye sold for bakery bread. Graham flour is whole-wheat flour with the bran left in, which is why the recipe insists on using the bran.
- Dried bread crumbsThese must be hard, oven-dried crumbs, not soft fresh ones. Fresh crumbs carry far more moisture and will slacken the dough past the point where it can hold its shape in the tin.
- The brown-bread tinA covered cylindrical mould of about 1 to 1.5 quarts. A 1-lb coffee tin or a pudding basin with a lid works; whatever you use, oil it and fill it no more than two-thirds, and cover it tightly so condensation cannot drip onto the loaf.
- SteamingKeep the water at a steady simmer for the full two hours and top it up with boiling water as it drops. The tin should sit on a rack above the water, not in it.
- Skim milkSkim milk was the cheap by-product left after cream was taken off, which may be why it is specified. Any milk will do; the loaf will be marginally softer with whole milk.
- ReheatingThe advice to make it the day before is sound. Steamed breads firm up and slice cleanly once cold, and 15 to 20 minutes back in the steamer restores them better than an oven does.
- YieldOne large loaf, sliced thin. Traditionally served with baked beans or simply buttered.