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Entire Wheat Bread
2 cups scalded milk 1/4 cup sugar or 1/3 cup molasses 2 teaspoons salt 1 yeast cake dissolved in 1/4 cup lukewarm water 4 2/3 cups coarse entire wheat flour Add sweetening and salt to milk; cool, and when lukewarm add dissolved yeast cake and flour; beat well, cover, and let rise to double its bulk. Again beat, and turn into greased bread pans, having pans one-half full; let rise, and bake. Entire Wheat Bread should not quite double its bulk during last rising. This mixture may be baked in gem pans.
A no-knead batter bread from the era when "entire wheat" meant the whole kernel ground coarse. Two adjustments carry most of the weight: the yeast conversion and the oven temperature, which the original never states.
- Oven temperatureNo heat is given because the book assumes a range you judged by hand. Bake at 375F for 45 to 50 minutes for a loaf; the interior should read about 200F. Gem pans (muffin tins) take 20 to 25 minutes at the same heat.
- Yeast cakeOne compressed yeast cake of the period is roughly equivalent to one packet of active dry or instant yeast, about 2 1/4 teaspoons. Dissolve it in the quarter cup of lukewarm water as written; instant yeast can simply be stirred in with the flour.
- Entire wheat flourThis is whole wheat flour, coarse-ground. Modern stone-ground whole wheat is the closest match; standard supermarket whole wheat is more finely milled and will not behave identically, so hold back a few tablespoons of flour until you see the consistency.
- Scalding the milkScalding was needed to kill enzymes and bacteria in raw milk. With pasteurized milk it is optional, though heating still dissolves the sugar and softens the crumb. Cool to no more than 110F before adding yeast or you will kill it.
- The critical instructionThe note that the loaf should not quite double on the second rise is the hinge. Bran interferes with gluten development, and an over-risen whole wheat loaf is more liable to sink in the oven. Get it into the heat while it still has spring.
- ConsistencyThis is a soft dough closer to a stiff batter than a kneaded bread dough, which is why the method says beat rather than knead. Do not add flour trying to make it smooth.
- Pans and yieldThe recipe says to fill the pans half full, and the quantity suits two smaller pans on that basis rather than one. In gem pans it makes roughly a dozen.
- Molasses optionThe 1/3 cup molasses gives a darker, faintly bitter loaf and slows the rise a little. Use unsulphured molasses; blackstrap is far stronger than what was sold as cooking molasses.