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Fruit Bread
1 cake yeast 1 pint water or milk 2 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons shortening 1 teaspoon salt 3 pints flour 1 1/2 cups seeded raisins, mixed with the flour Dissolve the yeast in the water, or milk; add the salt, sugar and shortening. Mix in the flour and raisins. Currants or nut meats may be used, if desired. Have the temperature when mixed 82 degrees to 84 degrees F. Allow the dough to rise until very light. Divide into two large loaves, or three small loaves. Mold and place in pans. Allow to rise to top of pans. Bake in moderate oven 35 minutes.
A straightforward yeasted white loaf enriched with dried fruit, written for a cook accustomed to judging dough by feel rather than by clock. A few of its assumptions need translating.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350-375F; 350F is the safer choice here. Fruit loaves brown faster than plain bread because of the sugar in the raisins; if the crust is dark before 35 minutes, tent it with foil.
- One cake yeastA compressed yeast cake of the period was roughly 0.6 oz. Substitute one packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry or instant yeast, which will handle this quantity of flour.
- Flour by volumeThree pints is six cups, about 26-30 oz depending on how it is scooped. Hold back the last half cup and add it only if the dough is slack.
- The 82-84F instructionThis is the single most useful line in the recipe. Take the temperature of the finished dough with an instant-read thermometer and adjust the liquid warm or cool to hit that range. It is the professional baker's method for getting a predictable rise.
- Rise until very lightRoughly doubled and slack to the touch, typically 1 to 1 1/2 hours in a warm room. The second rise, to the top of the pans, will take 45 minutes to an hour.
- Raisins mixed with the flourCoating the fruit before it meets the dough is the traditional way of keeping it evenly distributed. Plumping the raisins in warm water and draining them well first stops them drawing moisture from the crumb.
- ShorteningTwo tablespoons of butter, lard or vegetable shortening are interchangeable here. Soften it rather than melting it into the yeast water.
- YieldTwo 9x5-inch loaves or three smaller pans. Loaves are done at an internal temperature of about 195F.