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Nut Bread
1 cake yeast 1 cup milk, scalded and cooled 1 tablespoon sugar 3 cups sifted flour 1/3 cup sugar 2 tablespoons shortening White of 1 egg 3/4 cup chopped walnuts 1/3 teaspoon salt Dissolve yeast and one tablespoon sugar in lukewarm milk, add one and one--fourth cups flour, and beat thoroughly. Cover and set aside in a warm place 50 minutes--or until light. Add sugar and shortening creamed, white of egg beaten stiff, nuts, remainder of flour or enough to make a dough, and salt. Knead well; place in greased bowl. Cover and set aside for about two and one--half hours to rise--or until double in bulk. Mold into a loaf, or small breadsticks, and place in well greased pans. Protect from draught and let rise again until light--about one hour. Loaf should bake 45 to 60 minutes; breadsticks 10 minutes, in hot oven.
A straightforward sponge-and-dough white loaf enriched with walnuts, written when compressed yeast was the household standard. The measurements translate cleanly; the oven instruction and the salt need attention.
- Cake yeastA cake of compressed fresh yeast, roughly the size of the modern 0.6 oz cube, though period cakes varied. Substitute about one packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast, dissolved in the milk once it has cooled to lukewarm (about 105F).
- Scalded milkScalding is usually explained as deactivating milk proteins that weaken gluten, and it also killed bacteria in unpasteurised milk. With pasteurised milk it is generally considered unnecessary; warm the milk to about 105F and proceed.
- SaltA third of a teaspoon is very little salt for three cups of flour, and the loaf will taste flat. Around 1 1/4 teaspoons is the usual proportion for this quantity of dough.
- Salt goes in lateThe recipe adds salt with the second flour rather than the sponge, where it would slow the yeast. Keep that order rather than mixing everything at once.
- "Hot oven"Period tables generally put a hot oven somewhere around 400-450F. Breadsticks at 10 minutes suit that heat, but a rich loaf held 45-60 minutes at that temperature will darken badly; bake the loaf nearer 375F and check for an internal temperature of about 195F.
- Rising timesThe 50 minutes for the sponge and 2 1/2 hours for the bulk rise will vary with kitchen temperature. Judge by the dough, not the clock: the sponge should be foaming and dropping, the dough doubled.
- Egg whiteBeaten white folded into a kneaded dough will deflate immediately, which is expected. It contributes protein and a paler, finer crumb rather than lift.
- NutsToast the walnuts and cool them before adding, and chop them no finer than pea-sized so they do not shred the gluten during kneading.
- YieldThree cups of flour makes one small loaf, or a batch of slim breadsticks; the recipe gives no count.
Nut breads were common in American cookbooks and pamphlets from the 1910s through the 1930s, a period when nut growers' associations advertised heavily and yeast manufacturers distributed recipe booklets to home bakers. Many nut breads of the era were quick breads leavened with baking powder, so a yeast-raised version like this one is somewhat less usual. The sponge method here, setting a soft batter of milk, yeast and part of the flour before enriching it, is a standard approach for sweetened doughs, since sugar and fat both slow fermentation and the yeast benefits from a head start.