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Bread Making: Kneading

Kneading breaks them up into small bubbles of uniform size. It is also kneaded (2) To develop the gluten. We find in wheat flour two substances (gliaden and glutenin) which when mixed with water and well kneaded unite and form gluten, the sticky substance in the dough. 7. Bread is baked to make it palatable, to cook the starch, to drive off the alcohol and carbon dioxide gas and to kill the yeast plants. Half baked bread will cause indigestion. Directions for Kneading. 1. Slip the fingers under the edge of the dough farthest from you and fold the dough towards you about two-thirds of its length. (Fig. 1.) 2. Then press the dough hard with the palms of the hands, (Fig. 2) giving the dough a little rolling motion from you. 3. Turn the dough towards the left one-fourth of the way round so that the end of the dough that was at the right will be farthest from you. (Fig. 3.) 4. Repeat until the dough is well kneaded, being careful to keep the smooth side of the dough next to the board. Bread Mixer.

A bread mixer greatly reduces the labor of bread making in the house. The mixing, rising and kneading are all done in the mixer. The bread board will only be needed when the bread is ready to be formed into loaves. It takes less strength to turn the crank of a mixer than to knead dough by hand and the bread will be of more uniform texture especially if one is inexperienced in the art of bread baking. Method of Mixing Yeast Batters and Doughs. 1. Scald the liquid. 2. Soften the yeast cake with 1 T. luke warm liquid. (Lukewarm means the same as body temperature. Test with the little finger. If the liquid feels neither warm nor cool to the finger, it is the proper temperature.) 3. Add sugar, salt and shortening to the hot liquid. 4. Cool to body temperature and add the softened yeast. 5. Add one and one-half times as much flour as you have liquid then beat well. 6. If the bread is to rise three times, cover the dish and set in a warm place and let rise until it has doubled in bulk. If it is to rise only twice proceed from No. 5 to No. 7. 7. Beat thoroughly then add as much flour as you can beat in with a spoon. 8. Turn onto a well-floured board, roll dough in flour, then knead it with the hands until smooth and of even texture throughout. 9. Put the dough into a greased bowl, brush over with water or lard to keep from drying on top and set in a warm place to rise. If you wish the bread to rise rapidly surround the bowl with water as warm as you can hold the back of your hand in. 10. When the dough has risen to twice the size turn it onto the board and knead until all the bubbles are broken down. Use as little flour as possible for this kneading. 11. Form into loaves and put into greased baking pans. Be sure the dough is smooth on top and fits well into the corners of the pans. 12. Brush the top with melted lard or water and set in warm place to rise until twice its size. 13. Bake in moderate oven forty-five to sixty minutes for one pound loaves. 14. Turn the bread frequently during the first fifteen minutes of baking so that it will rise evenly. It should not begin to brown until it has been in the oven at least twenty minutes. 15. When bread is done, remove from pans, brush upper crust with water to soften it and set on rack to cool where the air can reach all sides. 16. When cool put away in stone jar or ventilated bread can. Do not wrap in cloth or it will mold.

A Perfect Loaf of Bread.

A loaf of bread consists of the crust, which is the brown, outside portion and the crumb, the white inner part. A perfect loaf of bread should be a golden brown color on top, sides and bottom. It should be evenly risen in the pan, with the crust smooth and even, not cracked nor protruding over the sides. If well baked it will feel firm when pressed and will spring back quickly when pressure is removed. When cut, the crumb of the bread should be creamy in color, should slice smoothly without crumbling and the holes should be small and uniform. The taste should be sweet and nutty.

When learning to bake bread it would be a good plan to fill out the following score card after each baking. By comparing methods and results, any faults could be corrected and in a short time perfect loaves of bread would be produced each time. Date.

Score Card.