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Bread Making: Pour

Ex. 1. Pour one-half cup of cold water into one glass of yeast and molasses and set it into the ice box or out of the window if the weather is cold.

Ex. 2. Pour one-half cup of luke warm water into another of the glasses of yeast and molasses and set the glass into a pan of warm water.

Ex. 3. Pour the yeast and molasses in the last glass into one-half cup of boiling water and when cool enough so it will not break the glass pour it back into the glass and set it into a pan of luke warm water.

In half an hour examine the three tumblers. In which is the yeast working best?

Place the glass from the ice box into a pan of warm water. Does any change take place?

What effect does cold have on yeast?

What is the best temperature for your bread if you want it to rise?

Yeast grows best at a temperatture of 70° to 80° Fahrenheit. At 160° F. or over, the yeast plant will die. At a very low temperature, the yeast plant is chilled and its action is made slower, but if the temperature is then raised to 70°, the yeast plant will revive and commence to work.

Kinds of Yeast.

Compressed yeast, dry yeast, liquid yeast and wild yeast are all used in raising bread.

Compressed yeast is obtained from the distilleries. It is washed many times to remove the impurities, is then mixed with a small amount of starch and pressed into cakes. These are wrapped in tinfoil to exclude the air and kept in a cool place until used. There are many millions of yeast plants in each two-cent cake of yeast.

Dry yeast is made by mixing the distillers yeast with cornmeal. It is then pressed into cakes and dried. Dry yeast will keep much longer than compressed yeast, but is a little slower to act when making bread.

Liquid yeast is made by mixing a cake of yeast with boiled potatoes, salt and the water in which hops have been steeped. This is allowed to stand until the yeast grows and fills the whole mixture with bubbles of gas. A cupful of this yeast is used to lighten the bread dough. The last cupful of each mixture of liquid yeast can be used to start a new mixture of potatoes, hops and water. So many bacteria get into this yeast from the air that after a time it will be necessary to start the liquid yeast afresh with a cake of compressed or dried yeast. The bacteria would give the bread a bitter taste.

All yeast is originally obtained from wild yeast floating in the air. If these wild yeasts drop into a sweet, moist food they will commence to grow and cause the food to ferment. "Salt rising" bread is raised by wild yeast. The salt is added to keep the bacteria that drop into the sponge with the yeast from giving the bread a bad taste.

Liquids Used in Yeast Batters.

Milk, water, milk and water, boiled potatoes and water are the liquids used in bread making.

If milk is used it must be scalded to kill the milk-souring bacteria. The growth of these bacteria would hinder the growth of the yeast. It would also sour the bread.

Kinds of Flour.

Wheat will produce the best loaf of bread for the amount of money expended and is more generally used for bread making than any of the other grains.

Bread made from the coarser flours such as graham, whole wheat, oat meal, etc., contain a smaller per cent of nourishment than the white flour breads because the bran they contain consists of indigestible cellulose. They are, however, considered healthful foods for those who live an indoor life, as the cellulose stimulates the action of the intestines. Points in Bread Making. 1. Bread dough should be a soft dough. 2. If bread is to have only two risings, all of the flour should be added when the bread is first mixed. f 3. Use as little flour as possible when kneading bread the second time. It will look streaked if flour is kneaded into it after the first rising. 4. Before forming dough into loaves, knead it until all the gas bubbles are broken down, to make it fine grained, with no large holes in it. 5. If bread is allowed to rise too long, bacteria will change the alcohol into acetic acid and the bread will taste sour. Never let your bread wait for you. Attend to it as soon as it is ready. If it is impossible to knead it when it has risen enough, stir it with a knife until all the gas cells are broken down, then let it rise again. 6. Bread is kneaded (1) To make it of uniform texture. The gas bubbles that form first are large and irregular in shape.