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German Caraway Bread
Follow recipe for Milk and Water Bread (see p. 54), using rye flour in place of entire wheat flour, and one tablespoon sugar for sweetening. After first rising while kneading add one-third tablespoon caraway seed. Shape, let rise again, and bake in a loaf.
Entire Wheat and White Flour Bread Use same ingredients as for Entire Wheat Bread, with exception of flour. For flour use three and one-fourth cups entire wheat and two and three-fourths cups white flour. The dough should be slightly kneaded, and if handled quickly will not stick to board. Loaves and biscuits should be shaped with hands instead of pouring into pans, as in Entire Wheat Bread.
This is a variation instruction rather than a standalone recipe, and it leans on the parent "Milk and Water Bread" for quantities, timing and oven. A few things need translating before it will work on a modern counter.
- The parent recipeThis variation gives no liquid, salt or yeast quantities of its own; they all come from Milk and Water Bread on p. 54, so the two have to be read together.
- "Entire wheat flour"Fannie Farmer's term for whole wheat. In this variation it is replaced entirely by rye, so the loaf is 100 percent rye — a very different dough from anything in the surrounding pages.
- All-rye dough behaves differentlyRye has little gluten-forming protein and a lot of pentosan gum, so the dough stays slack and tacky no matter how long it is worked and it will not pass a windowpane test. Knead briefly, keep hands and board lightly floured, and expect a dense, close-grained loaf rather than an airy one. Many bakers cut the rye with a third to a half white flour for a lighter result, which is a departure from the recipe as written.
- One-third tablespoon carawayThat is 1 teaspoon, an unusually restrained amount for a caraway rye. A full tablespoon per loaf is closer to modern taste; crush a portion of the seed to release more of the flavour.
- Adding the seedWork it in after the first rise, as directed, when the dough is being knocked back.
- OvenA loaf of this size wants 400F for the first 15 minutes, then 375F for another 30 to 40. Rye reads as done at 200 to 205F internal; the crust colours early and will mislead you.
- RisingWith a modern packet of instant or active dry yeast rather than a compressed cake, figure 1 to 1.5 hours for the first rise and 45 minutes to an hour for the second. Rye overproofs quickly and then collapses in the oven, so shape it a little before it looks fully doubled.
- CoolingRye loaves finish setting as they cool and slice gummy if cut warm. Give it several hours, ideally overnight, before the first slice.
- YieldOne loaf, and one that keeps better than the wheat breads in this chapter — the same gums that make the dough sticky hold moisture for days.
- The second paragraph"Entire Wheat and White Flour Bread" is a separate entry that has run together with this one in the source text. It has nothing to do with the caraway loaf.
Caraway rye belongs to the German and Central European baking tradition, where rye was the everyday grain across the north and east long before wheat became affordable, and caraway its usual seasoning. Its appearance in The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book sits alongside a bread chapter built chiefly on white and "entire wheat" loaves, with rye entered as a labelled variation rather than a staple. The handling is worth noting: rye is treated as a straight substitution for whole wheat flour, with no acknowledgement that rye dough behaves differently and no sour or long fermentation of the kind a German bakery would use. The result is a mild, lightly sweetened, quick-rising American version.