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Doughnuts
With a rolling-pin roll and spread out the last ball of dough to one-eight-inch thickness. With a doughnut cutter cut out twelve pieces, place on tin, cover with a dry cloth and allow to rise in a warm place for thirty minutes. Arrange in a frying basket, fry in boiling fat until a nice golden colour on both sides, turning over once in a while, remove, thoroughly drain, dredge a little powdered sugar over and serve.
REMARKS ABOUT "UNIVERSAL" BREAD MAKING MACHINE FOR PRIVATE FAMILIES I recently came across a peculiar looking small bread maker, called the "Universal Bread Maker." After carefully examining, I purchased one for the purpose of trying it in my own house to find out about its merits. After having tried and carefully observed the result of its workings, I was satisfied of the efficiency and merit claimed for it by its owners. The No. 4 Universal Machine has a capacity of from two to six loaves or rings of bread. The No. 8 Universal has a capacity of from four to ten loaves or rings. The machine is of such simplicity that a child can work it. On the first trial I followed their recipe throughout, and the bread turned out all right but a little heavy. With the second recipe the bread turned out simply delicious in every respect. Another important point in its favour is that in working the sponge and part of the dough it does away with use of the hands. FRENCH BREAD BY THE "UNIVERSAL" BREAD MAKER, NO. 1 (This sponge is for four loaves of plain French bread.) Sift on a table three pounds thoroughly ripe, best quality flour. Measure out a quart warm water, pour it in the bread maker, reserving in the measure about half a cup. Crumble a half-ounce cake fresh, firm compressed yeast into a cup, half fill the cup with lukewarm water and thoroughly dissolve yeast. Pour the dissolved yeast into bread maker with water, adding two heaping teaspoons salt and three pounds flour all at once. (Liquids should always be poured in first.) Briskly turn crank for three minutes, or until dough forms about kneading rod in a smooth, compact ball. Put on cover of machine, place over a dry cloth and set in temperature of 80 degrees to rise during night. After rising turn crank until dough forms a ball about kneader again, then loosen crosspiece and lift kneader and dough on it out of pail together. Push dough off kneading rod, cut into four equal parts, shape and place in baking tins and set to bake for about an hour.
On first trial I followed the above recipe throughout and the bread turned out all right, but a little heavy.
FRENCH BREAD BY THE "UNIVERSAL" BREAD MAKER, NO. 2 (Sponge for four loaves of plain French bread.) Proceed to prepare sponge. Remove dough in the morning after rising during night, place on a floured table or in a lightly floured, quite large dishpan and sharply work for twelve or fifteen minutes, then lift up with hands and vigorously knock against bottom of pan or table eight or ten different times. Cut dough into four equal parts, roll out to ball shape, cover with a dry cloth, let rest for ten minutes, then roll out to loaf, ring or any shape desired. Carefully arrange loaves on fluted cloth on the board and rings. Cover with a dry cloth or buttered paper, place in temperature of 80 degrees for an hour and remove cloth. Have baking pan placed alongside board, carefully turn loaves into it and make four or five very rapid half-inch-deep incisions at equal distances on top. If there be any rings prepare in same manner, then place both in oven to bake for an hour or until a nice golden colour, not opening oven door for twenty minutes and carefully watching that bread is well baked all around, remove and serve.
With this second recipe the bread turned out simply delicious in every respect.
Three procedures share this page: the tail end of a raised doughnut recipe, and two versions of a French bread sponge worked in a hand-cranked bread pail. The bread instructions translate cleanly to a stand mixer or hands; the doughnut fragment assumes a sweet yeast dough made earlier in the chapter.
- The overnight rise is the hingeA half-ounce of fresh yeast in three pounds of flour, held at 80F all night, will overshoot badly in a modern kitchen. Either cut the yeast to a quarter of that amount for a 10-12 hour rise, or ferment the full quantity at room temperature (65-68F) and expect it to be ready sooner.
- Compressed yeastHalf an ounce of fresh compressed yeast is roughly one packet (2 1/4 tsp) of active dry, or about 1 1/2 tsp instant. Fresh cake yeast is still sold in some markets but is not a pantry staple; dissolve dry yeast the same way in lukewarm water.
- Weights and hydrationThree pounds of flour is about 10 1/2 to 11 cups, and a quart of water is 32 fl oz, which by weight works out near 70 percent hydration - lower if the half cup held back in the measure is not returned to the dough. Either way, a slack, workable French dough. Two heaping teaspoons of salt is close to 1 tablespoon, which is on the low side for this much flour.
- No oven temperature is givenBake plain French loaves at 450F, dropping to 425F after the first 15 minutes, for 30-40 minutes total. The full hour called for here is longer than a modern oven needs; go by colour and an internal temperature near 200F.
- "Fluted cloth on the board"This is a couche - a floured linen pleated into ridges to support shaped loaves during the final proof. Any heavy unwashed linen towel, well floured, does the job.
- Frying the doughnuts"Boiling fat" means fat at 365-375F, not fat that is bubbling. Raised doughnuts of this size take about a minute a side; below 350F they drink oil, above 385F they colour before the centre sets.
- That one-eighth inchRolled that thin, a yeasted doughnut ring puffs into something closer to a fried cracker. Raised-doughnut recipes more usually roll to 1/3 to 1/2 inch and proof until visibly light; take the thirty-minute rise as a minimum, not a rule.
- Draining and sugaringDrain on a rack rather than paper so the underside does not steam soft. Dust with powdered sugar only once the doughnuts have stopped steaming, or it dissolves into a glaze.
- YieldThe bread sponge makes four loaves of roughly 1 1/4 lb each; the doughnut portion gives twelve.
The interruption in the middle of this page is a small piece of turn-of-the-century kitchen commerce. The "Universal" bread maker was a tinned pail with a lid and a crank-driven kneading rod, sold in numbered sizes by the household-goods trade around 1900; the appeal, as Filippini says plainly, was that it "does away with use of the hands." His two French bread recipes are really a review: the manufacturer's own method gave heavy bread, so he added what the machine could not do - a long hand knead in the morning, the loaves slammed against the table to tighten the gluten, a rest, a shaping, a second proof on a floured cloth, and slashes cut just before baking. That sequence is standard French practice and it is the reason the second batch came out well. The doughnut fragment above belongs to the same chapter's run of enriched yeast doughs.