To make good breads one should be able to select good yeast and flour. The compressed yeast cakes, sold in almost every grocery store, are, as a rule, good, clean and reliable. These, with a small bread machine, will enable the housewife to make good bread quickly and easily; in fact, I allow only four hours from sponge to oven.
Twentieth Century Bread
To make four box loaves of bread, scald one pint of milk; add one pint of water, and when the mixture is lukewarm add one small compressed yeast cake dissolved in half a cupful of warm water, a level teaspoonful of salt, and sufficient whole wheat flour to make a batter; beat continuously for five minutes ; cover and stand in a warm place, 75° Fahrenheit, for two hours and a half.
Then add flour slowly, stirring all the while, until the dough is sufficiently hard to turn on a baking-board. Knead until it loses its stickiness; divide it in loaves; put each loaf in a greased square pan; cover and stand in the same warm place for one hour, or until it has doubled its bulk. Brush the top with water, and bake in a moderately quick oven for three-quarters of an hour.
Bread Sticks
Roll a portion of the twentieth century bread out in long, narrow strips about the size of a lead pencil; cut them in lengths to fit the bread-stick pans; put each in its own compartment and cover in a warm place for thirty minutes; brush with water, and bake in a quick oven for fifteen minutes.
Old Maids
Shape a portion of twentieth century bread in round biscuits about the diameter of a silver dollar and half an inch thick. Flour the bread board or cloth; place them so they cannot touch each other ; cover and stand in a warm place until they are very light, for about one hour.
Heat slowly an ordinary cake griddle; grease lightly; put on the “old maids”; bake slowly for fifteen minutes and then turn them. Bake for twentyfive minutes.
Graham Bread
Scald a pint of milk; add half a pint of water; when lukewarm add one yeast cake dissolved in half a cupful of water; add a tablespoonful of molasses, a level teaspoonful of salt, and sufficient graham flour to make a batter that will drop from a spoon; beat for five minutes; cover and stand in a warm place, 75° Fahrenheit, for three hours.
Add one pint of graham flour, beat again; pour in three greased square pans; cover and stand aside for one hour. Bake in a moderate oven for three-quarters of an hour.
Golden Loaf
Pare and boil half a pound of white potatoes; drain; dust lightly with salt; shake them until dry and press them through a colander. Add one pint of scalded milk, two tablespoonfuls of butter, a tablespoonful of sugar, two eggs well beaten, and one compressed yeast cake dissolved in a quarter of a cupful of warm water. Add a quart of white flour, and beat continuously for five minutes ; then add flour slowly until you have a soft dough; knead for ten minutes until it is light and elastic.
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Put it in a bowl that has been slightly buttered; cover and stand in a warm place, 75° Fahrenheit, until it has doubled its bulk, or about three hours and a half.
Divide it in two loaves, mould each lightly, put in greased square pans; cover and stand in the same place for one hour and a quarter, and bake in a moderate oven for three-quarters of an hour.
Pocketbook Rolls
Scald one pint of milk. Rub a rounding tablespoon ful of butter in a quart and a pint of white flour; put it in a bowl and make a well in the centre.
Add one yeast cake, dissolved in three tablespoonfuls of warm water, to the cool milk; pour it in the well, and dust the flour from the sides of the bowl over the top of the milk; do not stir, but cover and stand in a warm place, 75° Fahrenheit, for three hours. Stir in gradually the flour, adding a teaspoonful of salt. Take this soft dough on the board, knead continuously for fifteen minutes; then pound it with a potatomasher for ten minutes longer, turning and folding almost constantly.
Roll the dough in a sheet half an inch thick; cut with a large round cutter; press the centre with the back of a knife handle; brush one-half with a little melted butter and fold over the other, slightly pressing the two together. Stand in a shallow greased pan, sufficiently far apart not to touch in baking.
Cover the pan and stand in a warm place for one hour and a half. Brush the tops lightly with milk, and bake in a quick oven, 400° Fahrenheit, for twenty minutes.
German Nut Horns or Crescents
These are exceedingly nice rolls to serve with salads at evening or afternoon receptions. Heat a pint of milk in a double boiler; take from the fire, add three tablespoonfuls of sugar, one tablespoonful of butter and half a teaspoonful of salt; when lukewarm add a compressed yeast cake dissolved in a quarter of a cupful of cold water.
Add one pint of flour and beat continuously for five minutes; then add slowly sufficient flour to make a soft dough; knead until it loses its stickiness. It must not be as stiff as bread. Cover the bowl, stand in a warm place, 75° Fahrenheit, for three hours and a half; turn the dough carefully on a floured board; do not knead.
Roll lightly in a sheet half an inch thick. Cut in crescents; stand them in a greased baking-pan sufficiently far apart as not to touch in the baking; cover for about three-quarters of an hour, or until they are very light. Run them in a very hot oven, 400° Fahrenheit. Beat the white of an egg, a tablespoonful of sugar and one of milk until well mixed. Have ready blanched and chopped fine twenty-four almonds.
When the crescents have been in the oven for ten minutes draw them to the door, brush the tops with the egg mixture, sprinkle thickly with almonds, push them back, and bake for five minutes longer.
Pulled Bread
To pull bread the bread must be baked in long loaves, the grain running from end to end; it must be perfectly baked and thoroughly cold, then pulled. French bread is best. Whittle off the outside crust, then with two forks pull the loaves in halves, divide each half in quarters, and the quarters in eighths.
Place these strips, ragged edges upward, in a long shallow pan that has been lined with soft brown paper; stand the pan in the oven, leaving the oven door open until each strip is dry to the centre. Close the door, increase the heat, and bake until a golden brown. This will keep as long as zwieback. After the first day, however, reheat at serving-time.
Potato Tea Biscuits
Pare half a pound of potatoes, cover with boiling water, boil for ten minutes; drain this water off and throw it away. Cover with a quart of freshly boiled water, and boil until the potatoes are tender; press them through a sieve, using the water in which they were boiled.
Add hastily, while the potatoes are hot, half a pint of flour; beat thoroughly until smooth; add a level teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of sugar; when lukewarm add one yeast cake dissolved in a quarter of a cupful of warm water. Cover and stand at about 80° Fahrenheit for one hour. Add a pint of milk that has been scalded and cooled, and sufficient flour to make a batter; beat thoroughly; cover again for one hour ; add one egg well beaten, and flour to make a dough; knead thoroughly until soft and elastic.
Then pound with a potatomasher, constantly folding the dough. Form in one large loaf, put in a buttered bowl, stand in a warm place for one hour and a half. Mould in tiny rolls, place in French-roll pans, and stand aside for three-quarters of an hour. Brush the tops with milk, and bake in a quick oven for twenty minutes.
After they have been baked for fifteen minutes brush the tops with glaze made by beating the white of egg with a tablespoonful of water.
Egg Rolls
Add half a teaspoonful of salt and two rounding teaspoonfuls of baking powder to one quart of flour; sift two or three times, and rub in one rounding tablespoonful of butter. Beat one egg without separating; add to it one cupful and a half of milk ; add this gradually to the flour. The dough must be soft but not wet. Turn out quickly, roll in a sheet half an inch thick, and cut with a large round cutter; dip a knife handle in flour, press down the centre, making a sort of hinge; brush one-half with melted butter, fold over the same as “pocketbook” rolls. Stand at once in shallow pans, brush the tops with milk, and bake in a quick oven for twenty minutes.
Sweet Milk Scones
Add half a teaspoonful of salt and one rounding teaspoonful of baking powder to a pint of flour; sift once or twice, and rub in one tablespoonful of butter. Stir in one cupful of sweet milk.
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The dough must be sufficiently soft to drop from the spoon. Dip a tablespoon in boiling water, then take up a tablespoonful of dough and drop into a greased pan, keeping the scones sufficiently far apart not to touch in the baking. Bake quickly for twenty minutes. Sour milk may be used in the place of sweet milk, substituting half a teaspoonful of baking soda for the baking powder.
Scotch scones are made from sour milk and flour, the dough being sufficiently thick to roll and cut. These are baked on a griddle, turning them several times during the baking.
Breakfast Fruit Gems
Stone and chop twenty-four dates; mix them with half a cupful of seedless raisins. Separate two eggs, beat the yolks and add one cupful and a half of milk, then the dates and raisins, half a cupful of cornmeal and one cupful of whole wheat flour; beat thoroughly; add two rounding teaspoonfuls of baking powder; beat again and fold in the well-beaten whites. Bake in a quick oven for twenty minutes.
Oatmeal Waffles
Waffles are rather better than griddle cakes; being baked on both sides at the same time, the starch cells are more apt to be ruptured. Griddle cakes contain uncooked starch which renders them indigestible.
Add one pint of left-over oatmeal breakfast porridge to one pint of milk; stir in half a teaspoonful of salt, one cupful of whole wheat flour and a tablespoonful of butter melted. Add the yolks of three eggs, beaten thoroughly, and two teaspoonfuls of baking powder; mix and fold in the well-beaten whites of the eggs, and bake at once.
Egg Bread
Add one level teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda to one pint of thick, sour milk or buttermilk; add half a teaspoonful of salt and two eggs well beaten; stir in hastily one cupful and a half of Southern cornmeal; turn at once in a shallow greased pan and bake from thirty to forty minutes in a quick oven. Serve hot.
Pop-Overs
Beat two eggs without separating until they are light; add half a pint of milk, half a teaspoonful of salt, and add them gradually to a pint of flour, stirring all the while. Strain and turn at once in twelve hot, greased pop-over cups.
Bake in a quick oven for forty minutes.
Wafer Bread To Serve With Salads
Dissolve half a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda in half a cupful of warm water; add sufficient warm water, about one cupful, to moisten a quart of whole wheat flour. The dough must be rather hard.
Knead it continuously for fifteen minutes, then pound it with a potato-masher for from five to ten minutes, or put it through a biscuit brake. Roll the dough in a very thin sheet, cut in squares of two inches, prick with a fork, and bake in a moderately quick oven until crisp and brown.
Half a pint of peanut or pinenut butter may be rubbed in the flour before adding the water.
Virginia Biscuits
Rub one tablespoonful of shortening into a quart of soft white flour; add a level teaspoonful of salt. Mix two-thirds of a cupful of milk with an equal quantity of water; add this gradually to the flour, stirring all the while; the dough must be hard, not wet. It may not take the entire quantity of moisture; for this reason add it gradually.
Knead the dough continuously for fifteen minutes, then pound it for fifteen minutes longer, folding and turning constantly. Roll in a sheet as thin as a wafer, cut in squares, prick the top of each one with a fork. Stand in a baking-pan, where they will not touch each other, and bake in a moderate oven until crisp and brown. If well made these biscuits are very light and digestible.
Gluten Bread
Scald a pint of flour; when lukewarm add half a compressed yeast cake dissolved in a quarter of a cupful of cold water; add half a teaspoonful of salt and the whites of two eggs well beaten; stir in slowly two cupfuls of gluten flour; beat thoroughly, and stand aside in a warm place, 75″ Fahrenheit, for three hours; then add slowly as much flour as the dough will hold and enable you to stir it easily.
Pour the batter in two square greased pans; cover and stand in the same warm place for one hour and a half, and bake in a moderate oven for three-quarters of an hour.
Oatmeal Brown Bread
Mix a pint of rolled oats, a pint of rolled wheat, half a pint of granulated, yellow cornmeal, half a pint of whole wheat flour and one teaspoonful of salt. Dissolve a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda in two tablespoonfuls of warm water; add it to half a pint of New Orleans molasses; stir and add this to a pint of thick, sour milk; mix with the dry ingredients.
Pour in a greased brown-bread mould, and boil or steam continuously for four hours.
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