Skip to main content
Bread

Wheat, Flour, and Bread Improvers

A simple yeast bread loaf made with flour, salt, yeast, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Wheat, Flour, and Bread Improvers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, and yeast.

  2. Gradually add the water and mix until a dough forms.

  3. Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes until smooth.

  4. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Shape and bake

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in a greased loaf pan.

  3. Let it rise again for about 30 minutes.

  4. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure.
Active dry yeast
Ferments sugars in the dough, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
Water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and dissolves the yeast.
Coarse sea salt
Controls yeast activity and strengthens the dough's gluten for flavor and texture.

The step that matters

Knead until smooth. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas yeast produces. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes up dense and crumbly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes