Receipt for Unfermented Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Mix the dough
In a bowl, combine the flour and bicarbonate of soda.
Add the cold water and mix until smooth.
Carefully add the muriatic acid and stir well.
Shape and bake
Shape the mixture into a loaf or biscuits.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
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
- Flour
- Provides the starch and proteins that form the bulk and structure of the bread.
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide gas, which lifts and aerates the dough.
- Muriatic acid
- Reacts with the bicarbonate of soda to produce the gas that makes the bread rise without yeast.
The step that matters
Carefully add the muriatic acid and stir well. Bicarbonate of soda and acid react as soon as they meet, releasing carbon dioxide. Stirring evenly distributes the acid so the gas forms throughout the dough, and shaping and baking promptly keeps that gas from escaping before the structure sets.
“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.
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