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Bread

Bread and Bread Making

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Bread and Bread Making

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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast and salt in the ½ cup of warm water.

  2. Make a hole in the center of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture and the quart of warm water.

  3. Mix with a spoon until thick enough to knead by hand.

  4. If the dough is soft, sprinkle a little flour and knead gently using one hand.

  5. Knead until the dough is smooth, about 10 minutes.

Rise and shape

  1. Let the dough rise in a warm place, covered with a cloth, for 2 hours in summer or 4 hours in winter.

  2. Knead the dough again once it has doubled in size.

  3. Divide the dough into two greased bread pans and let it rise again until doubled.

Bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Brush a little milk over the tops of the loaves before baking.

  3. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown.

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
Provides the gluten network that traps gas and gives the bread its structure.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
Warm water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and activates the yeast.
Salt
Strengthens gluten and controls the speed of yeast fermentation for flavor.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until doubled. Rising depends on yeast activity and temperature. Too cold slows fermentation, so the dough stays dense; the warm place and doubled size show the gas has built enough structure.

“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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