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Bread

To Make Loaf Bread

A simple loaf bread made with flour, water, salt, and yeast, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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To Make Loaf 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.

Make the sponge

  1. In the evening, make a hole in the flour and pour in warm water and yeast.

  2. Stir in enough flour to make a thick batter.

  3. Mix until smooth.

  4. Cover the mixture.

  5. Let it sit overnight.

Make the dough

  1. Add 5 quarts of water and 6 ounces of salt to the sponge.

  2. Mix into a dough.

  3. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into loaves of 4-5 pounds each.

  2. Let the loaves rise.

  3. Clean the oven.

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

  5. Ensure the oven is hot.

  6. Bake the loaves for 1.5 hours.

  7. Keep the oven closed while baking.

  8. Brush the tops with water while hot.

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

Flour
Forms the structure of the sponge and dough once gluten develops with mixing and resting.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars in the flour, producing gas that makes the loaves rise.
Warm water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and keeps the yeast active.
Salt
Controls yeast activity and strengthens the gluten for a more even crumb.

The step that matters

Let the sponge sit overnight. The sponge needs time for the yeast to ferment the flour. Too short a rest leaves the dough flat and dense, while the long ferment builds flavor and gas.

“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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