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Bread

Family Bread

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Family Bread

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 4 cups of coarse flour and 1 tablespoon of salt.

  2. In a separate bowl, dissolve 2 teaspoons of yeast in 1½ cups of warm water.

  3. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour mixture and stir until a dough forms.

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

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

Shape and rise

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

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

  3. Let it rise again for 30 minutes.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30-35 minutes 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

Coarse flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light and airy.
Water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and the dough stays moist.

The step that matters

Knead until smooth. Kneading aligns and stretches gluten strands, building the elastic network that traps gas. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes dense, so the dough should be smooth and springy before rising.

“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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