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Bread

Spongeless Bread

A simple bread made with flour, water, and sea salt, baked until hollow.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Spongeless Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift 1 quart of flour into a bowl.

  2. Gradually add water until a dough forms.

  3. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic.

  4. Let the dough rest for a few minutes.

  5. Shape the dough into a loaf.

Bake

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

  2. Place the loaf in the oven and bake for about 1 hour.

  3. Check for doneness by tapping the bottom; it should sound hollow.

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 and chew.
Water
Hydrates the flour so its proteins can form a cohesive, elastic dough.

The step that matters

Kneading the dough until smooth and elastic. Kneading aligns and strengthens gluten strands. If the dough is under-kneaded, it will be weak and crumbly and may not rise or hold its shape well in the oven.

“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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