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Bread

To Make Loaf Bread

A recipe for making loaf bread using flour, water, salt, and yeast.

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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the starter

  1. Place the flour in a large bowl.

  2. Make a hole in the center of the flour.

  3. Pour in 1 quart of warm water, 6 ounces of salt, and 1 pint of yeast.

  4. Stir in enough flour to make a thick batter. Mix until smooth.

  5. Cover the mixture.

  6. Let it sit overnight.

Make the dough

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

  2. Add the remaining 4 quarts of warm water and 6 ounces of salt to the mixture.

  3. Knead until all the flour is incorporated into a good dough.

  4. Let the dough rest for about 20 minutes.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into loaves weighing about 4 to 5 pounds each.

  2. Allow the loaves to rise.

  3. Place the loaves in the oven.

  4. Bake for 1.5 hours in a well-heated oven, ensuring it is tightly closed.

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 gluten network and bulk of the dough that gives the loaf its structure.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars in the flour, producing gas that makes the dough rise.
Warm water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and activates the yeast.
Salt
Controls yeast activity and strengthens gluten, giving the bread flavor and a firmer crumb.

The step that matters

Overnight starter. The starter must ferment long enough for the yeast to develop gas and flavor. Yeast activity drives the rise, so a short or cold rest leaves the dough dense.

“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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