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Yeast Bread

A simple yeast bread made with flour, water, salt, and fresh yeast, baked at 300°F.

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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°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. Combine 3 quarts of flour, 1 quart of lukewarm water, and a little coarse sea salt in a bowl.

  2. Dissolve the fresh yeast in a small dish of the lukewarm water.

  3. Stir the flour and water into a thick batter, mixing in the yeast once it is soft, leaving some dry flour around the edge to keep it warm.

  4. Cover the bowl and set it in a warm place until it begins to rise, about 5-6 hours.

  5. Knead the dough for a short time, then cover and let it rise again overnight.

  6. By morning, the dough should have risen significantly.

Shape and bake

  1. Knead it well and place it in baking tins.

  2. Set the tins by the stove to rise again until light enough.

  3. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C) and bake until done.

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 structure that traps gas and gives the bread its body.
Lukewarm water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and activates the yeast.
Fresh yeast
Produces carbon dioxide that makes the dough rise and become light.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise fully before baking. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce gas; under-proofed dough stays dense, while the rise develops the open, airy crumb. Rising in a warm place speeds fermentation.

“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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