Part 11 (1/2)

LIGHTNESS OF THE BREAD.--The time required for bread in its different stages to grow light will vary according to the quant.i.ty and strength of the yeast used and the amount of warmth supplied. A thin batter is light enough when in appearance it resembles throughout a ma.s.s of sea foam. It will not greatly increase in bulk, but will be in the state of constant activity, sending up little bubbles of gas and emitting a sharp, pungent odor like fresh yeast.

When the thicker batter or second sponge is sufficiently light, it will have risen to nearly double its original bulk and become cracked over the top like ”crazed” china. It should never be allowed to rise to the point of sinking or caving in, and should be kneaded as soon as ready.

If for any reason it is not possible to knead the bread at once when it has arrived at this stage, do not allow it to stand, but take a knife or spoon and gently beat it back a little. This dissipates some of the gas and reduces the volume somewhat. Let it rise again, which it will do in a short time, if it has not been allowed to become too light. If dough that has been kneaded and allowed to rise in ma.s.s, becomes sufficiently light at some inopportune moment for shaping into loaves, it may be kept from becoming too light and souring, by taking a knife and cutting it away from the sides of the bowl and gradually working it over toward the center. Re-cover and put in a warm place. It will soon a.s.sume its former bulk. This ”cutting down” may be repeated several times if necessary, provided the bread has not been allowed to become too light at any time, and some cook's recommend it as a uniform practice. We do not, however, except in case of necessity; since, though it may possibly make the bread more light, the long-continued fermentation destroys more than is necessary of the food elements of the flour, and develops an unnecessary amount of the products of fermentation. Lightness is not the only requisite for bread, and should be secured with as little deterioration of the flour as possible.

An important point in the preparation of bread is to decide when it is sufficiently light after having been molded and placed in pans. The length of time cannot be given, because it will vary with the temperature, the quality of the flour, and the quant.i.ty added during the kneading. At a temperature of 75, an hour or an hour and a half is about the average length of time needed. A loaf should nearly double its size after being placed in a pan, before baking; when perfectly risen, the bread feels light when lifted and weighed upon the hand. It is better to begin the baking before it has perfectly risen them to wait until it has become so light as to commence to fall, since if the fermentation proceeds too far, the sweetness of the grain will be destroyed, and the bread will be tasteless and innutritious, even if it does not reach the acetous stage.

The exercise of a little judgment and careful attention to detail will soon enable a person successfully to determine the proper degree of lightness of bread in its various stages. Bread which pa.s.ses the extreme point of fermentation, or in common phrase gets ”too light,” will have a strong acid odor, and will pull away from the bowl in a stringy ma.s.s, having a watery appearance very different from the fine, spongy texture of properly risen dough. The acidity of such dough may be neutralized by the addition of an alkali, and housewives who through carelessness and inattention have allowed their bread to become ”sour,” often resort to saleratus or soda to neutralize the acid. The result of such treatment is unwholesome bread, wholly unfit for food. It is better economy to throw away bread material which needs to be sweetened with soda than to run the risk of injury to health by using it.

KNEADING THE DOUGH.--As fresh flour is added during the bread-making, it is necessary to mix it in thoroughly. As long as the batter is thin, this can be done by thoroughly beating the mixture with the addition of material; but when it is a thick dough, some other method must be adopted to bring about the desired result. The usual way is by mixing the dough to a proper consistency, and working it with the hands. This is termed _kneading_. Much of the excellence of bread depends upon the thoroughness of this kneading, since if the yeast is not intimately and equally mixed with every particle of flour, the bread will not be uniform; some portions will be heavy and compact, while others will be full of large, open cavities, from the excessive liberation of gas.

The length of time required for kneading depends upon the perfection with which the yeast cells have been previously diffused throughout the sponge, and upon the quality of the flour used in preparing the bread, much less time being required for kneading dough made from good flour.

Some consider an hour none too long to knead bread. Such a lengthy process may be advantageous, since one of the objects of kneading is to render the glutinous parts of the flour so elastic that the dough may be capable of expanding to several times its bulk without cracking or breaking, but excellent results can be obtained from good flour with less labor. Bread has been kneaded all that is necessary when it will work clean of the board, and when, after a smart blow with the fist in the center of the ma.s.s, it will spring back to its original shape like an India rubber ball. Its elasticity is the surest test of its goodness; and when dough has been thus perfectly kneaded, it can be molded into any shape, rolled, twisted, or braided with ease. Chopping, cutting, stretching, and pulling--the dough are other methods for accomplis.h.i.+ng the same end.

If a large ma.s.s is to be kneaded, it is better to divide it into several portions and knead each separately. It is less laborious and more likely to result in an equal diffusion of the yeast. Bread is often spoiled by the addition of too much flour during kneading. Dough should always be kneaded as soft as it can be handled, and only sufficient flour added to prevent its sticking to the board. Stiff bread is close in texture, and after a day or two becomes dry and hard.

HOW TO MANIPULATE THE DOUGH IN KNEADING.--Sprinkle the board well with flour, and sc.r.a.pe the dough from the bowl with a knife. Dust the hands with flour, and then draw the dough with a rolling motion from the farthest side toward you, using the finger tips for the purpose, but pressing firmly down upon the ma.s.s with the palm of the hands. Reach forward again with the finger tips, and again press the ball of the hands upon the dough. Continue this process of manipulation until the ma.s.s is very much elongated; then turn at right angles and repeat the process, taking care that the finger tips do not break through the light film which will form upon the outside of soft dough when well managed.

_Keep the dough constantly in motion_ until it is smooth, elastic, and fine-grained. The hands and the board may need a light dusting of flour at frequent intervals. If the dough sticks, lift it quickly, and clean the board, that it may be kept smooth. The dough will not stick if kept in constant motion. Do not rub off little wads of dough either from the hands or the board and keep kneading them into the loaf; they will seriously injure the uniform texture of the bread.

HOW MANY TIMES SHALL BREAD BE KNEADED?--As the objects to be attained in kneading dough are to render the gluten more elastic and thoroughly to diffuse the yeast, it will be seen that there has been sufficient kneading when all the flour necessary for the bread has been added. Furthermore, it must be apparent that continued manipulation of the dough at this stage will dissipate and press out the little vesicles of gas held in place by the elastic gluten, and thus lose in part what so much pains has been taken to secure. At whatever stage the requisite amount of flour be added, the dough should then be thoroughly kneaded once for all. If allowed to rise in bulk, when light it should be shaped into loaves with the greatest care, handled lightly, and worked as little as possible, and if at all diminished, allowed to rise again before baking.

DRYNESS OF THE SURFACE.--Bread in all stages should be covered over the top, since it rises much more evenly, and does not have a stiff, dried surface, as when placed in a warm place exposed to air. It sometimes happens that this precaution is forgotten or not sufficiently attended to, and a dry crust forms and over the dough, which, if kneaded into the loaves, leaves hard, dry spots in the bread. In case of such a mishap, take the dry crust off, dissolve it in a little warm water, add flour enough to mold, make it into a small loaf, and raise it separately.

SIZE OF LOAVES.--The lightness of the bread after baking depends upon the perfection with which the little air-cells, formed during the fermenting process, have become fixed by the heat during the baking. The heat expands the carbonic acid gas contained within the open s.p.a.ces in the dough, and at the same time checks further development of gas by destroying the yeast plant. The sooner, then, that the cells can be made permanent after the arrest of fermentation, the more light and porous the bread will be. Although this fixing of the cells is largely dependent upon the degree of heat maintained, it likewise in a measure depends upon the size of the loaf, as the heat will penetrate and fix the cells of a small loaf throughout much sooner than, those of a large one. Therefore, bake in small loaves, and have a separate pan for each, as that admits of an equal degree of heat to all sides. This aids in a more rapid fixing of the air-cells and likewise gives more crust, which is the sweetest and most digestible part of the bread.

Sheet-iron pans, about eight inches in length, four in width, and five in depth, are the most satisfactory. After the dough is molded, divide it into loaves which will fill such pans to the depth of two inches. Let them rise until double their first volume, and then put them in the oven. In baking, the loaves will rise still higher, and if about five inches high when done, will have expanded to about the right proportions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bread Pan]

PROPER TEMPERATURE OF THE OVEN.--The objects to be attained in the baking of bread are to break up the starch and gluten cells of the Sour so as to make them easily digestible, to destroy the yeast plant, and render permanent the cells formed by the action of the carbonic acid gas. To accomplish well these ends, the loaf must be surrounded by a temperature ranging from 400 to 600. The oven should be one in which the heat is equal in all parts, and which can be kept at a steady, uniform heat. Old-fas.h.i.+oned brick ovens were superior in this respect to most modern ranges. The fire for baking bread should be of sufficient strength to keep the oven heated for at least an hour. If the oven has tendency to become too hot upon the bottom, a thin, open grate, broiler, or toasting rack, should be placed underneath the tins to allow a circulation of air and avoid danger of burning. If the heat be insufficient, fermentation will not cease until the bread has become sour; the cells will be imperfectly fixed or entirely collapsed; too little of the moisture will have evaporated, and the result will be a soft, wet, and pasty or sour loaf. If the heat be too great, the bread will be baked before it has perfectly risen, or a thick, burned crust will be produced, forming a non-conducting covering to the loaf, which will prevent the heat from permeating the interior, and thus the loaf will have an overdone exterior, but will be raw and doughy within. If, however, the temperature of the oven be just right, the loaf will continue for a little time to enlarge, owing to the expansion of the carbonic acid gas, the conversion of the water into steam, and the vaporizing of the alcohol, which rises in a gaseous form and is driven off by the heat; a nicely browned crust will be formed over the surface, the result of the rapid evaporation of water from the surface and consequent consolidation of the dough of this portion of the loaf, and a chemical change caused by the action of the heat upon the starch by which is converted into dextrine, finally a.s.suming a brown color due to the production of a substance known to the chemist as _a.s.sama_.

Bread is often spoiled in the baking. The dough may be made of the best of flour and yeast, mixed and kneaded in the most perfect manner, and may have risen to the proper degree of lightness' before going to the oven, yet if the oven is either too hot or not hot enough, the bread will be of an inferior quality.

Without an oven thermometer, there is no accurate means of determining the temperature of the oven; but housekeepers resort to various means to form a judgment about it. The baker's old-fas.h.i.+oned method is to throw a handful of flour on the oven bottom. If it blackens without igniting, the heat is deemed sufficient. Since the object for which the heat is desired is to cook the flour, not to burn it, it might be supposed that this would indicate too high a temperature; but the flour within the loaf to be baked is combined with a certain amount of moisture, the evaporation of which lowers the temperature of the bread considerably below that of the surrounding heated atmosphere. The temperature of the inner portion of the loaf cannot exceed 212 so long as it continues moist. Bread might be perfectly cooked at this temperature by steam, but it would lack that most digestible portion of the loaf, the crust.

A common way of ascertaining if the heat of the oven is sufficient, is to hold the bare arm inside it for a few seconds. If the arm cannot be held within while thirty is counted, it is too hot to begin with. The following test is more accurate: For rolls, the oven should be hot enough to brown a teaspoonful of flour in _one_ minute, and for loaves in _five_ minutes.

The temperature should be high enough to arrest the fermentation, which it will do at a point considerably below the boiling point of water, and at the same time to form a sh.e.l.l or crust, which will so support the dough as to prevent it from sinking or collapsing when the evolution of carbonic acid gas shall cease; but it should not be hot enough to brown the crust within ten or fifteen minutes. The heat should increase for the first fifteen minutes, remain steady for the next fifteen minutes, and may then gradually decrease during the remainder of the baking. If by any mischance the oven be so hot as to brown the crust too soon, cover the loaf with a clean paper for a few minutes. Be careful that no draught reaches the bread while baking; open the oven door very seldom, and not at all for the first ten minutes. If it is necessary to turn the loaf, try to do so without bringing it to the air. From three fourths of an hour to an hour is usually a sufficient length of time to bake an ordinary sized loaf. Be careful not to remove the bread from the oven until perfectly done. It is better to allow it to bake ten minutes too long than not long enough. The crust of bread, when done, should be equally browned all over.

The common test for well-baked bread is to tap it on the bottom with the finger; if it is light and well done, it will sound hollow; heavy bread will have a dull sound. A thoroughly baked loaf will not burn the hand when lifted upon it from the pan.

CARE OF BREAD AFTER BAKING.--When done, remove the loaves from the tins, and tilt them upon edge so that the air may circulate freely on all sides of them to prevent ”sweating.” Do not, however, lay them on a pine shelf or table to absorb the odor of the wood. A large tin dripping pan turned over upon the table does very well to tilt them on. If they are turned often, so that they will not soften on one side, but a fine wire bread cooler is the best thing. If this is not obtainable, a fair subst.i.tute can be easily improvised by tacking window-screen wire to a light frame of sufficient size to hold the requisite number of loaves.

If the bread is left exposed to the air until cold, the crust will be crisp; if a soft crust is desired, it can be secured by brus.h.i.+ng the top of the loaf while hot, with tepid water, and covering with several thicknesses of a clean bread cloth.

If by accident any portion of the crust is burnt, grate it away as soon as cold; this is preferable to cutting or clipping it off.

BEST METHOD OF KEEPING BREAD.--When the bread is quite cold, put it away in a bread box, which should be of tin, or of wood lined with tin, convenient in form and supplied with a well-fitting cover. Never use an unlined wooden box of any kind, as it cannot easily be kept fresh and free from musty odors, which bread so readily absorbs.

Stone and earthen ware are not open to this objection, but they are likely to collect moisture, and hence are not equal to a tin receptacle.