Wheat Bread

Take a cup of lukewarm milk, or of water with a teaspoonful of butter, a quarter cake yeast dissolved in a quarter cup of lukewarm water, or a quarter cup of liquid yeast, flour to make a stiff dough (three and quarter to three and half cups) one teaspoonful sugar and one tea-spoonful salt.

Scald the milk, add the sugar and salt, and cool it until lukewarm. Dissolve the compressed yeast in the lukewarm water, and add it. Stir in flour to make a dough stiff enough to handle. Scrape the dough out on a floured board, and knead it about fifteen minutes. It should be smooth and elastic, so that when pressed with the finger the dough springs back. Put the dough back into the bowl. Cover with a towel, and set it in a warm place and let the dough rise until double its bulk. Then lay it on a board and knead it again about fifteen minutes, using as little flour as possible. Shape it into biscuit or loaves, lay them in a greased pan, let them rise in a warm place, until double their bulk, and bake on the floor of a hot oven. Biscuit will require from twenty to thirty minutes, and loaves from forty-five minutes to one hour. If the dough is mixed with water, a little butter may be added to prevent the bread from being tough. The butter should be added to the lukewarm water. The quantity of yeast in the recipe will raise the dough to double its bulk in about six hours; one-third of a cake of yeast will raise it in about four hours, and one-eighth of a cake will raise it in about twelve hours. When the bread is baked take it out of the pan and let it stand uncovered, that the air may circulate around it. When it is perfectly cold put it away in a clean, dry tin box. Do not wrap it in cloth, as the cloth absorbs the moisture in the bread and destroys it flavor.

Bread Made With A Sponge

Use recipe for bread, stirring in only enough flour to make a thick batter. let the batter rise over night. In the morning add flour to make a stiff dough, and knead or beat it until it is smooth. Mold it lightly into loaves or biscuits. Let them rise until double their bulk, and bake. A potato may be mashed and stirred into the batter before it is set away to rise.

Graham Bread

Take one teacupful of wheat flour, a half teacupful each of molasses and of good yeast, a teaspoonful of salt, and a pint of warm water. Mix these and add sufficient Graham flour to make the dough as stiff as can be stirred with a strong spoon. Set this over night, and in the morning add one teaspoonful of soda, dissolved in a little water. Mix well, and pour into two medium-sized pans, which should be about half full. Let stand in a warm place until the dough rises to the top of the pans, then bake one hour in a fairly hot oven.

The loaves should be covered when first put into the oven with a thick brown paper, or an old tin cover ; this prevents the upper crust hardening before the loaf is well risen. If these directions are correctly followed the bread will not be heavy or sodden.