How To Make Fine Bread Or Rolls

To three pounds of flour add one pint of warm milk and a quarter of a pint of clarified yeast; stir it thinly into part of the flour, and leave it all night. Next morning warm another pint of milk; add it to the flour and yeast, stir it round a few times, and then work in lightly the rest of the flour; let it remain half an hour, then make up your rolls. Let them rise till they are quite light, and bake in a hot oven. This paste for loaf-bread should be made somewhat stiffer than for rolls.

Excellent Bread

Fourteen pounds of flour, four eggs, a pint of yeast, and enough lukewarm milk to make it into a dough the thickness of hasty pudding; leave it two hours to rise; sift over it some fine salt; work enough flour into it to make the dough of a proper consistence; make into loaves, and bake in a quick oven.

A Plain Loaf Of Bread

Half a peck of the best seconds flour, one teaspoonful of salt, three tablespoonfuls of yeast, and a pint and a half of water, allowed to rise, and baked, makes one good large loaf of bread.

How To Make Brown Bread

Take thirty pounds of flour and forty pounds of bran, or seventy pounds of flour only once bolted or sifted, so that merely the coarser bran is removed. Into forty-two pounds of this mix a quart of good thick yeast previously strained through a hair sieve (if thin it will require more); then stir in with a spoon a sufficient quantity of lukewarm water to make a proper dough, not too stiff. It makes two loaves more, and still better bread, if you use bran-water instead of plain water. It is made by boiling five pounds of coarse bran in rather more than four gallons of water, so that when boiled perfectly smooth you have three gallons and three quarts clear bran-water. Leave the dough to stand two hours; if it does not rise sufficiently, add two teaspoonfuls of coarse brown sugar. When it has risen, add a pint of salt dissolved in plain or bran water, according as you have made your bread (this and the bran water must both be strained), and the rest of the flour. Work it well for an hour - the coarser the flour the more working it requires; cover it up, and leave it to stand at least two hours more.

Next lay it on a table (it is better if near the fire), and alternately work it with your hands and roll it out with a rolling-pin for a little while; then shape it into two round pieces for loaves of this shape. Wet the sides that are to be joined with a little water, and make a hollow with the hand in the upper part. See that the oven is properly cleaned and heated, and put the bread in, where it should remain about two hours. Keep the oven closed otherwise the bread will crack.

Very Good Bread

Take a peck of the best flour, two quarts of milk and water, mixed half-and-half, together with a teacupful of yeast and a little salt; make a hole in the flour; pour it in, and stir all well up with a wooden spoon; set it in a warm place, and let it stand till you think it has sufficiently risen, which is usually in from two to three hours; then work it up lightly, and let it stand two minutes before you put it in the oven; bake according to your judgment, but it generally takes an hour and a half.