Having secured good flour and good yeast, the first step in bread-making is to properly combine these materials with some liquid, which may be either milk or water. If milk is used, it should be first sterilized. More flour will be required to make the bread with water than with milk. Various methods are employed to combine these materials.

As fermentation begins more readily and proceeds more rapidly in a thin batter, it is quite customary to start the bread with such a batter of flour, liquid, and yeast, called a ferment, or sponge, to which, when light, an additional portion of flour and water is added. Some cooks use for this sponge the entire amount of liquid needed for the bread, adding flour as the batter grows light, first for a thicker batter, and later, when this is risen, sufficient to make a stiff dough. Others use only a portion of the liquid needed at first; and when the sponge is well risen, add both flour and liquid to make a fresh sponge, more flour being added to this, when light, to make the dough. Still other cooks dispense altogether with the sponge, adding to the liquid at the first sufficient flour to make it into a dough, allowing it to rise once in the mass, and again after it is molded into loaves.

As to the superiority of one method over another, much depends upon their adaptability to the time and convenience of the user. Good, light bread may be produced by any of the methods. Less yeast, but more time will be required by the first two methods.

Care Of The Bread

Except in very warm weather, the ferment, or sponge, should be started with the liquid at a lukewarm temperature.

The liquid should never be so cold as to chill the yeast. Milk, if used, should be first sterilized by scalding, and then cooled before using.

After the sponge is prepared, the greatest care must be taken to keep it at an equable temperature. From 70° to 90° F. is the best range of temperature, 75° being considered the golden mean throughout the entire fermentive process of bread-making.

After fermentation has well begun, it will continue, but much more slowly if the temperature be gradually lowered to 45° or 50°. If it is necessary to hasten the rising, the temperature may be raised to 80° or 85°, but this will necessitate careful watching, as the bread will be liable to overferment, and become sour. Cold arrests the process of fermentation, while too great heat carries forward the work too rapidly. Too much stress cannot be laid upon the importance of an equable temperature.

Lightness Of Bread

A thin batter is sufficiently light when it is effervescent, like yeast, throughout; a thicker batter, when risen to double its first bulk, and cracked over the top. The loaf is sufficiently light when it has doubled its first proportions, and feels light when lifted on the hand.

Temperature For Baking

Without an oven thermometer, there is no accurate means of determining the exact temperature of the oven; but housekeepers resort to various means to form a judgment about it. The baker's old-fashioned way is to throw a handful of flour on the oven bottom. If it blackens without igniting, the heat is deemed sufficient. A common way of ascertaining if the heat in the oven is sufficient, is to hold the bare arm inside 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, however, 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 fire should be of sufficient strength to keep up the heat for an hour. 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.

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