EASY HOME-MADE BREAD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 416, 13 June 1947, Page 22

EASY HOME-MADE BREAD

O many requests for recipes for home-made bread have come in lately, that I think our feature this week should be devoted to them. Bread is not hard to -make-one soon gets the knack of it and works out one’s own little methods. Yeast bread is by far the best, although it is wise to keep handy a recipe for a baking powder loaf in case you are caught without yeast. It is best to use the fourpenny cakes of compressed yeast, which can be posted to you direct each week if you live in an otit-of-the-way place; or bought at the store. Country storekeepers will order it regularly for you. Also most people keep the glass jars of dried yeast in the house nowadays, to take as a tonic in warm, sweetened water; and this. dried yeast

may also be used quite well in breadmaking. A good tablespoonful is about equal to’ the cake of compressed yeast. Mix it with luke warm water, and add the sugar, as usual. A little more or less makes no differénce, except that the loaf may rise a little faster or slower, according to the age of the. yeast, which is generally marked on the jar. Use more yeast if it is not so fresh, ALWAYS use. LUKE WARM water or milk to dissolve the yeast, from 84 to 90deg. Hot water will kill yeast, and cold water will not work it. NEVER add the SALT to the yeast-liquor, but add it to the flour before adding the yeast. "Holey" Bread The causes of "holey" bread are usually (1) mixing it with water too warm, or (2) putting the dough to rise in too warm a place; or (3) letting the dough rise too much. above the top of the baking tin. Only fill the tins half full, and let the loaf rise to double its size. Wholemeal Bread (no kneading) This is a very easily made loaf. You may uge some white flour instead of all wholemeal, but if so you will not need to mix it quite so moist. Eight breakfast cups of wholemeal; 1 cake of compressed yeast; 1% pints warm water (or less); 1 tablespoon each of salt and raw (or brown) sugar; 1

tablespoon malt if liked. Mix flour and salt; dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar, and malt if using. Pour into the flour, and stir and knead for five minutes. If not the right consistency, add flour or water accordingly. Mould to loaves, put in greased tins. Put in warm place (oven slightly heated), till double the size, about 142 hours. Keep it covered while rising. Bake about 34 hour till done-gas oven regulo 7; electric, 425 to 450deg., top element low, bottom medium. When baked, take loaves from the tins and return to the oven for a few minutes to crisp up. The mixture for this recipe must be a soft dough, Mix it mainly with a spoon; then flour the hand and lift the dough out of the mixing bowl into the tin. It does not leave the bowl dry and clean like most bread. Have the tin well greased. The amount of liquid varies a little, according to the flour. Wanganui Bread Cream 1¥0z.. yeast and 1 dessertspvon of brown sugar. Put to warm 3 large cups of white flour; 2 large- cups of wholemeal; and 1 dessertspoon of salt. Have ready plenty of luke warm water. Make a hole in the flours, pour in the yeast and sugar mixed with 2 large cups of luke warm water. Mix well, adding more water till it is a nice soft dough. Knead till velvety and springy, like rubber. Leave-‘in a warm place 2 or 3 hours, and knead again. Put in greased, warmed tins, leave another hour, till nearly double in size. Bake in a_ hot oven, Bermaline Breed: (with baking powder) Foun cups of wholemeal; 1 teaspoon of salt; 4 teaspoons of baking powder; and 1 tablespoon of treacle. Put the treacle into a basin, and pour over 1 cup of boiling water. Then add sufficient cold water to make a pint. When cool, mix all together. Bake in a billy for 2 hours, and leave the lid on all the time. You, may put as much as 2 tablespoons of golden syrup instead of the treacle; or use malt instead of treacle. White Bread Mix a cake of compressed yeast in a small basin with 2 teaspoons of sugar. Add % cup of milk and water warmed to blood heat. Leave a few minutes to rise. Put 8 large cups of flour and 1 dessertspoon of salt into a basin, and pour the risen yeast into a hole in the middle of the flour. Add enough milk and water (half and half) warmed to blood heat, to mix to a scone-like consistency. Cover with a cloth and put in a warm place to rise, until double its size. Well flour a baking board and knead the dough well, using the heel of the hand, and adding flour as necessary. Put into greased tins and allow to stand for -half an hour, covered, till it rises again, Cook in a medium oven for about an hour. Another Wholemeal Bread (no kneading) i Put 2lbs. of wholemeal and a tablespoon of salt into a basin, rub in an ounce of butter or shortening. In another (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) basin put loz. of compressed yeast and 2 teaspoons of sugar, and mix together. Add to this 1 pint of water at blood heat. Pour the liquid into a "well’’ made in the middle of the wholemeal. Mix thoroughly, and half fill greased loaf tins. Prick with a fork, and put to rise in a warm place until twice the size. Put into a pre-heated oven and bake % to 1 hour, regulo 7 or 8.