This section is from the book "Elements Of The Theory And Practice Of Cookery", by Mary E. Williams. Also available from Amazon: Elements Of The Theory And Practice Of Cookery; A Textbook Of Domestic Science For Use In Schools.
Reserve one-half cupful of flour. Pour the hot milk on the salt, sugar, and butter. When it has become lukewarm, stir into it the yeast and add the flour gradually, using as much of the reserved portion as is necessary. When stiff enough, knead the dough on a board. Let it rise until tripled in bulk. Roll out about one-half inch thick, cut with a biscuit-cutter, spread lightly with melted butter, crease with the back of a knife-handle dipped in flour, and fold almost double. Let the rolls rise until doubled in bulk (about twenty minutes). Brush them with water or milk, and bake in a very hot oven fifteen minutes.
Flour, about 4 c. Sugar, 2 tb. Salt, 1/2 t. Butter, 2 tb. Scalded milk, 1 c.
Compressed yeast, 1 cake, mixed with
Lukewarm water, 1/4 c.
Currants, about 1/2 c.
Extra butter and sugar.
Put sugar, salt, and butter in a bowl. Pour upon them the hot milk. When the milk has become lukewarm, stir in the yeast. Add enough flour to make a drop-batter, beating till full of bubbles. Let it rise until very light. Add the beaten eggs, beat well; add enough more flour to make a soft dough, knead thoroughly, and let it rise again. When tripled in bulk, roll out, with as little handling as possible, into a rectangle a little less than one-half inch in thickness; spread thinly with softened butter, working from the centre toward the edges. Sprinkle with currants and sugar. Roll the dough up into a cylinder one inch in diameter, and cut it into slices one inch thick. Place these close together, cut side down, on shallow greased pans, and let them rise till very light. Dissolve one teaspoonful of sugar in two tablespoonfuls of milk; brush the tops of the rolls with this mixture, and bake them twenty minutes in a hot oven.
Cleaned currants in packages need only be picked over. To clean currants bought in bulk, sprinkle them with flour and rub between the folds of a clean cloth, pick off stems, rinse currants in a wire strainer until the water comes through clean, shake to remove water, and dry in the sun, or in a warm, not hot, oven.
Bread of one kind or another is in common use the world over. Wheat bread meets the needs of the body more nearly than any other kind does. About half the dry matter of wheat bread is starch. Bread contains some fat, and enough protein and mineral matter to give it value as a tissue-builder. To people among whom it is the chief article of diet, its tissue-building material is of first importance. By those who eat considerable meat or other protein food, bread is valued more for its starch and other non-nitrogenous foodstuffs. (Chart 4.) Graham and whole wheat breads contain and supply to the body more mineral matter than white bread, but do not supply more protein as some people suppose. For brain workers and inactive people coarse breads are good because the bran in them gives bulk and tends to promote intestinal activity.
Composition Of Food Materials
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Office of Experiment Stations
A. C. True: Director
Prepared by C. F. Langworthy Expert in Charge of Nutrition Investigations
Try to crumble fresh bread, stale bread, bread-crust, soft toast, crisp dry toast. Which crumble more easily? Which will be most readily broken up by the teeth? Well-chewed bread tastes better and satisfies hunger more quickly than bread swallowed hastily.
Chewing helps to dissolve food, and by exciting the nerves communicating between the mouth and other digestive organs, it starts a flow of digestive juices toward the stomach and intestines. Where is starch digested ? where is protein digested? What digests them? (Pp. 70, 86, 369.)
Should we buy bread or make it? - The best home-made bread is cheaper, more nutritious, and more whole-some than bought bread. The process of bread-making is not so difficult as many people suppose. The yeast now obtainable is excellent in qualit