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Excellent "Graham Bread"

A historical recipe from Mary at the farm, and book of recipes compiled during her visit among the "Pennsylvania Germans", by Thomas, Edith M. (Edith May) (1915).

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A historical recipe

Mary at the farm, and book of recipes compiled during her visit among the "Pennsylvania Germans", by Thomas, Edith M. (Edith May) (1915). Project Gutenberg eBook #13545.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

United States

Known as an American recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

Ingredients 8 ingredients

  1. 1/2 cup of sweet cream
  2. 3-1/2 cups of milk
  3. 3 tablespoonfuls sugar
  4. 1 tablespoonful salt
  5. 2-1/2 cups each of graham
  6. one quart of scalded milk
  7. one tablespoonful of butter
  8. 1 Fleischman yeast

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.

Method

  1. At 6.30 A.M.
  2. place in a quart measure 1/2 cup of sweet cream and 3-1/2 cups of milk, after being scalded (1 quart all together).
  3. When lukewarm, add 1 Fleischman yeast cake, dissolved in a little of the luke warm milk, 3 tablespoonfuls sugar and 1 tablespoonful salt.
  4. Add 3 cups each of white bread flour and 3 cups of graham flour (in all 6 cups or 1-1/2 quarts of flour).
  5. Mix well together and stand in a warm place, closely covered, a couple of hours, until well-risen.
  6. Then stir sponge down and add about 2-1/2 cups each of graham and of white flour.
  7. (Sponge for graham bread should not be quite as stiff as a sponge prepared from white flour.) Set to rise again for an hour, or longer;
  8. when light, stir down sponge and turn on to a well-floured board.
  9. Knead well, divide into four portions, mold into four small, shapely loaves, brush with soft butter, place in well-greased pans, set to rise, and in about one hour they should be ready to put in a moderately-hot oven.
  10. Bake about fifty minutes.
  11. Graham bread should be particularly well-baked.
  12. Brush loaves, when baked, with butter, which makes a crisp crust with a nutty flavor.
  13. Should cream not be available, one quart of scalded milk, containing one tablespoonful of butter, may be used with good results.
  14. If cream be used with the milk, no shortening is required in the bread.
  15. Bread is considered more wholesome when no shortening is used in its preparation.

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Wooden spoon
  • Pastry brush
Source Public domain in the USA
Credit

From Mary at the farm, and book of recipes compiled during her visit among the "Pennsylvania Germans", by Thomas, Edith M. (Edith May) (1915). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #13545 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13545). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.