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Stirred Bread

A historical recipe from Luncheons, by Mary Ronald (1902).

A historical recipe

Luncheons: A Cook's Picture Book, by Mary Ronald (1902). Project Gutenberg eBook #57896.

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

Source and licence

From Luncheons, by Mary Ronald (1902). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #57896 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57896). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

Read the original Public domain in the USA

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.

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Ingredients

Method

  1. 1½ quarts of water, 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar, 1 tablespoonful of butter, lard, or cottolene, 1 tablespoonful of salt, 1 cake of compressed yeast, Flour enough to make a thick batter, or about two and three-quarter quarts.
  2. This quantity of material will make three loaves.
  3. Have the water warm, not hot.
  4. Stir into the water the sugar, salt, softened butter, and the yeast, which has been dissolved in a tablespoonful of water (yeast is more easily dissolved in a small quantity of water), then stir in enough flour to make a batter as thick as can be stirred easily.
  5. Stir and beat the batter well for about ten minutes.
  6. Cover the bread-pan and set it in a warm place (eighty degrees is the right temperature).
  7. When the dough is light, or about doubled in bulk, stir it down, and beat it well for a few minutes.
  8. Let it rise a second time, and again beat it, then turn it into the pans, filling them half full.
  9. The tops of the loaves can be made smooth by brushing them with a pastry-brush dipped in water.
  10. The stirring gives a fine texture.
  11. The dough rises quickly after the first rising, and must be watched that it does not get light enough to sour.
  12. Let the loaves rise in the baking-pans to double in size, then bake in a hot oven for one hour.
  13. Bread made in this way is very light and spongy, and is much better than that which is made so thick with flour that it can be kneaded.
  14. It has also the other advantages of being easier to make, the results are more reliable, and the objection of too much handling is removed.
  15. It requires an experienced hand to knead bread without making it too heavy with flour.