Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

Dust a little flour on the pastry board, and shape the loaves by working the two pieces of dough quickly between your hands without raising the dough from the board. Press the dough slightly as you work it. Hold each loaf in your left hand, and draw the edge of a knife just round the middle of the dough without cutting deep into it. Make a criss-cross cut or two over the top, as the loaves will x'ise the better for it. Make up the dough into loaves as lightly 528 BREAD, BISCUITS, AND CAKES as possible. The oven must be hot at first, so as to kill the yeast-plant. Let the heat decrease gradually, so as to bake the bread all through evenly, not having a hard crust outside and spongy dough inside. If the oven is not hot the loaves will continue to rise, or to “ prove,” as bakers call it, long after they ought to have begun to bake. The time for a quai-tern loaf to bake is from an hour and a half to two hours. If the quartern of flour is divided into two loaves, allow an hour to an hour and a quarter. When a loaf is sufficiently baked it will ring hollow if you knock the bottom cmst with your knuckles. To quote the words of an expert in bread-making : “ G-ood bread will feel light when lifted in the hand. Good “ bread when cut will resemble a fine sponge of uniform “ texture, and be equally free from the spaces caused by large “ air- bubbles and from those dark streaks which show that the “ sponge was ill-prepared, or the dough too heavily kneaded “when finally made up for the oven. Loaves of well-made “ and well-baked bread will retain their shape ; they will be “ equally browned, and the crust will be firm and crisp, -without “ being thick and hard. Loaves which have been carelessly “ baked are sometimes burned in one part, whilst the dough is “scarcely set in another.” All bread should be turned on its side as soon as it is taken out of the oven. If this is not done the under part of the loaves will become wet and blistered, because the steam cannot escape. The bread should be left to get quite cold befoi-e it is put away in the bread-pan. Keep the bread-pan covered, and scald it out frequently, being careful to wipe it dry. Bread which has been cut should be kept in a different pan. Bread-pans ought to be raised a little from the floor by blocks of wood, so as to allow the ah’ to circulate under them. In taking off the cover of the bread- pan be sure not to put it down with a bang. This is the cause of the constant bi’eakages in the covei’S of bread-pans. The loaves moulded as described above ai'e called Batch loaves. To mould a Cottage loaf, divide the dough into two pieces, one not quite a quarter the size of the other. Make each into a ball, di’awing the edges undei’neath. Set the little ball on the larger one, flour the handle of the wooden spoon, and stick it sti’aight down through the middle of the loaf. If 529 BREAD, BISCUITS, AND CAKES crusty bread is liked, gash the edges and top of the loaf here and there with a knife. The earthenware pans I recommend must be rubbed with a very little butter, to prevent the bread from sticking to them. In the same way if tins are used for baking they must be lightly buttered. For a tinned loaf only fill the tin half full, and bake as soon as the dough has risen to the top of the tin.