FRAU SCHMIDTS “QUICK BREAD”

The Professor’s wife seldom used any liquid except water to set a sponge for bread.  She seldom used any shortening.  She taught Mary to make bread by the following process, which she considered superior to any other.  From the directions given, housewives may think more time devoted to the making of a couple of loaves of bread than necessary; also, that too great a quantity of yeast was used; but the bread made by “Frau Schmidt” was excellent, quickly raised and baked.

The whole process consumed only about four hours’ time, and how could time be more profitably spent than in baking sweet, crusty loaves of bread, even in these strenuous days when the efficient housekeeper plans to conserve strength, time and labor?

First, two Fleischman’s compressed yeast cakes were placed in a bowl and dissolved with 4 tablespoonfuls of luke-warm water; she then added 1 cup of lukewarm water, 1/2 tablespoonful of sugar and 1/2 teaspoonful of salt and stirred all well together.  The bowl containing this yeast foam was allowed to stand in a warm place, closely covered, one hour.

At the end of that time the yeast mixture should be light and foamy.  It was then poured into the centre of a bowl containing about 4-1/2 cups of warmed flour, mixing the foamy yeast with a portion of the flour to make a soft sponge, leaving a wall of flour around the inside edge of bowl, as our grandmothers used to do in olden times when they mixed a sponge for bread of liquid flour and yeast, in one end of the old-fashioned wooden “dough tray,” using a wooden stick or small paddle for stirring together the mixture.

The bowl containing the sponge was placed in a warm place to rise.  In about 15 or 20 minutes 1/2 cup of lukewarm water was added to the sponge, stirring in all the outside wall of flour until a dough, the proper consistency for bread, was formed.  The dough was turned out on the molding board and given a couple of quick, deft turns with the hands for several minutes, then placed in the bowl and again set to rise in a warm place, free from draughts, for 25 or 30 minutes.  When light, with hands slightly greased with butter, she kneaded the dough a short time, until smooth and elastic, divided the dough into two portions, placed each loaf in warmed, well-greased bread pans and stood in a warm place about 1/4 hour.  Then turned the contents of bread pans onto bake-board, one at a time.  Cut each loaf into three portions, rolled each piece into long, narrow strips with the palms of the hands.  Pinched ends of the three strips together and braided or plaited them into a braid almost the length of bread pan.  Placed each braided loaf in a bread pan and set to raise as before.  When well-raised, brush the top of loaves with melted butter.  Bake about three-quarters of an hour in a moderately-hot oven.  An old-fashioned way of testing the heat of the oven was to hold the hand in the oven while counting thirty.  Should one be unable to bear the heat of oven a longer time, then the temperature was correct for baking bread.  Should one be able to allow the hand to remain in the oven a longer time, the heat of the oven should be increased.