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Classic
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page 222
them, use as little flour as possible; the kneading to be done when first made
from the sponge, and should be done well and for some length of time, as this
makes the pores fine, the bread cut smooth and tender. Care should be taken not
to get the dough too stiff.
When any recipe calls for baking-powder, and you do not have it, you can use
cream-tartar and soda, in the proportion of one level teaspoonful of soda to two
of cream-tartar.
When the recipe calls for sweet milk or cream, and you do not have it, you may
use in place of it sour milk or cream, and, in that case, baking-powder or cream
of tartar must not be used, but baking-soda, using a level teaspoonful to a
quart of sour milk; the milk is always best when just turned, so that it is
solid, and not sour enough to whey or to be watery.
When making biscuits or bread with baking-powder or soda and cream tartar, the
oven should be prepared first; the dough handled quickly and put into the oven
immediately, as soon as it becomes the proper lightness, to ensure good success.
If the oven is too slow, the article baked will be heavy and hard.
As in beating cake, never stir ingredients into batter, but beat them in, by
beating down from the bottom, and up, and over again. This laps the air into the
batter, which produces little air-cells and causes the dough to puff and swell
as it comes in contact with the heat while cooking.
TO RENEW STALE ROLLS.
To freshen stale biscuits or rolls, put them into a steamer for ten minutes,
then dry them off in a hot oven; or dip each roll for an instant in cold water
and heat them crisp in the oven.
WARM BREAD FOR BREAKFAST.
Dough, after it has become once sufficiently raised and perfectly light, cannot
afterwards be injured by setting aside in any cold place where it cannot freeze;
therefore, biscuits, rolls, etc., can be made late the day before wanted for
breakfast. Prepare them ready for baking by molding them out late in the
evening; lay them a little apart on buttered tins; cover the tins with a cloth,
then fold around that a newspaper, so as to exclude the air, as that has a
tendency to cause the crust to be hard and thick when baked. The best place in
summer is to place them in the ice-box, then all you have to do in the morning
(an hour before breakfast time, and while the oven is heating) is to bring them
from the ice-box, take off the cloth and warm it, and place it over them again;
then set the tins in a warm place near the fire. This will give them time to
rise and
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