You cannot talk about breakfast without mentioning bread. This baked staple meal has secured its place securely as one of man’s oldest foods. Made from flour dough and water, bread is the most basic breakfast on most tables all over the world. Here are some very simple recipes with bread you can try out in your house.
Sponge Bread
To make four loaves of bread, you will need three quarts of wheat flour, and the same quantity of boiling water. Mix them well together and let the dough sit untill lukewarm. Add a tea-cup of yeast and set it in a warm place to rise. When light, knead in flour till the dough is stiff enough to mould up, then let it stand untill risen again, before molding it up. Put in pans and bake untill brown and ready.
Rye Bread
Mix rye flour with lukewarm milk, before adding as much yeast as the wheat bread. For four or five loaves of bread, put in a couple of tea-spoonfuls of salt. A couple of table-spoonfuls of melted butter make the crust tenderer. To prevent the bread from becoming hard, avoid kneading too much. When light, take it out into pans without molding it up let it remain in them about twenty minutes before baking.
Brown Bread
Brown bread is made by scalding Indian meal, and stirring into it, when lukewarm, about the same quantity of rye flour as Indian meal. Add yeast and salt in the same proportion as other kinds of bread. Bake it between two and three hours.
Indian Bread
Mix Indian meal with cold water, stir it into boiling water and let it boil for half an hour before stirring in a little salt. Take it from the fire and let it remain untill lukewarm. Stir in yeast and Indian meal until it is the same the consistency of unbaked rye dough. When light, put it into buttered pans, let it remain a few minutes, then bake it two and a half hours.
Potato Bread
Boil the potatoes very soft, then peel and mash them fine. Add salt and very little butter. Wet the flour with lukewarm water, then work in the yeast and flour untill stiff to mould up. It will rise quicker than common wheat bread, and should be baked as soon as risen before it turns sour.
Rice Bread
Boil a pint of rice untill soft, and then mix it with a couple of quarts of rice or wheat flour. When cool, add half a tea-cup of yeast, a little salt, and milk to make it the same consistency as the rye bread. When light, bake it in small buttered pans.
French Rolls
Add a quart of lukewarm milk on to a quart of flour. Melt a couple of ounces of butter, and add to it milk and flour, 3 eggs, and one tea-spoonful of salt. When the mixture has cooled, stir in half a tea-cup of yeast, and enough flour to make it stiff enough to mould up. Put it in a warm place. When light, roll it into small balls. Lay the rolls on flat buttered tins and let them remain there for twenty minutes before baking.