> about 25 minutes; place the dough in a covered bowl in a warm place to
rise about two hours and when well-risen and light, knead and stand
one hour. Then mold into shapely loaves, place in pans, brush tops of
loaves with melted butter, and when doubled in bulk, in about 45
minutes put in an oven which is so hot you can hold your hand in only
while you count thirty, or if a little flour browns in the oven in
about six minutes, it is hot enough for bread. The oven should be hot
enough to brown the bread slightly five minutes after being put in.
Medium-sized loaves of bread require from 3/4 of an hour to one hour
to bake. When bread is sufficiently baked it can be told by turning
the loaf over and rapping with the knuckles on the bottom of the loaf.
If it sounds hollow, it is thoroughly baked, and should be taken from
the oven. Stand loaves up on end against some object, where the air
can circulate around them, and brush a little butter over the top to
soften the crust. An authority on the chemistry of foods cautious
housewives against cooling loaves of bread too rapidly after taking
from the oven, and I should like to add a word of caution against
eating fresh breads of any kind. Bread should be baked at least twelve
hours before being eaten. The sponge for this bread was set at 6
o'clock in the morning; bread was baked at 10.30.
From 1 pint of liquid, 1 cake of yeast and about 1-1/2 quarts of flour
were made two loaves of bread. More yeast is required to raise a
sponge containing sugar, eggs and shortening than is required to raise
bread sponge containing only liquid, flour and yeast.