by James Beard
Plain Saffron Bread
This bread is reminiscent of Cornish and Welsh teas, where saffron buns and bread have been exceedingly popular for generations. If one is fond of the color and the rather unusual flavor of saffron, this loaf is a happy change from traditional breads. It is rather light in texture, distinctive in flavor, and a deep orangey yellow, streaked with the tiny stigmas of the crocus that make saffron. It makes fine toast.
[2 loaves]
½ teaspoon saffron threads
⅓ cup boiling water
1 package active dry yeast
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ cup warm water (100° to 115°, approximately)
1 scant cup evaporated milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 heaping teaspoon salt
4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour, more if necessary
Pour the boiling water over the saffron and steep 5 minutes. Cool and reserve. Mix the yeast and sugar in the ½ cup warm water and let proof. Scald the milk and add the butter and salt. Cool. Combine these three mixtures and blend well. Add the flour, 1 cup at a time, and beat hard with a wooden spoon. Use enough flour to make a stiff, sticky dough. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a ball, put in a buttered bowl, and turn to coat the surface with butter. Cover, set in a warm, draft-free place, and let rise until doubled in bulk. Punch down, turn out, and knead for another minute. Put back in the bowl to rise again until doubled in bulk. Punch down, shape into two loaves, and put in buttered 8 × 4 × 2-inch loaf tins. Cover and let rise to double in bulk again. Bake in a preheated oven at 425° for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350° and continue baking for 20 to 25 minutes more, until the crust is a dark, lustrous color and the bread sounds hollow when rapped on top and bottom with the knuckles. Cool on racks before serving.
VARIATIONS
• Saffron Fruit Bread: Adding eggs, more sugar, spices, and fruits converts this into a tea bread. Excellent thinly sliced and buttered, it is also extraordinarily good for toast. Its festive character makes it a pleasant bread to give away during the holidays.
[2 loaves or 12 buns]
Use the ingredients listed in the master recipe, plus the following:
2 eggs
½ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup chopped currants
½ cup chopped citron
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
Add the eggs, additional sugar, and spices to the dough before first kneading, plus additional flour if needed to compensate for the eggs. After the first rising, knead in the currants, citron, and caraway seeds lightly dusted with flour. Proceed as in the master recipe, except that you will use 9 × 5 × 3 pans. The dough can also be shaped into buns, placed on greased baking sheets, and allowed to rise until almost doubled in bulk. Bake at 400° for approximately 20 to 25 minutes.
Italian Feather Bread
This is a very easy-to-make, light, fluffy, and flavorful loaf, a bread to eat while still warm. It’s excellent with summer fare—cold meats, salads, and vegetables—or merely with coffee and preserves.
[2 free-form loaves]
2 packages active dry yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 cup warm water (100° to 115°, approximately)
⅓ cup butter, cut into small pieces
¾ cup hot water
2 teaspoons salt
5½ to 6 cups all-purpose flour
Cornmeal
1 egg white, lightly beaten
Stir the yeast, sugar, and warm water together in a large mixing bowl; let sit till yeast dissolves and starts to proof. In the meantime, melt the butter in the hot water and let cool to lukewarm. Add the salt, and combine with the yeast mixture. Stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon, add the flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough almost comes away from the sides of the bowl. (Don’t be afraid if it seems rather soft and sticky; it will stabilize in the next step.) Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured board. Using a baker’s scraper or large spatula, scrape under the flour and dough, fold the dough over, and press it with your free hand. Continue until the dough has absorbed enough flour from the board and is easy to handle. Knead for 2 to 4 minutes, being sure to keep your hands well floured, because it is still a sticky dough. When the dough is soft and smooth, let rest for 5 or 6 minutes and then divide in two. Roll each half into a rectangle about 12 inches long and 8 inches wide. Starting from the wide end, roll this up quite tightly, pinching the seams as you roll.
Butter one or two baking sheets well and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place the loaves on the sheets, and let them rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 50 to 60 minutes. Brush with beaten egg white and bake in a preheated 425° oven 40 minutes, or until the loaves are a rich, golden color and make a hollow sound when you tap the crust, top and bottom, with your knuckles. Cool on a rack and slice when quite fresh.
Salt-Rising Bread
Salt-rising bread is one of the oldest breads in this country. It has a delicious and unusual flavor and a very smooth texture. In fact, it is one of the most remarkable of all breads. It does present one great difficulty for the breadmaker. It is unpredictable. You may try the same recipe without success three or four times and find that it works the fifth time. Or you may get a loaf that is halfway good. If it works, fine; if it doesn’t, forget it. I am including it in this collection because it is a worthy recipe, but I do so with a warning that you may be disappointed.
To keep the starter at a steady temperature, which the recipe requires, leave it in an electric oven with the light on—this will provide just enough warmth—or in a gas oven with the pilot light on. In the old days it used to be kept in hot water for 25 hours, the bowl covered with quilts. The foam that forms may not be one, two, or three inches in thickness, but if it foams at all make the loaf and see what happens. Good luck!
[2 loaves]
FOR THE SALT-RISING STARTER:
1½ cups hot water
1 medium potato, peeled and sliced thin
2 tablespoons white or yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
Mix the starter ingredients and pour into a 2-quart jar or deep bowl that has been rinsed well with hot water. Cover with a lid or plate. Put the jar into a larger bowl or pan and surround with boiling water. Cover the large bowl with plastic or a towel, and cover this with three or four towels or a blanket. It should stand at a temperature of 100 degrees when the mixture is finally foaming. The electric oven turned to warm will provide the right temperature, and so will a gas range with a pilot light on. In either case, let the starter stand about 12 hours, or until the top is covered with ½ to 1 inch of foam. Sometimes it will take longer to foam, even 24 hours, but continue to keep it warm.
FOR THE BREAD:
Liquid from starter (see above)
½ cup warm water (100° to 115°, approximately)
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup undiluted evaporated milk or ½ cup lukewarm whole milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon salt 4½ to
5½ cups all-purpose or hard-wheat flour
Let the liquid from the potato drip through a strainer into a mixing bowl, and then pour the warm water through the potatoes, pressing out as much liquid as possible. Discard the potatoes. Add to the drained liquid the soda, milk, melted butter, and salt, mixing well. Stir in 2 cups of the flour and beat until very smooth. Stir in the remaining flour, a cup at a time, until a soft dough is formed, using up to 4½ cups. Put a cup of flour on the bread board and turn the dough onto it. Sprinkle a little of the flour on top of the dough and knead lightly for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the dough is smooth but still soft. Divide the dough and shape into two loaves (this bread does not have a rising between the kneading and the shapin
g). Place in well-buttered bread pans, brush the top of each loaf with melted butter, cover, and place in a warm, draft-free place to rise until doubled in bulk. (This will take longer than regular bread—as long as 4 to 5 hours, maybe more.) Bake in a preheated oven at 375° for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the loaves shrink from the sides of the pans. Remove from pans to cool.
Sourdough Bread
Despite my own feeling that sourdough bread is much overrated and is difficult to perfect at home, I am including one recipe in this collection because interest in the subject is so tremendous. This recipe came to me from Jeanne Voltz, the former food editor of the Los Angeles Times, who worked with sourdough over a period of years in California, where it has long been popular. Jeanne agrees with me that it is a most fickle process. I have found, for example, that the starter can react differently within the same region. In New York City I never had the success with it that I had in Connecticut or Long Island or Massachusetts. I have even found variations in its performance from one neighborhood of New York to another. Certainly it is just as unpredictable as Salt-Rising Bread, and I am not sure it is worth the trouble. I would much rather have you spend your time producing the Buttermilk White Bread or some of the rye breads. But for those who like a challenge, here it is:
[2 long or 2 regular loaves]
FOR THE STARTER:
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
½ cup warm water (100° to 115°, approximately)
FOR THE SPONGE:
1 cup warm water
1 cup starter (see above)
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
FOR THE BREAD:
1 package active dry yeast
½ cup warm water (100° to 115°, approximately)
Sourdough sponge (see above)
1½ to 2½ cups all-purpose flour
To begin preparation of the starter, heat the milk, add the water, and cool to lukewarm. Stir in the sugar, salt, and flour, and beat until well blended. Turn into a large crock, allowing ample room for expansion. Cover with a cloth or cheesecloth and let stand in a warm place 3 to 5 days, or until the mixture is bubbly and has a sour aroma (if it really takes, it can drive you right out of the room). Dissolve the yeast in the ½ cup warm water and beat into the starter. Cover with a damp cloth and let stand at room temperature for a week, stirring down each day. (It will continue to smell to high heaven, I warn you.) If it separates, don’t worry; stir. At the end of the week remove the cloth and cover the crock with a lid. Your starter is now ready to use.
The night before, or several hours before baking, combine the ingredients for the sponge and beat with a wooden spoon to blend well. Cover with foil or plastic wrap and allow to stand at room temperature until doubled in bulk. Then begin the actual preparation of the bread.
Soften the yeast in the warm water in a large bowl. Add the sourdough sponge, and stir in about 1 cup flour. Turn out on a floured board and knead in additional flour to make a very stiff dough. Place in a buttered bowl, turning the dough to coat the surface with butter. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1½ to 2 hours.
Punch the dough down, return to the bowl, and let rise once more for 45 minutes. Turn out on a lightly floured surface and divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a French-type loaf or a loaf to be fitted into a 9 × 5 × 3-inch bread pan. If making the French-type loaf, place on a baking sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal and slash the loaves 3 or 4 times across the top with a razor blade or a sharp knife. If using bread pans, butter them and fit the loaves into them. Allow the loaves to rise in a warm, draft-free spot for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 400°, and place a shallow pan of boiling water on the lowest rack. Place the bread on the rack above or on a rack lined with heated tiles. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped with the knuckles. Cool on a rack before slicing.
NOTE
As you use the starter, always replenish it by stirring in, for each ½ cup removed, ½ cup flour and ½ cup lukewarm water. Even if no starter is used, it should be stirred once a day and the ½ cup flour and ½ cup lukewarm water added once a week. If the room temperature is above 85°, store the starter in the refrigerator. Also refrigerate it if you do not use it every 2 or 3 days.
WHOLE-MEAL BREADS
Myrtle Allen’s Brown
Whole-Wheat, Made with Hard-Wheat Flour
William Melville Childs’ Health
Norwegian Whole-Wheat
Whole-Meal, with Potatoes
Cracked-Wheat
Mrs. Elizabeth Ovenstad’s
Graham
Sourdough Rye
Rye
Finnish Sour Rye
Dark Herb
Pronto Pumpernickel
Pumpernickel I
Pumpernickel II
Anadama
Bavarian Rye
Black
Maryetta’s Oatmeal
Oatmeal, with Cooked Oatmeal
Myrtle Allen’s Brown Bread
I first ate Myrtle Allen’s brown bread in her delightful inn, Bally-maloe House, in Ireland. It is an uncommonly well-textured whole-wheat bread with a lovely flavor, and I have made it repeatedly since visiting there. It should be eaten fresh, with plenty of good sweet butter. You will note that this is an unusual recipe, since the dough is not kneaded and has only one rising.
[1 loaf]
3¾ cup whole-wheat flour, preferably stone ground
1½ packages active dry yeast
2 cups warm water (100° to 115°, approximately)
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon salt
Put the whole-wheat flour in a large mixing bowl and place in a warm oven (a gas oven with the pilot light on or an electric oven set as low as possible). Both the flour and the bowl should be warm when you make the bread.
Dissolve the yeast in ½ cup of the warm water, and blend in the molasses. Let proof. Add another ½ cup of water. Combine the flour, yeast mixture, and salt. Add enough warm water to make a wet, sticky dough (about 1 cup or more according to the flour). Put directly into a buttered 9 × 5 × 3-inch bread tin. Cover, set in a warm spot, allow to rise by one-third its original size. Preheat the oven and bake at 450° for 50 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from the pan and leave on the rack in the turned-off oven for 20 minutes more to give a crustier finish.
Whole-Wheat Bread Made with Hard-Wheat Flour
You must get the specially milled hard-wheat and whole-wheat flour for this bread. It is as good a coarse-meal bread as I know, and has a lovely smell when baking and cooling. If you prefer, you may substitute honey for molasses.
[1 large free-form loaf or 2 regular loaves]
2 packages active dry yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 cups warm water (100° to 115°, approximately)
¼ cup melted butter
2 tablespoons molasses
1½ tablespoons salt
3 cups whole-wheat flour
2 cups hard-wheat flour
1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in ½ cup of the warm water in a large mixing bowl and let proof for 5 minutes. Stir the butter into the remaining 1½ cups warm water; add the molasses and salt. Add this mixture to the yeast mixture and blend with a wooden spoon, then add the whole-wheat flour, 1 cup at a time, beating hard after each addition. Stir in 1½ cups of hard-wheat flour. When the dough gets too stiff and sticky to work, turn it out on a board sprinkled with about ½ cup hard-wheat flour and knead a good 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and pliable. (It may retain a bit of stickiness, as do most doughs made with dark-wheat flours.) Shape into a ball, place in a well-buttered bowl, and turn to coa
t with the butter. Cover, set in a warm, draft-free spot, and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour, possibly longer.
Punch down, and if you want 2 loaves, divide in two and shape each piece into a loaf to fit an 8 × 4 × 2 or 9 × 5 × 3-inch loaf tin. Or make one large free-form loaf. Cover and let rise again until doubled in bulk. Brush the loaves with the egg wash. Bake in a preheated 425° oven for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 375° and continue to bake for 20 to 25 minutes longer, until crust is glazed and the bread sounds hollow when removed from tins and tapped on top and bottom.
William Melville Childs’ Health Bread
This unusual bread recipe was sent me by a dear friend and great cook, Janet Wurtzburger, who is compiling a benefit cookbook for the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. It was perfected by a Marylander whose name is William Melville Childs. A veteran breadmaker, Mr. Childs grinds his own whole-wheat flour and recommends that you do the same. Buy whole-wheat berries (not chemically treated, but suitable for human diet), and grind them with a little hand mill or in an electric blender. This produces a very coarse meal, which is what Mr. Childs prefers in the bread. His variation on this recipe, which follows, uses absolutely no white flour and has a somewhat denser texture, but also more flavor.
[2 loaves]
2 packages active dry yeast