Various

“ In making cakes, after the proper selection of ingredients, the respective quantity to be used is of great importance; and the binding material, or the ingredient which binds the different materials into the solid mass, when they come into contact with the heat during the process of baking cakes, deserves first attention. Flour, of course, ranks as the principal binding material and practically is the cheapest material, used in bulk, with which the cake-baker has to deal, and is the one that, by its judicious use, will cheapen or otherwise increase the cost of manufacture. ”

“ The baker’s difficulties are not only encountered through the ingredients used in bread-making. In fact, these cause only a small part of his troubles. The baker not only has to be a baker and understand baking thoroughly, but he must also be a weather prophet. Weather conditions affect bread-making more than any other conditions which arise. There are very few bakeries having absolute control of their dough room. To have uniform bread each day it is necessary to have control of the dough room. There are very few who realize the importance of controlling these factors. ”

“ A flour with a good quality of gluten holds the gas in small globules and therefore the holes are small and usually elongated from bottom to top of the loaf. This is good texture and when touched gives a sensation of touching velvet. A poor gluten allows the gas to gather into large, round globules and produces a coarser texture and one which is harsh to the touch. Too long a period of fermentation or too much water in the dough will also produce poor texture. As in color, value of texture depends on the judgment of the observer. ”

“ One of the most vital points in good bread-making is to permit fermentation to proceed just far enough to ripen the dough without injuring the delicate flavor of the gluten in the flour. Sugar to some extent injures this delicate flavor, giving the bread a slight acidy smell which is avoided when malt extract is used. With sugar you also get a dead brown color and a crust that will soften, whereas malt extract gives a lively, snappy brown that will retain its crispness, usually lacking when sugar is used. ”

“ Some bakers are partial to spring wheat flour, because the yield in bread is greater than when a blend is used.
Too often is quantity preferred to quality. It seems that most bakers are working to the one end, namely, to get the flour which yields most bread. In this endeavor they are sacrificing quality for quantity.
Spring flour containing a larger per cent. of gluten than winter wheat flour naturally takes up more moisture, producing in turn more bulk, therefore more bread.
Then again the gluten in the spring wheat flour is of a tenacious character, producing a tough elastic dough. ”

“ Even with the most careful observation of a dough at a warm temperature, a loss of flavor or a tinge of sourness develops. Our advice is to be wary of a warm dough.
The age of dough is the critical point in bread-making. How to tell the age of a dough is a question we have never seen satisfactorily answered. Most bakers tell intuitively, and this has required long experience. The color, texture, volume and flavor of the resulting bread are dependent almost entirely on the age of the dough. ”

“ Light is a strong factor on the proper aging of flour for baking purposes. Give the flour all the light you can. There are a great many bakers who store their flour in a dark basement. Some of these may be fairly well ventilated and dry, but the flour receives no light. Darkness and dampness go hand in hand. Flour requires light to give it the best conditions for it to age.
Putting flour in a cold, damp cellar is like putting meat in cold storage. The aging process is checked by the cold and the flour remains as it was when first put in storage. No aging process takes place. ”

“ Of course, we all know that wheat grown under certain conditions varies, and, as the climate and soil differ, so does the gluten, as is exampled between comparison with a soft and a strong flour. In the same way it applies to milk. The composition of fat in new milk is determined by the breed, climate, food and health of the cow. A really rich milk would produce as much as 3⁄4 ounce to 1 ounce of fat to the pint, especially just now, when the animals are kept up and fed pretty well. They give less milk, but it is much higher in quality. ”

“ Sugar is, next to flour, used most extensively in cake making. Standard powdered sugar is familiar to every baker. For a fine powder order XXXX, and a coarser one, fruit or a coarse powdered—also called non-caking powder. This sugar is the best to use for most purposes, as it will cream up easily with butter or with butter and lard. It is much better than standard powder to use for meringue, as it will mix more readily and therefore avoid a tendency of the meringues to get smeary, as is often the case when fine powder is used, which often contains starch. ”

“ The chemist’s test cannot decide the true baking value of a flour. A bakeshop test, made by a practical baker, is absolutely necessary to decide this matter.
The principal points to be considered when making straight dough are these: the temperature of the ingredients, the temperature of the shop, the quantity of yeast, and the quality of the flour used. If the temperature of the shop is very high, the liquid used should be cool, and the quantity of yeast should be reduced. ”

“ Then again, when you weigh the flour for your dough, you always have uniform results.
The flour, sugar, malt extract, salt and fats (if any) should be weighed, and the milk or water measured or weighed for every batch of dough, no matter how large or how small, if you would have uniform results.
One of the “hit or miss” methods prevalent in most shops is that bakers measure the water and weigh the salt, and guess at the rest. Fats, sugar and flour are seldom [99] weighed. What are the consequences? Sometimes they have a stiff dough, sometimes a soft dough, and sometimes a medium dough. ”

“ In other bakeries where only a small quantity of rye bread is required, bakers do not set a separate sponge for rye; they dip out of a broken-up wheat sponge and make the dough with rye flour; a piece of sour dough is added by some bakers, which gives better flavor to bread made by this method. The sour dough process consists of a succession of sponges; every day a small piece of sour rye dough is left over for this purpose to begin with. It is important in this process to keep the sour dough from getting too old, because when too old it becomes putrid and loses strength. ”

“ For cake baking Winter Wheat flour, of course, is used. Unfortunately, there is no regular standard for Winter Wheat flour, hence the baker is constantly confronted with the necessity of solving many problems as to how to secure the best results with different brands, some being soft and others strong, tough, etc., all requiring a little different treatment. No “Fancy Straight” or “Patent Winter” flour, according to present standards, are the same, hence it is impossible to give “standard” recipes in cake making. The best recipe ever devised will not be successful in every case. ”

“ One baker finds his conditions are suitable for one combination of ingredients; another finds he cannot use this recipe at all. He finds another combination which suits his conditions. All are working under different conditions of climate, temperature and manner of handling. Consequently, it is necessary to find the proportion of ingredients which best adapt themselves to the present conditions. ”

“ Regarding the blending of flour, gentlemen, everybody knows the blend of flour to make the loaf that his trade demands. Some places they demand a big loaf and the baker uses more spring; some places they do not trouble about size, and the baker used less spring and more rye.
I think I have said sufficient, so in conclusion let me remind you: Keep your sponge cool, use plenty of good yeast, do not let your sour get too old, keep your dough cool, use plenty of salt, and do not have it wait when you know it is ready and you will have no trouble in making Genuine Rye Bread. ”

“ But when we consider the fact that the starch does not begin to gelatinize until the temperature is raised to 152 degrees, which is already about 30 degrees above the most favorable temperature for the activity of the diastase, and the fact that the diastase is killed at a temperature of about 175 degrees F., we can readily see why the gelatinization of starch in the oven is of little assistance to the diastase in the conversion of starch into sugar. ”

“ A good many bakers make the mistake of flavoring almost every cake alike, using lemon and mace or some other similar favorite spice or extract, giving them that monotonous bakers’ taste. When more than one kind of cake is made from one mix, it saves the time for weighing and mixing, eliminates to some extent the chances of making mistakes, as it is hard to weigh small amounts of soda, baking powder and ammonia on the bake shop scale ”

“ The second process in the art of bread making is making dough.
Making Dough.
Melt the fat (if lard or compounds are used) , dissolve the sugar and salt in the water, then add them to the sponge and work them thoroughly, tearing the sponge to pieces and working it until you have the whole a smooth mass, then add the flour (in portions) , enough to make a fairly stiff dough, and work it thoroughly until you have a smooth, dry dough. Work the dough same as when making a straight dough. Keep the dough covered and at a temperature of not less than 80 deg. ”

“ Straight dough requires more yeast than doughs made from a sponge, because the yeast has not as favorable a medium in which to grow, in the straight dough as it has in the sponge dough. It is conceded by some that straight dough requires a stronger flavor than a dough made from a sponge; by others that a stiffer dough is required; by others, that the finished product has a coarse texture, and that an “yeasty” taste predominates. ”

“ An excessively white color and strong gluten are never found together in the same flour. In studying the needs of the baker in flour, we find he does not want an intensely starchy, white color, as this flour will not give a corresponding white color in the bread.
What the baker does want is a flour containing the greatest strength and best color combined. It will be slightly creamy in color, but when baked will make as white a loaf as intensely white flour, and has the added advantage of having larger water absorbing powers, and the power to withstand the harsh treatment given it by the baker. ”

“ To use buttermilk in bread-making the milk must be fresh—not more than twenty-four hours old. Old milk will not do, and when fermentation is started the dough must be attended to and baked in a good oven. Of course, I am not going to advise a novice to use buttermilk, or he would most probably be doomed to failure, but I have indicated the possibilities of the use of buttermilk. I will give you an analysis of buttermilk and also of new milk. New milk contains 4.0 per cent of fat, 3.6 of proteids, 4.5 milk sugar, 9.7 of ash or mineral matter, 87.2 per cent. ”

“ Evenness of texture and cleverness of loaf make a better crumb color, the effect most noticeable with added milk, being due to the percentage of fat present. As a comparison, take 1 ounce of butter with 10 pounds of flour, as against 1 quart of milk. The butter or fat gives a very fine texture and thin crust, whilst the milk results in a better bloom, owing to the unfermentable sugar of milk. Of all milks, fresh full cream is best, and ought to be used with water in equal proportions, as half milk and half water give excellent results. ”

“ If the oven be too hot, causing the bread to crust before the loaf has had time to become heated through, the result will be poor grain or texture, as the gases within the loaf would be imprisoned by the crust already formed, and as these gases become more heated and light as the loaf grows hotter, they eventually follow along the lines of least resistance and break through the loaf at its weakest point of crust already formed, causing the loaf to be ill-shaped and drawn, and the grain to be uneven and furrowed. ”

“ Large sponges require less yeast (in proportion) , and raise quicker than small sponges, because they are not as easily chilled as small sponges are. Some bakers prefer an old sponge and a young dough, while others prefer the opposite—a young sponge and an old dough. I prefer to take the sponge as soon as it is ready, and the dough likewise. By so doing we always get an article that is not overproved, and without a trace of lactic fermentation. Goods made from an old overproved dough are not fit to eat. If you make a nice, sweet product you will have no difficulty in establishing a good trade. ”

“ A colorless shortening assists in producing a whiter crumb, and also by coating the cells of the loaf retains the moisture of the baked bread. Doughs containing large amounts of shortening, under best and equal conditions, will stand a larger amount of proof, as part of the shortening in a well mixed dough has combined with the gluten of the flour used, allowing it to stretch further and become more elastic and still hold the increased amount of gas generated by the heat of the oven, and produces a loaf of greater volume. ”

“ If care be taken to use the exact proportions of materials in each test at even temperature, reliable conclusions are obtained from each individual yeast sample.
Water.—Next to flour, water is the most abundant compound used by the baker. It is the great solvent of Nature. Pure water is composed of the two gases, hydrogen and oxygen, in proportions of 1 to 8. It is colorless and tasteless.
Water as found in nature is never pure. Owing to its action as a solvent, it contains bodies like lime, magnesia and potash in solution, besides air, carbon dioxide and other mineral matters. ”

“ Many bakers have trouble with watery custard pie. This is caused from baking too long. A custard pie is baked as soon as it is firm, no matter what color it may be, and must be taken from the oven. Often times it is the fault of the milk (fresh cow milk, I mean) ; therefore, I made good use of the dry milk. This dry milk helps to thicken the custard, makes the pie sweeter and firmer. If you mix 4 lbs. sugar, 1 lb. lard, or butter, in a bowl, add 2 qts. of egg yolks, then 2 lbs. spring flour, 1 lb. dry milk, you will have a regular dough. ”

“ In order to prevent transferring of any one yeast sample to either of the other doughs, it is advisable to thoroughly wash the hands between each mixing. Place the doughs in glass jars of equal dimensions, and allow them to raise at an even temperature. It goes without saying that all ingredients must be weighed exactly alike, and the temperatures in all cases be the same. The yeast which gives the greatest expansion of the dough has the preference. ”

“ When using a very strong flour you can use a little more yeast than ordinarily without fear of mincing the dough, because strong flour can stand more proof; but unless absolutely necessary, don’t use any more yeast than is required under ordinary conditions. During the summer months it is well to use more salt than during cold weather, because salt acts as a governor—it holds the dough in check and keeps it sweet.
Too much yeast creates an over-abundance of gas, and if the dough is not tough enough to withstand the pressure of the gas, it tears and allows the gas to escape ”