In connection with the following recipes, it is well to remember a few basic principles of bread- making known to most of you; but repeated here so that all may have the fullest assurance of SUCCESS.
The liquid used may be either milk or water. Milk bread is more nutritious and softer in tex- ture, and is preferable if it is to be eaten within a day or two. But milk bread dries more quickly than bread mixed with water; therefore a com- bination of milk and water is good.
Potato water hastens the action of the yeast and makes a bread of excellent keeping qualities, but darkens the bread slightly.
The chemistry of bread-making is simple, and the woman with a knowledge of the principles involved will cease to dread the making of raised bread.
Yeast is a one-celled organism of fungous growth which, when provided with warmth, mois- ture, and the proper food, grows rapidly and mul- tiplies. In the yeast of today, the yeast plants are compressed, lacking the conditions necessary for growth.
The yeast cake is softened to separate the plants and flour is used to provide, in the starch and gluten, food for growth. The temperature most cenephle for the growth of yeast is from 65° to 75° F.
As the yeast plant grows, chemical changes take place—the starch is changed to sugar, and the sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. The carbon dioxide, in its endeavor to escape, expands the cell walls of the gluten and raises up the
dough. This fermentation process is called alco-42
