Good Things in England - A Practical Cookery Book for Everyday Use, Containing Traditional and Regional Recipes Suited to Modern Tastes. Florence White
of Quickly-made Bread
1. The ‘Quickly-made Bread’ may be made richer by rubbing 1 or 2 or 3 oz. butter into the flour before mixing in the cream of tartar, etc., and by mixing with milk, sour milk or buttermilk, instead of milk and water.
2. This may be made into delicious nut bread by mixing a half cupful of broken nut meats in with the dry ingredients.
3. It may be turned into fruit bread by adding sultanas or currants, or stoned raisins instead of nuts; and (if liked) a little more sugar and a little spice.
N.B.—Nut bread and fruit bread should be made and baked the day before they are required.
Rye Bread
At one time visitors to Penrith were able to buy loaves of appetising rye bread, but of late years they have not been made for sale. They can be made at home from the following recipe:
INGREDIENTS: Rye flour 2 1/2 lb.; wheat flour 2 1/2 lb.; salt 1 oz.; yeast 1 1/2 oz.; sugar 1 teaspoonful; water 1 quart at 104°F.
TIME: to rise 1 hour; then 30 minutes.
METHOD
1.Mix the rye and wheat flour and salt together.
2.Cream the yeast with the sugar.
3.Add the water and use it to make the flour into a dough.
4.Let it stand in front of a fire or heated gas oven for one hour.
5.Then knead well, and at the end of another half hour knead again.
Mr. Kirkland who gives this recipe says ‘they are moulded round or oval, or long, and allowed to prove either upside down on cloths or on flour-dusted boards and covered over with cloths.’
They may be baked in a No. 7 Regulo 375°F. Junior New World Cooker.
Mr. Kirkland gives a recipe for another sort of rye bread which he says ‘usually contained a small quantity of spice and was common as a kind of cheap gingerbread in Scotland many years ago, and may still be found in isolated places.’
It can be made by the following modern method:
Fruit or Caraway Rye Bread
INGREDIENTS: Rye flour 2 1/2 lb.; wheat flour 2 1/2 lb.; salt 1 oz.; golden syrup 3 oz.; yeast 2 oz.; sugar 1 teaspoonful; caraway 1/2 oz.; water 3 pints at 104°F.
TIME: 1 hour to rise in warm place; then 1 hour or 1 1/2 hours to prove.
METHOD
1.Mix the two flours, the caraway seeds and the salt together.
2.Mix the syrup with the water.
3.Cream the yeast with the sugar and add that to the syrup and water.
4.Use the mixture to make the flour into a dough.
5.Leave it in a warm place for an hour.
6.Knead well.
7.Put into greased tins.
8.Leave to rise for 1 1/2 hours.
9.Bake in a rather slow oven (No. 4 in the Junior New World cooker) or 335°F.
It should not be eaten new, but, like some gingerbread, keeps moist and soft if left out instead of being kept in a tin.
Sultanas and candied peel may be used instead of caraways.
Bran Brack
An Original Family Receipt, 1825
INGREDIENTS: Flour 3 lb.; castor sugar 1/2 lb.; eggs 3; caraway seeds 2 oz.; small beer yeast 2 tablespoonfuls; (1 oz. compressed yeast creamed with a little castor sugar and warm water can be substituted for this); butter 4 oz.; milk sufficient to make a light paste, about 1 1/4 pints, or rather less; but it is impossible to specify the exact quantity as some flour takes up more than others. Half this quantity will make a moderate sized cake.
TIME: three hours to rise; 1/2 hour to ‘prove’; 1 to 2 hours to bake (in quick oven) according to size.
METHOD
1.Mix the flour, sugar and caraway seeds together.
2.Beat up the eggs.
3.Melt the butter in half a pint of hot milk, add it to the beaten-up eggs;
4.Measure it; you will want about 1 1/4 pints of liquid to make 3 lb. flour into a light dough, in addition to the yeast.
5.Cream the yeast with a little sugar and warm water.
6.Use it with the eggs, butter and milk to make the dry ingredients into a light paste.
7.Let it stand in a warm place for about 3 hours.
8.Then put it in a greased tin ready to bake.
9.Stand it in a warm place to ‘prove’ for half an hour before putting it in the oven.
Lancashire Bun Loaf
INGREDIENTS: Dough 2 lb.; raisins 1/2 lb. (currants 1/2 lb. added by some people); candied peel, preferably citron, 3 oz.; butter 6 oz.; mixed spice a saltspoonful; (some add salt and a little sugar).
TIME: to rise a little longer than bread and bake with the bread about 40 minutes to 1 hour, according to the size of the loaves.
METHOD
1.Melt the butter.
2.Work it in the dough.
3.Then the candied peel very finely chopped.
4.The raisins and spice.
5.Some people add salt and a little sugar.
6.Put the mixture into a buttered or otherwise greased tin.
7.Let it rise for rather longer than one would allow for bread.
8.Bake in the oven with the bread.
Yorkshire Currant Bread
This recipe was kindly sent by a B.B.C. listener, E. S.
INGREDIENTS: Flour, 1 3/4 lb.; lard 6 oz.; butter (or margarine) 6 oz.; currants 1 lb.; raisins 1 lb.; sugar 1/2 lb.; mixed peel 6 oz.; bicarbonate of soda 1 1/2 teaspoonfuls; cream of tartar 3 teaspoonfuls; salt 1 teaspoonful; treacle 2 tablespoonfuls; eggs 3, and a little milk.
TIME: to bake about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, according to size of loaves, in moderate oven.
METHOD
1.Rub the butter and lard into the flour.
2.Mix in the soda, cream of tartar and salt.
3.Add the currants washed and picked.
4.The raisins stoned and chopped.
5.The sugar.
6.And the peel chopped.
7.Mix well together.
8.Then blend with the treacle melted.
9.And the eggs well beaten with a little milk, say about 1/2 pint. Some flour takes up more moisture than others, therefore it is not possible to be definite.
N.B.—This quantity makes 3 loaves, and this bread improves by keeping. Never cut until 2 days after it has been baked. If when taken out of the oven it is wrapped in a hot cloth or blanket the crust will be soft.
Fruit Bread
As made at Boston,