Have a Taste of the 40’s! a Bread Recipe According to the Book 'Recipe Theory' (1948)
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Have a Taste of the 40’s! a Bread Recipe According to the Book 'Recipe Theory' (1948)
My extensive collection of old cookbooks contains a book 'Recipe theory’, published in 1948.
Wondering what it would taste like, I thought it would be fun to bake a loaf of bread according to the instructions of this book. Exact weights are not given, but ratios from which you can compile your own recipe.
How did I get those weight?
What does the book tells us:
* Yeast 4 to 5% of the flour with extra butter
Otherwise 3% (fresh yeast)
= I'm going for 5% because I want to use extra butter, 5% of 500g is 25g fresh yeast. Unfortunately fresh yeast is not available here where I live, so I had to use dry yeast. 25g of fresh yeast equals 10g of dry yeast.
* Maximum 20 g butter per 100 g flour
= I choose 10g per 100g flour; so 50g butter, 20g butter per 100g flour is too much for a normal bread.
* Use about 1/2 dl less liquid for every 100 g of butter
= As a liquid I choose water.
I use 50 g butter so it is a quarter dl less water but not all ingredients have been calculated yet so I mention (of measure?) -1/4 dl when calculating water.
* Add a maximum of 1/3 egg per 100 g and calculate 1/2 dl less liquid per egg
= I want to try an egg in bread dough, but to keep the math easy, I choose 1 egg per 500g flour
For 1 egg I have to count 1/2 dl less moisture so I mention -1/2 dl with the water.
* For neutral tasting bread 2% of the flour in salt needed for sweet bread 1 1/2%
= I prefer to use less salt, so I choose 1.5% of 500 grams is 7.5 grams of salt.
* Max 10 g sugar per 100 g flour, depending on the type of bread you bake.
= 10g per 100g flour is more suitable for special bread like bread with fruit or raisins, so I used half 5g per 100g makes 25g sugar.
* Add 65 to 70% of the flour to moisture, depending on the flour type
= If I add 70% moisture to 500 g of flour, that is 350 g of water, which is 3.5 dl.
But I need less because of the butter and thee egg:
-1/4 dl for the butter
-1/2 dl for the egg
Remains 2.75 dl = 275 ml.
Now we know the amounts of quantity, what else is there to learn from the 'Recipe Theory?
* Yeast works best at 35 ° C above 60 ° C ineffective.
* For supple dough, knead, pull and beat until dough no longer sticks.
* Rice time depending on temperature is ideally 35 °. After an hour, whisk dough into desired shape, preferably dark, and rise again for about 1/2 hour. A dark shape gives bread a thinner crust.
* Hot oven 240 ° otherwise the crust will become thick and do not dry too much over heat. Place dough under the center. Baking time of about 25 min.
* Sounds hollow when done.
* Just before bread from the oven is covered with water the crust will shine because the formed dextrin dissolves
* Take the bread out of shape immediately, otherwise the crust will become soft
I get to work and try to follow the instructions in the book as much as possible and am curious how the bread will be. For example, I always place my bread in the middle of the oven and never brush it with water, but sometimes with egg. I also let the dough rise an extra time and I use a longer rising time. The oven temperature, according to the book, is higher than I normally use. The method of preparation of the dough is not very different from how I process the dough.
So let’s make bread!
Wondering what it would taste like, I thought it would be fun to bake a loaf of bread according to the instructions of this book. Exact weights are not given, but ratios from which you can compile your own recipe.
How did I get those weight?
What does the book tells us:
* Yeast 4 to 5% of the flour with extra butter
Otherwise 3% (fresh yeast)
= I'm going for 5% because I want to use extra butter, 5% of 500g is 25g fresh yeast. Unfortunately fresh yeast is not available here where I live, so I had to use dry yeast. 25g of fresh yeast equals 10g of dry yeast.
* Maximum 20 g butter per 100 g flour
= I choose 10g per 100g flour; so 50g butter, 20g butter per 100g flour is too much for a normal bread.
* Use about 1/2 dl less liquid for every 100 g of butter
= As a liquid I choose water.
I use 50 g butter so it is a quarter dl less water but not all ingredients have been calculated yet so I mention (of measure?) -1/4 dl when calculating water.
* Add a maximum of 1/3 egg per 100 g and calculate 1/2 dl less liquid per egg
= I want to try an egg in bread dough, but to keep the math easy, I choose 1 egg per 500g flour
For 1 egg I have to count 1/2 dl less moisture so I mention -1/2 dl with the water.
* For neutral tasting bread 2% of the flour in salt needed for sweet bread 1 1/2%
= I prefer to use less salt, so I choose 1.5% of 500 grams is 7.5 grams of salt.
* Max 10 g sugar per 100 g flour, depending on the type of bread you bake.
= 10g per 100g flour is more suitable for special bread like bread with fruit or raisins, so I used half 5g per 100g makes 25g sugar.
* Add 65 to 70% of the flour to moisture, depending on the flour type
= If I add 70% moisture to 500 g of flour, that is 350 g of water, which is 3.5 dl.
But I need less because of the butter and thee egg:
-1/4 dl for the butter
-1/2 dl for the egg
Remains 2.75 dl = 275 ml.
Now we know the amounts of quantity, what else is there to learn from the 'Recipe Theory?
* Yeast works best at 35 ° C above 60 ° C ineffective.
* For supple dough, knead, pull and beat until dough no longer sticks.
* Rice time depending on temperature is ideally 35 °. After an hour, whisk dough into desired shape, preferably dark, and rise again for about 1/2 hour. A dark shape gives bread a thinner crust.
* Hot oven 240 ° otherwise the crust will become thick and do not dry too much over heat. Place dough under the center. Baking time of about 25 min.
* Sounds hollow when done.
* Just before bread from the oven is covered with water the crust will shine because the formed dextrin dissolves
* Take the bread out of shape immediately, otherwise the crust will become soft
I get to work and try to follow the instructions in the book as much as possible and am curious how the bread will be. For example, I always place my bread in the middle of the oven and never brush it with water, but sometimes with egg. I also let the dough rise an extra time and I use a longer rising time. The oven temperature, according to the book, is higher than I normally use. The method of preparation of the dough is not very different from how I process the dough.
So let’s make bread!
Supplies
Necessary after calculating the ingredients:
500 g flour
10 g dry yeast
50 g butter at room temperature
1 egg at room temperature
7.5 g of salt
25 g sugar
275 ml of water
500 g flour
10 g dry yeast
50 g butter at room temperature
1 egg at room temperature
7.5 g of salt
25 g sugar
275 ml of water
Make the Dough and First Rise.
Here I have to deviate slightly from the book because the book’s recipe is based on fresh yeast. I follow the same process but with dry yeast.
Heat the water to 40 ° C, the temperature for dry yeast may be slightly higher than for fresh yeast. Put the yeast in a bowl and add 1 tsp of the sugar to activate the yeast and add 50 ml of the heated water, the remaining water will be added to the flour shortly. Let stand until the mixture starts to foam well.
Cut the butter into cubes and beat the egg.
Place the flour in a bowl, sprinkle the salt around the edge of the bowl and make a well in the center of the flour. Put the remaining sugar in the well and add the yeast mixture.
Add flour a little at a time from the edge and stir it into the yeast mixture. When it gets crumbly add butter, egg and water. Do not add all the water but keep about 50 ml. Use only the remaining water when the dough turns out to be too dry, I ended up using 260 ml. Knead, pull and beat until you have a smooth dough. Normally I would see if the dough pulls a fleece but I will skip that now, it is not mentioned in the book and I hope that my flexible dough will soon be the smooth dough that the book talks about.
Once the dough is smooth, let it rise for an hour at 35 degrees. It is easy to reach that temperature where I live. If you don't reach that room temperature, the book advices to heat the oven to 35 ° C, place a bowl of water at the bottom and place the dough in the oven. Keep the oven door open and let rise for an hour.
The book doesn't mention whether the dough should be covered if you don't let it rise in the oven, so I cover it just to be on the safe side.
After an hour, the dough has risen exceptionally well.
Heat the water to 40 ° C, the temperature for dry yeast may be slightly higher than for fresh yeast. Put the yeast in a bowl and add 1 tsp of the sugar to activate the yeast and add 50 ml of the heated water, the remaining water will be added to the flour shortly. Let stand until the mixture starts to foam well.
Cut the butter into cubes and beat the egg.
Place the flour in a bowl, sprinkle the salt around the edge of the bowl and make a well in the center of the flour. Put the remaining sugar in the well and add the yeast mixture.
Add flour a little at a time from the edge and stir it into the yeast mixture. When it gets crumbly add butter, egg and water. Do not add all the water but keep about 50 ml. Use only the remaining water when the dough turns out to be too dry, I ended up using 260 ml. Knead, pull and beat until you have a smooth dough. Normally I would see if the dough pulls a fleece but I will skip that now, it is not mentioned in the book and I hope that my flexible dough will soon be the smooth dough that the book talks about.
Once the dough is smooth, let it rise for an hour at 35 degrees. It is easy to reach that temperature where I live. If you don't reach that room temperature, the book advices to heat the oven to 35 ° C, place a bowl of water at the bottom and place the dough in the oven. Keep the oven door open and let rise for an hour.
The book doesn't mention whether the dough should be covered if you don't let it rise in the oven, so I cover it just to be on the safe side.
After an hour, the dough has risen exceptionally well.
Second Rise and Bake
After an hour, take the dough out of the bowl and knock it through, this is to squeeze the air out. This pushes out large air bubbles and continues fermentation. Then bring the dough into the desired shape, for example round it into a boule and place on a greased baking tray or put it in a greased bread baking tin and let it rise again. I choose a baking tin. Now let the dough rise for half an hour. Again, I cover the dough but as soon as I remove the foil after half an hour of rising, this very attracted dough sticks and the nice convex top is lost. The next time I do the second rise without cloth or foil.
After proofing for half an hour, preheat the oven to 240 degrees. Place the bread in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. Only use bottom heat and if necessary only top and bottom heat for the last few minutes. I didn't need the top heat.
Tap the bread with a wooden spoon to see if the bread is done. Just before removing the bread from the oven, brush the top with some water. As soon as it comes out of the oven, pour the bread straight out of the tin and let it cool on a rack.
After proofing for half an hour, preheat the oven to 240 degrees. Place the bread in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. Only use bottom heat and if necessary only top and bottom heat for the last few minutes. I didn't need the top heat.
Tap the bread with a wooden spoon to see if the bread is done. Just before removing the bread from the oven, brush the top with some water. As soon as it comes out of the oven, pour the bread straight out of the tin and let it cool on a rack.
Enjoy Your Meal From the ’40’s!
(And okay, one picture in color :-))