A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery

will cling to the mixing spoon when you lift the spoon and let a drop fall on the surface. Cover the bowl with a towel folded several times, or a thick cloth, so that all the heat can be retained. Then set the bowl somewhere near the fire, in a place not too hot to bear your hand, and let it stand for about half an hour, or until the batter is light and foamy. Keep the bowl covered all the time, and take care that you do not have it in too hot a place. Don't have it in a place where you can not bear your hand. After the sponge--as the batter is called--is light and foaming, mix in another cupful of lukewarm water in which a teaspoonful of salt is dissolved. After the second cupful of lukewarm water with the teaspoonful of salt dissolved in it, add enough flour to form a dough stiff enough to knead with the hands. Knead the dough on the board for just five minutes. Some good housekeepers would declare that just five minutes' kneading is flying in the face of Providence in the way of bread making, but I assure you it is enough. That is, it is enough to give you bread of a firm, fine grain, perfectly even in its consistency. It won't be full of large, uneven holes; it will be firm, fine bread. After you have kneaded the bread five minutes make it up in a little loaf, or two loaves, as you like; put them in small iron pans, buttered--black iron bread pans--and set them again by the fire, where you can bear your hand, and let the little loaves of dough rise until they are just twice as large as when you put them down. That generally will take about half an hour if the yeast is good. Brush the loaves over the top with a little melted butter, or with a teaspoonful of sugar dissolved in water. Put them in the oven and bake them. The bread is to be baked until you can