The Boston cooking-school cook book

shaped in a great variety of ways, but they should always be small. Large biscuits, though equally good, never tempt one by their daintiness. Bread is often brushed over with milk before baking, to make a darker crust. Where bread is allowed to rise over night, a small piece of yeast cake must be used; one-fourth yeast cake to one pint liquid is sufficient, one-third yeast cake to one quart liquid. Bread mixed and baked during the day requires a larger quantity of yeast; one yeast cake, or sometimes even more, to one pint of liquid. Bread dough mixed with a large quantity of yeast should be watched during rising, and cut down as soon as mixture doubles its bulk. If proper care is taken, the bread will be found most satisfactory, having neither “yeasty” nor sour taste. Fermented bread was formerly raised by means of leaven. Baking of Bread Bread is baked: (1) To kill ferment, (2) to make soluble the starch, (3) to drive off alcohol and carbon dioxide, and (4) to form brown crust of pleasant flavor. Bread should be baked in a hot oven. If the oven be too hot the crust will brown quickly before the heat has reached the centre, and prevent further rising; loaf should continue rising for first fifteen minutes of baking, when it should begin to brown, and continue browning for the next twenty minutes. The last fifteen minutes it should finish baking, when the heat may be reduced. When bread is done, it will not cling to sides of pan, and may be easily removed. Biscuits require more heat than loaf bread, should continue rising the first five minutes, and begin to brown in eight minutes. Experience is the best guide for testing temperature of oven. Various oven thermometers have been made, but none have proved practical. Bread may be brushed over with melted butter, three minutes before removal from oven, if a more tender crust is desired. Care of Bread after Baking Remove loaves at once from pans, and place side down on a wire bread or cake cooler.