THE ST-nEE OE LI EE - BREaD
During the past twenty years there has
been a steady decline in the broad con
sumption of the United States. Some one
has said that "The Frenchman eats a lot
of bread because when it is good and
made with the correct flour, it is nice
to eat." jind so behind the scenes at
the United States Department cf Agricul
ture a group of experts in cereal chem
istry have been working for some time on
the problems of broad, especially with
regard to flavor. It has been suggested
that possibly the decline in consumption
has been largely due to some probably
gradual change in flavor.
It really is quite a serious problem for
bread, is by far the most common way we
have of using our important ^ain product
wheat, .And it's a convenient and inex
pensive source of energy.
The corner bakery makes countless kinds
of bread and rolls but too infrequently
the woman in the home trys a little vari
ation. For the woman who makes her bread
at home there are all those possible
variations and more. In addition, she
may make any of the large number of quick
breads which taste so good served hot
from the oven.
If you want to get the family to the
table without calling twice, there’s
nothing surer than having the odor of
hot biscuits or muffins coming from the
kitchen.
Manufacture of these quick breads remains
primarily a home art. They're at their
best when mixed, baked and served within
a very short space of time. So it's up
to the one who prepares the meals to have
a recipe for a good plain biscuit, waffle,
griddle calces and muffins. When you
know how to bake these successfully timo
after time, you may then vary the recipes
in a number of ways.
Tender, flaky biscuits, crisp waffles and
griddle cakes and light, tender muffins
are easy to make if the cook knows the
rules for mixing them. For flavor, tex
ture and food value, milk is the best
liquid to use. This may be whole, skimmed
dried or evaporated. If you use evapor
ated, dilute to proper consistency. Sift
dried milk powder with other dry ingredi
ents. Sour milk may be substituted cup
for cup for sweet. But this calls for a
change from baking powder to soda.
In rocipcs that call for baking powder and
swcot nilk, you nay substituto by using
soda instead of baking powder on the basis
of -g toaspoon for each cup of sour nilk.
Howover, this % toaspoon of soda equals
in rising power 2 teaspoons of baking
powder. Therefore, if your recipo oalls
for 2 cups of flour and one cup of nilk,
and the original recipe calls for 4 tea
spoons of baking powder, it would be
necessary to change the recipo to read
% teaspoon soda and 2 teaspoons of baking
powder. This is for the reason that J
teaspoon of soda has only the value of 2
teaspoons of baking powder.
Lard or any other ediblo fat with a nild
flavor is suitable for quickbreads. TThen
you substituto butter, add 2 extra table
spoons' for each cut of fat called for in
the recipe. Lard contains no water, while
butter lias a snail anount of water in it.
Use either an all-purpose flour or pastry
flour for quick breads. Bread flour is too
strong.
In nixing, renenber to add the soda or
baking powder to the dry ingredients, not
the liquid. Be suro that the fat and
liquid are evenly distributed throughout
the batter anu dough; but don*t beat or
stir quick breads too nuch. It pays to
be lazy when nixing nuffins or griddle
cakes or waffles. You will have bettor
luck with less tunnels and air holes.
3ake both biscuits and nuffins in a hot
oven. Bake biscuits at a slightly higher
tenperature—450° for fifteen ninutos;
nuffins twenty ninutes at 400 to 425°.
You nay vary the bread in your neals by
changing sone of the ingredients. Try
buckwheat griddle cakes, peanut butter
nuffins and cheese biscuits. Or use whole
wheat flour.
You nay vary then still nore by adding
grated orange rind to biscuits or chopped
nuts. Then there are cornneal nuffins,
cranberry nuffins or nuffins with nuts and
driod fruit. * * * * * * *
Here is a plain ordinary recipe for baking
powder biscuits that is almost fool-proof:
2 cups flour 4 0 lard
4 t baking powder 1 cup nilk
1 t salt
Cut the lard into the dry ingredients,
which have been sifted, with a knife.
Use cold nilk. Add it a little bit at a
tine, nixing it with the knife. Don't
work it or handle nore than necessary.