Beard on Bread (25 page)

[2 loaves]

In a large mixing bowl combine 3 cups of the flour, the yeast, sugar, and salt. Heat the milk in a saucepan until warm (100° to 115°) and add to the flour mixture, beating by hand or in a mixer until quite smooth. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a stiff batter, adding a little more flour if needed. Cover the bowl, place in a warm place, and let the batter rise until light and doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Stir down the yeast batter and thoroughly blend in the dissolved soda. Divide the batter between two oiled 8½ × 4½ × 2½-inch tins or 1½ quart soufflé dishes. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. Cook each loaf, uncovered, in the microwave oven for 6 minutes and 30 seconds, or until no doughy spots remain. Cool for 5 minutes, then loosen the edges and remove from the pan. Cool completely. To serve, slice and toast.

Certainly no bread in America has been more popular over a longer time than baking powder biscuits. In fact, in many homes they were baked three times a day in great quantities, and were eaten hot, with butter and honey or preserves, along with every meal. Nowadays ready-to-bake biscuits that come packaged in tubes have taken the place of the homemade. I myself have seen people buying as many as two and three dozen tubes at a time. But few commercial brands are as good as a well-made biscuit, which should be made quickly and handled as little as possible. This is the standard recipe.

[About 12 biscuits]

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl with the baking powder and salt. Then, using your fingers or two knives (I use a heavy fork) blend the butter and flour into very fine particles. Add the milk and stir into the dough just enough to make the particles cling together. (It should be a very, very soft dough.) Turn out on a floured surface and knead for about 1 minute, then either pat or roll out.
(If you want very high, fluffy biscuits, the dough should be ½ to ¾ of an inch thick, and if you want thin, crusty biscuits, make it about ¼ inch thick.) Cut in rounds or in squares. For crisp biscuits, place far apart on an ungreased cookie sheet; for fluffier biscuits, place close together on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated 450° oven for about 12 to 15 minutes, and serve piping hot.

• Add chopped herbs or grated cheese to the biscuit dough.

• For drop biscuits, add another ¼ cup of milk, drop by spoonfuls onto a buttered baking sheet, and bake the same way.

We had a reputation at home for very special biscuits, which were made by our Chinese cook, who was with us for many years. After he left us they became a standard item in our household, and I still make them very often. The secret of their unique quality is this: They use heavy cream instead of butter or shortening.

[About 12 biscuits]

Sift the dry ingredients together and fold in the heavy cream until it makes a soft dough that can be easily handled. Turn out on a floured board, knead for about 1 minute, and then pat to a thickness of about ½ to ¾ inch. Cut in rounds or squares, dip in melted butter, and arrange on a buttered baking sheet or in a square baking pan. Bake in a preheated 425° oven for 15 to 18 minutes and serve very hot.

Many people consider gingerbread to be a cake, but it was originally meant to be a bread served at lunch or dinner with sweet butter. It is best, I think, served slightly warm with plenty of butter; if cold, cut it thin and spread with softened butter. The variation with chopped candied ginger gives it a surprisingly different look.

[6 good servings]

Put the molasses in a mixing bowl, add the boiling water and butter, and stir until well mixed. Add the salt, ginger, and soda and stir lightly. Then stir in just enough flour to moisten and mix the ingredients. Turn into a 9 × 9 × 2-inch baking pan. Bake at 375° for 25 to 35 minutes, or until the top springs back when pressed lightly and the bread pulls away from the sides of the pan.

• Sprinkle chopped candied ginger on top of the bread before baking, which will give it a very dark, flecked outer appearance. The baking time may be a few minutes longer.

Traditionally, soda bread is baked over a peat fire in a three-legged iron pot that can be raised or lowered over the fire in the old-fashioned way. Soda bread is very different from any other bread you can find in the world. It’s round, with a cross cut in the top, and it has a velvety texture, quite unlike yeast bread, and the most distinctive and delicious taste. Sliced paper thin and buttered, it is one of the best tea or breakfast breads I know, and it makes wonderful toast for any meal.

[1 round loaf]

Combine the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly to distribute the soda and baking powder, then add enough buttermilk to make a soft dough, similar in quality to biscuit dough but firm enough to hold its shape. Knead on a lightly floured board for 2 or 3 minutes, until quite smooth and velvety. Form into a round loaf and place in a well-buttered 8-inch cake pan or on a well-buttered cookie sheet. Cut a cross on the top of the loaf with a very sharp, floured knife. Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the loaf is nicely browned and sounds
hollow when rapped with the knuckles. (The cross will have spread open, which is characteristic of soda bread.) Let the loaf cool before slicing very thin; soda bread must never be cut thick.