Summer Bread For The End Of Summer

Happy End Of (Northern Hemisphere) Summer to you all! Of course, when exactly the end happens is debatable. Me, I like the idea that the equinoxes and solstices mark the midpoints of the seasons, so that my autumn began about a month ago.

But however you reckon things, fall is about here, here. So I wanted to show you a recipe for bread that I'm going to make this weekend. It's another bread from The English Bread Book by Eliza Acton. I haven't actually converted it into a "modern-style" recipe yet, but I know my basic approach. Here's the recipe, as Eliza has it:

Flour four pounds, mixed in a very large bowl with a teaspoonful of salt. The middle made hollow, and a single tablespoonful of brewer's yeast (which has been well watered for two days, and kept in a cool larder) very smoothly mixed with a pint of cold milk and water,—of which one part of three was new milk, and two were filtered water,—poured in, and stirred and beaten well with as much of the surrounding flour as made it into a stiff batter. On this a thick layer of flour was strewed, the spoon removed, and a large cloth twice doubled was laid over the pan, which was placed on a table in a north room. It was left for two hours, when the sponge had quite burst through the flour, and risen much; and was immediately made into a firm dough, with the addition to the sponge of about a quarter of a pint of warm water. In from half to three-quarters of an hour it was divided, and very lightly kneaded up into two loaves; put into shallow, round baking dishes, previously rubbed with butter, placed on a tray, covered with a thick double cloth, and sent to a baker's oven, which was a quarter of a mile distant. This bread proved excellent.

Flour, four pounds; salt, one teaspoonful; brewers' yeast (two days watered), one tablespoonful; cold milk and water, one pint: two hours. Warm water, one quarter of a pint; kneaded into firm dough: rising nearly three-quarters of an hour.

I can see why Eliza includes in her title/description the phrase "Containing the Plainest and Most Minute Instructions to the Learner"! I, of course, have no plans to send it to a baker's oven. Nor am I going to use four pounds (by my reckoning about 14 or 15 cups) of flour! I'll try making about a quarter to a fifth of it (3 or 4 cups), making a sponge with it (though one usually adds flour to a sponge, yes?) and see how we go in general.

As with the Milk and Water Bread, pictures (this time taken with the camera!) will be plentiful, and instructions of "the Plainest and Most Minute" sort. I'm looking forward to this!

God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread.