The
process of kneading seems to impart an evenness to the minute air-cells,
a fineness of texture, and a tenderness and pliability to the whole
substance, that can be gained in no other way.
The divine principle of beauty has its reign over bread as well as
over all other things; it has its laws of aesthetics; and that bread
which is so prepared that it can be formed into separate and
well-proportioned loaves, each one carefully worked and moulded, will
develop the most beautiful results. After being moulded, the loaves
should stand usually not over ten minutes, just long enough to allow
the fermentation going on in them to expand each little air-cell to
the point at which it stood before it was worked down, and then they
should be immediately put into the oven.
Many a good thing, however, is spoiled in the oven. We can not but
regret, for the sake of bread, that our old steady brick ovens have
been almost universally superseded by those of ranges and
cooking-stoves, which are infinite in their caprices, and forbid all
general rules. One thing, however, may be borne in mind as
a principle--that the excellence of bread in all its varieties, plain
or sweetened, depends on the perfection of its air-cells, whether
produced by yeast, egg, or effervescence; that one of the objects of
baking is to fix these air-cells, and that the quicker this can be
done through the whole mass, the better will the result be.
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