Dough slowly fermented with a very small quantity of yeast.—The method which is pursued in France and other countries in preparing a rich light cake or bun, called brioche, may be followed quite successfully for bread, as regards the proportion of yeast employed and the time allowed for the fermentation of the dough, which should be made firm, and be thoroughly kneaded, then tightly rolled in a thick cloth, and left for a night before it is baked. The brioche, which is but an unwholesome compound, though very light, if properly made, is managed thus:—A fourth part of the flour destined for the paste, is made into a leaven, with a small portion of good yeast, and sufficient warm water to bring it to the consistence of rather spongy dough. This is placed near the fire until it has swollen considerably, and shows that it is at the proper point of fermentation. A large quantity of butter is crumbled into the remainder of the flour, which is then wetted up entirely with as many unbeaten eggs as can be worked into it.
When the leaven is at its full height, this paste is rolled out, and the leaven is spread over and kneaded up with it; and, that they may be thoroughly amalgamated, they are cut up into several portions and changed about, and kneaded until the whole forms a pliable smooth mass, of which all the ingredients are perfectly incorporated. For two pounds of flour half an ounce, at the utmost, of beer-yeast is used; and this is very little when the difficulty is considered of rendering cakes extremely light with it, which contain a large proportion of butter.
The same weight of flour may be at once converted into bread-dough by mixing with it a little salt and a single teaspoonful of fresh solid yeast, very carefully diluted with about three-quarters of a pint of luke-warm milk and water, or in sultry weather, with cold liquid instead. The manner in which this is to be further managed, is fully explained in the receipt for “Rolls cold-made.”