SC - alcohol reimbursements

[LrdRas]

The critical part of the recipe is the leaven.  Platina is talking about
adding the leaven (not barm or yeast)  and letting the bread rise overnight
if I understand his instructions about not baking on the same day.  What he
is probably talking about is using some dough reserved from the previous
breadmaking which is known as a leaven.  You would use about a cup to 2 cups
of leaven to eight loaves (from my experience with starters).

The leaven would be broken up in the warm water.  The salt could be added to
either the water or the flour (Platina appears to add it to the water).  The
flour would then be added to the liquor a cup or so at a time and stirred in
until the dough turns into a ball.

Kneading the flour helps work the ingredients together, but it is not
absolutely necessary.  Platina does not specify kneading, but it may be
understood and it does make a better loaf.

The bread is put in a bowl and set aside to rise.  A damp, slightly cool
place would keep the surface of the dough from drying out and would slow the
rise.

Although Platina does not say so, the bread is probably punched down, shaped
and allowed to rise again.  It would then be baked in a cooling oven.

I've got to log off, but when I come back, I'll post an adaption I think
will work.

Bear

   

> Hello all!  According to Barbara Santich's THE ORIGINAL MEDITERRANEAN
> CUISINE, bread was a staple of the Mediterranean diet.  In there she
> quotes Platina's De Honesta Voluptate:
> 
> I recommend to anyone who is a baker that he use flour from wheat meal,
> well ground, and then passed through a fine sieve to sift it; then put
> it in a bread pan with warm water, to which has been added salt, after
> the manner of the people of Ferrari in Italy.  After adding the right
> amount of leaven, keep it in a damp place if you can and let it rise.
> That is the way bread can be made without much difficulty.  let the
> baker beware not to use more or less leaven than he should; in the
> former instance, the bread will take on a sour taste, and in the latter,
> it becomes heavy and unhealthful and is not readily digested,  The bread
> should be well baked in an oven, and not on the same day; bread from
> fresh flour is most nourishing of all, and should be baked slowly.
> 
> Now, I remember, vaguely, a conversation about bread making months ago.
> But can't remember much of it.  Could someone out there (bakers beware)
> help me in redacting this recipe.  I am not much of a baker and don't
> want to ruin 28 loaves of bread to test out all the possibilities.
> 
> Murkial af Maun
> 
> Christi Redeker
> Digital Equipment Corporation
> Colorado Springs, Colorado
> christi.redeker at digital.com
> 
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