y, change it, for you will
have nothing but loss and vexation of spirit while you have it in use. I
think you will find this bread white, evenly porous (not with small
holes in one part and caverns in another; if it is so you have made your
dough too stiff, and it is not sufficiently kneaded), and with a thin,
crisp crust. Bread will surely fail to rise at all if you have scalded
the yeast; the water must never be too hot. In winter, if it gets
chilled, it will only rise slowly, or not at all, and in using baker's
or German yeast take care that it is not stale, which will cause heavy,
irregular bread.

In making bread with compressed yeast proceed in exactly the same way,
excepting that the sponge will not need to be set over night, unless you
want to bake very early.

If you have once produced bread to your satisfaction you will find no
difficulty in making rolls. Proceed as follows:

Take a piece of the dough from your baking after it has risen once. To a
piece as large as a man's fist take a large tablespoonful of butter and
a little powdered sugar; work them into the dough, put it in a bowl,
cover it, and set it in a warm place to rise--a shelf behind the stove
is best; if you make this at the same time as your bread, you will find
it takes longer to rise; the butter causes that difference; when very
light, much lighter than your bread should be, take your hand and push
it down till it is not larger than when you put it in the bowl; let it
rise again, and again push it down, but not so thoroughly; do this once
or twice more, and you have the secret of light rolls. You will find
them rise very quickly, after once or twice pushing down. When they have
risen the third or fourth time, take a little butter on your hands, and
break off small pieces about the size of a walnut and roll them round.
Either put them on a tin close together, to be broken apart, or an inch
or two from each other, in which case work in a little more flour, and
cut a cleft on the top, and once more set to rise; half an hour will be
long enough generally, but in this case you must judge for yourself,
they sometimes take an hour; if they look swelled very much and smooth
they will be ready. Have a nice hot oven, and bake for twelve to fifteen
minutes.

Add a little more sugar to your dough and an egg, go through the same
process, brush them over with sugar dissolved in milk, and you will have
delicious rusks.

The above is my own method of mak