Introduction to Yeast Breads - Breads and Bread Pastries

Publisher Marketing: Introduction to Yeast Breads - Breads and Bread Pastries Table of Contents Introduction Quick Breads Yeast Yeast Cakes Yeast Made from Hops Making a Sourdough Starter Sour Rye Bread French Bread Tips to Get the Perfect Yeast Bread Kneading Rising Adding Sugar to the Dough Plain White Yeast Bread Traditional Brown Bread Cheese Bread Paska Traditional Light Yeast Pastry Traditional Austrian Coffee Cakes Boston brown Bread - Steamed Flour Substitutions Conclusion Author Bio Publisher Introduction A couple of months ago I wrote a book on breads, and the reader may ask why I would want to continue the topic, about this most integral part of our life, bread, basic bread. Well, everybody knows that throughout the dawn of man's existence, as well as throughout history, bread has been the symbol of an old-time kitchen and hearth which has formed the warm and be the center of a human home. Ancient tomb carvings depict planting, harvesting the grain, grinding, mixing of the bread and baking it. This head of wheat was considered to be so sacred that it was a decoration on the weapons and shields of great warriors and kings. Even Gods and goddesses, especially the Greek goddess Demeter whose Egyptian equivalent was the goddess Isis was the goddess of harvesting with wheat as her symbol. According to the Arabs, wheat and other grains like corn, rye, barley, oats, millet and maize came down from heaven in 7 handkerchiefs and it has always to be respected since Allah himself took so much care to keep these precious cereals, clean and pure, while handing them to man. That is why they call bread, God's special gift. So it was only when human beings found out that wheat was one of the grasses which could be kept for a long time without spoiling in dry conditions, they started harvesting, storing and grinding it so that finely bread could be made from it. Contributor Bio:  Davidson, John John Davidson was born in Barrhead in Renfrewshire in 1857. He spent his childhood years in Greenock, and after working as a pupil-teacher and briefly attending Edinburgh University, taught in schools in Glasgow and Perth. In 1989 he moved to London where he made his living as a journalist and critic. Several dramas had been published while he was still in Scotland, but in the 1890s he turned to poetry, and published several collections which were very popular: In a Music-Hall (1891) and Ballads and Songs (1894) amongst them. These were poems which chronicled urban working class life, and his sense of outrage at the poverty of the ordinary man, as expressed by the much-anthologized 'Thirty Bob a Week'. At the beginning of the new century he moved away from the lyric and began writing in blank verse which incorporated much scientific language; this series of Testaments were not as successful as his earlier ballad style, though Hugh MacDiarmid was to pay tribute to Davidson's attempts to combine poetry with scientific ideas. Despite the early popularity of the poetry, financial difficulties constantly plagued Davidson; he had had no choice but to continue with the journalism he disliked in order to support his family and other dependents. Sadly the money worries, combined with ill-health and depression, drove him to committing suicide in 1909.