Heat the liquid to the required temperature, then dissolve the yeast in a portion of the liquid, then, when the yeast is dissolved, add it to the rest of the liquid; then add the salt and dissolve it; then add the fats and sugar; then add the flour. (As above mentioned for uniform results it is best to weigh the flour, sugar, salt and fats.) After the flour has been added, work it into a smooth dough.
Weighing and Measuring Ingredients Used in Baking.
All solids used in baking should be weighed, and all liquids should be measured accurately. Varied results and failures in baking are very often due to inaccurate weighing and measuring of ingredients. If your recipe calls for a pound of sugar, don’t use 1¼ pounds instead. Or if a recipe calls for 1 gallon of milk, don’t use ⅞ gallon instead. The author has often seen bakers use 1¼ pounds of some ingredient when 1 pound was what should have been used. Many bakers are exceptionally careless about measuring the liquids, such as milk and water. They will dip a quart or pint measure into a can of milk or into a bucket of water and draw it out on a slant, thus causing a portion of the liquid to run out. Often as much as one-fourth of a pint of milk will run out of the measure, still they will count that a full measure. This may seem a trifle, but when measuring a number of quarts or pints, it ceases to be a trifling matter but becomes a matter of vital importance. For example, you are about to make a dough of four quarts of milk or water, and you measure the milk or water as above shown. After having added the flour and you are making the dough, you will find that the dough is too stiff. This is based on the fact that you use a given quantity of flour to every quart of milk or water used, as should be the case, if you expect uniform results. You have the correct amount of flour, but not enough milk or water. Then again, the yield of such a dough would be less than it should be. Most bakers do not weigh the flour for their dough. Where this is the case, flour is usually added until the dough is of the proper consistency. So in that case the fact that the baker had not measured the liquid accurately would not necessitate getting too stiff a dough, because he has not a given quantity of flour to work in but adds it until the dough is of the proper consistency, but the yield will be less because there is less dough.