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Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

Mix the flour, powdered milk, and salt thoroughly, making a well in them and adding the liquids. Mix to make a dough, and test for consistency, adding water or flour if needed. The dough should be very soft, and it will be sticky to work with, but if you add too much flour at this stage, the dough will be dry later on and the bread not so high as it should be.

For the lightest bread—and this one can be outrageously light—knead very well. Knead at least 15 minutes; then add the butter little by little, and knead again until quite silky.

Because it contains so many eggs, this dough rises rather slowly. Even so, be careful not to wait too long. When it has risen well, gently poke its center with your wet finger, applying the usual test to see if it is ready to deflate. The dough should not sigh, but is ready as soon as the hole you have made remains without filling in. Press the dough flat and shape it again into a smooth ball. Let it rise again as before.

Divide in two and form smooth rounds. Protect the rounds from drafts, letting them rest until the dough regains its suppleness. Shape carefully, and place in greased 8″ 4″ pans for the final rise. When spongy and quite high, put in preheated 325°F oven and bake for about an hour—check at 45 minutes, though; if the bread is exceptionally light, it will bake faster. The bread is prettiest brushed with butter when it comes out of the oven.

Do, please, let this one cool completely before you try to slice it, or it will squash.

Cinnamon Rolls

Featherpuff bread is light and rich-tasting, so it makes good rolls. If you are fond of breakfasting on cinnamon rolls, we suggest using this dough for making them, not only because they will be light and tasty, but because this recipe is protein and calcium-rich, and rolls from it make a more complete meal than those from a plainer dough.

When shaping the bread, roll one loaf’s worth into a big rectangle. Brush with softened butter and sprinkle generously with brown sugar and cinnamon—chopped walnuts, too, and a few raisins if you like. Roll up jelly-roll fashion, sealing the end well. Now, using a loop of strong thread or light cord, cut the roll into slices as illustrated. Arrange comfortably close together on a greased baking pan, and let rise in a warm place until very soft. Bake along with the bread (or slightly warmer) until nicely brown—about 20 minutes for smallish, thin rolls, or 40 minutes for big puffy ones.

The richness of the roll, how many coils the spiral has, how big it is, and how many you get—all these depend on your whim. If you roll the dough very thin and use lots of goodies, you can rapidly approach candy. Big tender light rolls with a single graceful swirl of cinnamon may be just as appealing at the breakfast table, and a whole lot less reprehensible nutritionally.

Cottage Herb Loaf

¼ cup minced onion (60 ml)

2 tablespoons oil (30 ml)

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (¼ oz or 7 g)

½ cup warm water (120 ml)

1 cup cottage cheese (235 ml)

½ cup finely chopped parsley (120 ml)

1 tablespoon dill weed

1 ½ tablespoons honey (22 ml)

1 egg, beaten

1 ½ teaspoons salt (8.25 g)

2 ½ cups whole wheat flour (375 g)

Just a handful of dough makes a big round herbed dinner loaf, at once light and nourishing.

Sauté onion in oil.

Dissolve yeast in water, and set it aside.

Add cottage cheese, parsley, and dill weed to onions and heat gently to warm them. Stir together cottage cheese mixture, honey, and egg.

Mix salt with 2 ½ cups flour; add yeast and cottage cheese mixture. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead until supple. Cover and let rise in a very warm place, about 90°F. The dough will come up very quickly—in about 45 minutes!—so don’t let it get away from you. Check by poking the center with your wet finger. If the hole you make remains without filling in at all, press the dough flat, shape it into a smooth round once more, and