Jew Bread (1875)

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EVERY-DAY FACTS FOR EVERY-DAY LIFE.
A BOOK FOR THE HOUSEHOLD.
New York: Dodd and Mead
1875

   DARE has 1965-70 for "Jewish bread" or "Jewish rye bread" or "Jew bread."  It's listed as "usually rye bread," but it's sometimes pumpernickel or matzoh or challah.
   This recipe is about 100 years earlier.


Pg. 246:
   _Jew Bread._--The process is to set a sponge in the usual manner with wheat flour, yeast, water, and salt, and when it is ready to make up into loaves, to cut out five pieces of equal size, which are rolled out a considerable length in the shape of a rolling-pin to a tapering point; the pieces are then flatted together (beginning in the middle), and when complete laid aside; five other pieces are then rolled out about four times the size of the former, and flatted the same way.  The first flatted cake is then placed upon the large one, and over this another piece of dough about the third of an inch in diameter and the length of the longest cake.  This is run over the top from point to point, and fastened to the middle by a coil of dough, with two thin bars laid over it in the form of a cross, the points secured by pinching them together, and the whole makes a handsome appearance.  An egg whipped up is spread over the cake with a brush, which produces that shiny appearance for which Jew bread us distinguished; a few white poppy seeds are sprinkled over it, and it is then baked in the usual manner.