Foodie Friday - Spooke Bread

From a Tyrconnell Heritage Society book called 
12 Days of Christmas

SPOOKE BREAD

Recipe submitted by Barbara Backus-Zernicke from handwritten cookbooks belonging to her grandmother, Eliza Potticery Backus, a grade school teacher in Tyrconnell and wife of Andrew Storey Backus.

To make the “spooke” take 3 pts. unsalted potato water, add 1 cup white sugar, dissolve yeast cake in 1 cup luke-warm water, and after it is thoroughly dissolved, let settle and pour of liquor into the potato water.  Let stand in a warm place until it foams and it is ready for use to make the bread:

At noon on the day previous to baking, take the water in which the potatoes were boiled (unsalted) and add the “spooke”.  Let this set in a warm place until evening.  Pour half of this into a glass fruit jar (taking care not to fill too full) add 1 cup white sugar, screw on the cap and keep in cool place for your next baking.  Take the remaining half, add enough luke-warm water to make the amount of bread required ( 2 or 3 potatoes mashed fine will improve the bread) salt to taste and mix hard with flour.  In the morning mold into loaves and when light, bake 1 hour in a moderate oven.  

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