In researching period bread, I came across this website: http://www.whirlwind-design.com/madbaker/breadfaq.html#Q2, which had this recipe from Libro Nuovo: Prima per Fare Cinquante Pani de Latte e Zuccaro di Oncie nove l'uno"Fatto Che haverai la tua Sconza, o levaturo, pigliarai di fiori di farina burattata libre 35. e tanto meno, quanto meno sara quella di che haverai fatto il levaturo, e libre 6.di zuccaro ben bianco, e Torli dUova 75 e libre 3 d'acqua rosata, e libre 6 di latte fresco, e oncie 6 di butiro fresco, e impastarai il tuo Pane, avuertirai bene, chee l'acqua, o latte non scottasse, e farai anchor ache torli d'uovu sian caldetti, & li scalderai, ponondoli nell'acqua calda, e li porri, il conveniente sale, e farai la pasta, sic he non siane dura, ne tenera, ma pui tosto ch'habbia del saldetto, e la gramarai moto bene, e poi farai il tuo pane, e lo lasciaraben (?) levare, e lo cuocerai con grande ordine, si che non pigli troppo fuoco, ma che al tuo Giuditio stia bene, e questo pane e piu bell a farlo tondo, che intorto, o in pinzoni, sia dopoi piu grande, o piu picciolo, come tu vorrai: ti governerai adunque secondo questo modo, che e provato."
This translates to: When you have made your sourdough or yeast, you shall take thirty-five pounds of the flower of sifted wheat and a much less amount, so that it shall be enough to have made the yeast (starter), and six pounds of good white sugar, and seventy-five egg yolks, three pounds of rose water, and six pounds of fresh milk, and six ounces of fresh butter, and you shall knead your bread.You shall note well that the water or milk does not scorch, and you shall make certain that the egg yolks are to be warm, and you shall scald them, putting in the hot water. And you shall put suitable salt, and you shall make the dough, so that it is neither hard nor tender, but harder than you shall have at firm. And you shall knead it very well and then you shall make your bread, and you shall leave them to rise well, and you shall cook them with serious method so that they do not take too much fire, but that at your very good judgment.And this bread is more beautiful by making them round, that twist, or in buns. Then they can be made larger or smaller, what ever you shall want. You shall govern yourself to one according to this way, which is proven.
This has got to be the recipe for the baker's daily batch, or something. 35 lbs of flour does not make one family's daily bread. I took the amounts, converted them (VERY approximately) to volumetric measurements and got:
140 cups flour, 12 c milk, 23 c sugar, 6 c rosewater.
I think the 6 ounces of butter is wrong. I think it should be 6 lbs for 35 lbs of flour. Most bread recipes call for between 3 and 5 cups of flour. I decided to go with 5. Scaling this down for a recipe calling for 5 cups of flour, I got:
5 c flour, 1/2 cup milk, 3/4 cup sugar, 3 egg yolks, 3 tbsp rosewater, 6 tbsp butter.
Based on other recipes, those proportions look about right to me for a sweet bread.
I think I'm going to go with a starter on this. Not a sourdough starter, but basically combining the yeast with some of the flour and some water and letting it sit overnight to sort of give the yeast a head start. I think it will also help with the texture. Rose bread. It will be an interesting experiment. It will also be a test of baking by feel. I also want to go with the recipe for plain bread that's on the same website. Again, interesting experiment in baking by feel.
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