Part 22

Flavor with lemon.

Make into round cakes and bake in a quick oven.

SMALL SUGAR CAKES.

1 heaping teacup of sugar. ¾ teacup of butter. ¼ teacup sweet milk. 2 eggs, well beaten. 2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. Flour sufficient to enable you to roll out the dough. 1 saltspoonful salt. Nutmeg and cinnamon to taste.

Cut in round cakes and bake quickly.

NEW YEAR’S CAKES. (_Very nice._) ✠

1¼ lb. sugar. 1 lb. butter. ½ pint cold water. 3 eggs. 3 lbs. flour. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. 4 tablespoonfuls caraway seed sprinkled through the flour.

Rub the butter, or, what is better, chop it up in the flour; dissolve the sugar in the water; mix all well with the beaten eggs, cut in square cakes, or with oval mould, and bake quickly.

“MOTHER’S” COOKIES.

1 cup butter. 2 cups sugar. 3 eggs, well beaten. ¼ teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg. 1 teaspoonful cloves.

Flour to make soft dough, just stiff enough to roll out. Try two cups to begin with, working it in gradually. Cut in round cakes, stick a raisin or currant in the top of each, and bake quickly.

CORIANDER COOKIES. ✠

1 cup butter. 3 cups sugar. 1 cup “loppered” milk or cream. 4 eggs. 6 cups flour, or just enough to stiffen into a _rollable_ paste. 2 tablespoonfuls coriander seed (ground or beaten). 1 tablespoonful soda, dissolved in boiling water.

If you use sweet milk, add two teaspoonfuls cream-tartar. You may substitute caraway for the coriander-seed.

RICE-FLOUR COOKIES.

½ lb. ground rice. 1 lb. rice-flour, dried and sifted. 1 lb. powdered sugar. ½ lb. butter. 4 eggs. Juice and half the grated rind of a lemon. 1 tablespoonful orange-flower water.

Beat yolks and whites _very_ light; then put the sugar with the yolks. Beat ten minutes, add the orange-flower water and lemon; lastly, the flour and whites alternately. Beat the mixture half an hour. Bake immediately in patty-pans. Eat while fresh.

MOLASSES COOKIES (_Good._)

1 cup butter. 2 cups molasses. 1 teaspoonful cloves. 1 tablespoonful ginger.

Sufficient flour to make _soft_ dough. Mould with the hands into small cakes, and bake in a steady rather than quick oven, as they are apt to burn.

GINGER-SNAPS. (_No. 1._)

1 cup butter. 1 cup molasses. 1 cup sugar. ¾ cup sweet milk. 1 teaspoonful saleratus. 2 teaspoonfuls ginger.

Flour for tolerably stiff dough.

GINGER-SNAPS (_No. 2._)

1 large cup butter and lard mixed. 1 coffee-cup sugar. 1 cup molasses. ½ cup water. 1 tablespoonful ginger. 1 tablespoonful cinnamon. 1 teaspoonful cloves. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. Flour for pretty stiff dough.

Roll out rather thinner than sugar cakes, and bake quickly. These ginger-snaps will keep for weeks, _if locked up_.

GINGER-SNAPS (_No. 3._)

1 pint molasses. 1 teacup sugar. 1 teaspoonful ginger. 1 teaspoonful allspice. 1 cup butter. 5 cups flour.

Roll thin and cut into small cakes. Bake in quick oven.

AUNT MARGARET’S JUMBLES.

1 cup butter. 2 cups sugar. 1 teacup milk. 5 eggs. ½ teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg.

Sufficient flour to make _soft_ dough. Roll out, cut into shapes and sift sugar over them before they go into the oven.

LEMON JUMBLES.

1 egg. 1 teacupful sugar. ½ teacupful butter. 3 teaspoonfuls milk. 1 teaspoonful cream-tartar. ½ teaspoonful soda. 2 small lemons, juice of two and grated rind of one.

Mix rather stiff. Roll and cut out with a cake-cutter.

RING JUMBLES.

1 lb. butter. 1 lb. sugar. 4 eggs. 1 lb. flour, or enough to make out a soft dough. Wineglass (small) rose-water.

Cream the butter and sugar, add the beaten yolks, then the rose-water, next half the flour, lastly the whites, stirred in very lightly, alternately with the remaining flour. Have ready a pan, broad and shallow, lined on the bottom with buttered paper. With a tablespoon form regular rings of the dough upon this, leaving a hole in the centre of each. Bake quickly, and sift fine sugar over them as soon as they are done.

You may substitute lemon or vanilla for the rose-water.

MRS. M.’S JUMBLES.

1 cup sugar. 1 cup butter. ½ cup sour cream. 1 egg. 1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water. Nutmeg to taste. Flour for soft dough.

Bake in rings, as directed in previous receipt.

ALMOND JUMBLES.

1 lb. sugar. ½ lb. flour. ¼ lb. butter. 1 teacup “loppered” milk. 5 eggs. 2 tablespoonfuls rose-water. ¾ lb. almonds, blanched and chopped small, but not pounded. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water.

Cream butter, and sugar; stir in the beaten yolks, the milk, the flour, and the rose-water, the almonds, lastly the beaten whites very lightly and quickly. Drop in rings or round cakes upon buttered paper, and bake immediately.

You may substitute grated cocoanut, or the chopped kernels of white walnuts, for the almonds, in which case add a little salt.

CURRANT CAKES.

1 lb. flour. ½ lb. butter. ¾ lb. sugar. 4 eggs. ½ lb. currants, well washed and dredged. ½ teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. ½ lemon, grated rind and juice. 1 teaspoonful cinnamon.

Drop from a spoon upon well buttered paper, lining a baking-pan. Bake quickly.

DROP SPONGE-CAKES.

½ lb. powdered sugar. ¼ lb. flour. 4 eggs—yolks and whites separate, and beaten very stiff. 1 lemon—all the juice, and half the grated rind.

Drop upon buttered paper, not too near together. Try one, and if it runs, beat the mixture some minutes longer _hard_, adding a very little flour. Your oven should be very quick, and the cakes a delicate yellow brown.

LADY’S FINGERS

Are mixed like drop sponge-cakes, but disposed upon the paper in long, narrow cakes. They are very nice dipped in chocolate icing, or caramel.

AUNT MARGARET’S CRULLERS. ✠

1 lb. butter. 1½ lb. powdered sugar. 12 eggs. Mace and nutmeg to taste. Flour to roll out stiff.

This is for a large quantity of crullers. Roll out in a thin sheet, cut into shapes with a jagging-iron, and fry in _plenty_ of boiling lard. Test the heat first by dropping in one. It should rise almost instantly to the surface. Crullers and doughnuts soak in fat at the bottom of the kettle. These should be a fine yellow.

The most delicious and the nicest-looking crullers I have ever seen were made by the dear old lady from whom I had this receipt. They were as pretty and perfect a picture of their kind as she was of hers.

Crullers are better the second day than the first. If the fat becomes so hot that the crullers brown before they puff out to their full dimensions, take the kettle from the fire for a few minutes. Have enough cut out before you begin to fry them, to keep a good supply all the while on the fire. If you undertake the task alone, cut out all before cooking one.

KATIE’S CRULLERS.

1 lb. sugar. ¼ lb. butter. 6 eggs. 1 tablespoonful sweet milk. 1 small teaspoonful soda. 1 nutmeg. Sufficient flour to roll out stiff.

“MOTHER’S” CRULLERS.

1½ teacup sugar. ½ teacup sour cream or milk. ⅓ teacup butter. 1 egg. 1 small teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. Flour to roll out a tolerably stiff paste.

ANNIE’S CRULLERS.

2 cups sugar. 1 cup butter. 2 eggs. 2 cups sour milk. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. Flour to roll out tolerably stiff.

RISEN DOUGHNUTS.

1 lb. butter. 1¾ lb. sugar. 1 quart sweet milk. 4 eggs. 1 large cup yeast. 1 tablespoonful mace or nutmeg. 2 teaspoonfuls cinnamon. Flour to make all stiff as bread dough. 1 teaspoonful salt.

Cream the butter and sugar, add the milk, yeast, and one quart and a pint of flour. Set to rise over night. In the morning beat the eggs very light, and stir into the batter with the spice and rest of the flour. Set to rise three hours, or until light; roll into a pretty thick sheet, cut out, and fry in boiling lard. Sift powdered sugar over them while hot.

QUICK DOUGHNUTS.

1 cup butter. 2 cups sugar. 4 eggs. 1 cup sour milk or cream. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg. ½ teaspoonful cinnamon. Flour to roll out in pretty soft dough.

Cut into shapes and fry in hot lard.

SOFT GINGERBREAD. ✠

1 cup butter. 1 cup molasses. 1 cup sugar. 1 cup sour or buttermilk. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water. 1 tablespoonful ginger. 1 teaspoonful cinnamon. 2 eggs.

_About_ five cups of flour—enough to make it thick as cup-cake batter, perhaps a trifle thicker. Work in four cups first, and add very cautiously.

Stir butter, sugar, molasses, and spice together to a light cream, set them on the range until slightly warm; beat the eggs light; add the milk to the warmed mixture, then the eggs, the soda, and lastly the flour. Beat very hard ten minutes, and bake at once in a loaf, or in small tins. Half a pound raisins, seeded and cut in half, will improve this excellent gingerbread. Dredge them well before putting them in. Add them at the last.

SPONGE GINGERBREAD (_eggless._) ✠

5 cups flour. 1 heaping tablespoonful butter. 1 cup molasses. 1 cup sugar. 1 cup milk (sour is best). 2 teaspoonfuls saleratus, _not_ soda, dissolved in hot water. 2 teaspoonfuls ginger. 1 teaspoonful cinnamon.

Mix the molasses, sugar, butter, and spice together; warm them slightly, and beat until they are lighter in color by many degrees than when you began. Add the milk, then the saleratus, and having mixed all well, put in the flour. Beat very hard five minutes, and bake in a broad, shallow pan, or in _pâté_-tins. Half a pound of seeded raisins cut in pieces will be a pleasant addition.

Try this gingerbread warm for tea or luncheon, with a cup of hot chocolate to accompany it, and you will soon repeat the experiment.

PLAIN GINGERBREAD.

2 cups molasses. ½ cup lard. ½ cup butter. 2 tablespoonfuls soda dissolved in hot water. 2 tablespoonfuls ginger. 1 cup sour milk. Thicken with flour to a soft dough.

Warm the molasses, lard, butter, and ginger, and beat them ten minutes before adding the milk, soda, and flour. Roll out, cut into shapes, and bake in a quick, but not too hot oven. Keep in a tight tin box. Brush over with white of egg while hot.

GINGERBREAD LOAF (_No. 1._)

1 cup butter. 1 cup molasses. 1 cup sugar. ½ cup cold water. 1 tablespoonful ginger. 1 teaspoonful cinnamon. 1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in boiling water. Flour to make stiff batter.

Melt the butter, slightly warm the molasses, spice, and sugar, and beat together ten minutes. Then put in the water, soda, and flour. Stir very hard, and bake in three small loaves. Brush them over with syrup while hot, and eat fresh.

LOAF GINGERBREAD (No. 2.)

1 cup butter. 2 cups molasses. 1 tablespoonful ginger. 2 eggs, very well beaten. 1 teaspoonful saleratus. 1 cup milk, sweet or sour. If sour, heap your spoon with saleratus. Flour to the consistency of pound cake.

SPICED GINGERBREAD.

1 lb. flour. 1 lb. sugar. ⅛ lb. butter. 5 eggs. ½ teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. 1 teaspoonful cream-tartar. 3 tablespoonfuls sweet milk. 1 large tablespoonful ginger. 1 teaspoonful cloves. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg. 1 teaspoonful cinnamon.

Cream the sugar and butter, stir in the beaten yolks, the milk and spice, the soda, and when these are well mixed, the flour. Bake in two square or round loaves.

SUGAR GINGERBREAD.

1 cup of butter. 2 cups of sugar. 1 cup sour cream or milk. 3 eggs. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. 2 teaspoonfuls ginger. 1 teaspoonful cinnamon. 5 cups of flour, or enough to roll out _soft_.

Cut in shapes, brush over with white of egg while hot, and bake.

BREAD CAKE.

On baking-day, take from your dough, after its second rising—2 cups risen dough. Have ready, also—

2 cups white sugar. 1 cup butter, creamed with the sugar. 3 eggs. 1 even teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water. 2 tablespoonfuls sweet milk—cream is better. ½ lb. currants, well washed and dredged. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg. 1 teaspoonful cloves.

Beat the yolks very light, add the creamed butter and sugar, the spice, milk, soda, and dough. Stir until all are well mixed; put in the beaten whites, lastly the fruit. Beat hard five minutes, let it rise twenty minutes in two well-buttered pans, and bake half an hour or until done.

FRUIT GINGERBREAD.

2 lbs. flour. ¾ lb. butter. 1 lb. sugar. 1 lb. raisins, seeded and chopped. 1 lb. currants, well washed. 2 cups molasses. ½ cup sour cream. 6 eggs. 1 heaping teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water. 2 tablespoonfuls ginger. 1 teaspoonful cinnamon. 1 teaspoonful cloves.

Cream the butter and sugar, warm the molasses slightly, and beat these together; then the beaten yolks, next the milk and spice, the soda, the flour and whites well whipped; lastly, the fruit, which must be thickly dredged. Beat well before baking.

A little citron, shred fine, is an improvement. Bake in two broad pans, in a moderate oven. This cake will keep a long time.

SWEET WAFERS.

6 eggs. 1 pint flour. 2 oz. melted butter. 1½ cup powdered sugar. 1 cup milk. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg.

Beat whites and yolks separately and very stiff, rub the sugar and butter together, and work in first the yolks, then the milk, then the flour and whites. Bake in well-buttered wafer or waffle-irons, very quickly, browning as little as possible. Roll them while hot upon a smooth, round stick, not larger than your little finger, slipping it out carefully when the cake takes the right shape.

These little cakes are an acceptable addition to any tea or supper table, and look well among fancy cakes in a basket.

BOSTON CREAM CAKES. ✠

½ lb. butter. ¾ lb. flour. 8 eggs. 1 pint water.

Stir the butter into the water, which should be warm, set it on the fire in a saucepan, and slowly bring to a boil, stirring it often. When it boils, put in the flour, boil one minute, stirring all the while; take from the fire, turn into a deep dish, and let it cool. Beat the eggs very light, and whip into this cooled paste, first the yolks, then the whites.

Drop, in great spoonfuls, upon buttered paper, taking care not to let them touch or run into each other, and bake ten minutes.

_Cream for filling._

1 quart milk. 4 tablespoonfuls corn-starch. 2 eggs. 2 cups sugar.

Wet the corn-starch with enough milk to work it into a smooth paste. Boil the rest of the milk. Beat the eggs, add the sugar and corn-starch to these, and so soon as the milk boils pour in the mixture gradually, stirring all the time until smooth and thick. Drop in a teaspoonful of butter, and when this is mixed in, set the custard aside to cool. Then add vanilla or lemon seasoning; pass a sharp knife lightly around the puffs, split them, and fill with the mixture.

The best cream cakes I have ever tasted were made by this somewhat odd receipt. Try it.

NOUGAT.

1 lb. sweet almonds. ¾ lb. fine white sugar. 1 tablespoonful rose-water.

Blanch the almonds in boiling water. When stripped of their skins, throw them into ice-water for five minutes. Take them out and dry between two cloths. Shave with a small knife into thin slips. Put them into a slow oven until they are _very_ slightly colored. Meanwhile, melt the sugar—_without adding water_—in a farina kettle over the fire, stirring it all the while. When it bubbles up and is quite melted take off the kettle and instantly stir in the hot almonds. Have ready a tin pan or mould, well buttered and slightly warmed. Pour in the nougat; press it thin and flat to the bottom of the pan if you mean to cut into strips; to all sides of the mould if you intend to fill it with syllabub or macaroons. Let it cool in the mould, for the latter purpose, withdrawing it carefully when you want it. If you cut it up, do it while it is still warm—not hot.

The syrup should be a bright yellow before putting in the almonds.

PIES.

Use none but the best butter in pastry.

“Cooking butter is a good thing,” said a grave epicure to me once, “an admirable thing—in its place, which is in the soap-fat kettle or upon wagon-wheels!”

It is certainly out of place in biscuits, cake, or in any substance destined for human palates and stomachs. It is never less in place than in pastry; never betrays its vileness more surely and odiously.

Butter intended for pastry should be washed carefully in several clear, cold waters, and kneaded while under water, to extract the salt. Then wipe it dry and lay it in a cold place until you are ready to work it in.

“Keep cool,” is a cardinal motto for pastry-makers. A marble slab is a good thing to roll out paste upon. Next to this, the best article is a _clean_ board of hard wood, which is never used for any other purpose. It is harder to make good pastry in warm weather than cold, on account of the tendency of the butter to oil, and thus render the crust heavy and solid.

Few people know what really good pastry is. Fewer still can make it. It has no inevitable resemblance either to putty or leather. It _is_ light, crisp, flaky, goodly to behold—goodlier to the taste.

“Pork fat and pies kill more people yearly in the United States than do liquor and tobacco,” said a popular lecturer upon conservatism.

Perhaps so; but I incline to the belief that bad pastry is answerable for a vast majority of the murders. Not that I recommend pies of any description as healthful daily food—least of all for children. But since they are eaten freely all over our land, let us make them as wholesome and palatable as possible.

FAMILY PIE-CRUST (No. 1.) ✠

1 quart flour. ⅓ lb. lard, sweet and firm. ½ lb. butter. 1 small teacup ice-water.

Sift the flour into a deep wooden bowl. With a broad-bladed knife, or a small keen “chopper,” cut up the lard into the flour until it is fine as dust. Wet with ice-water into a stiff dough, working it with a wooden spoon until obliged to make it into a roll or ball with your hands. Flour these, and knead the paste into shape with as few strokes as will effect your end. Lay the lump upon a floured kneading-board and roll it out into a thin sheet, always rolling from you with quick, light action. When thin enough, stick bits of butter in regular close rows all over the sheet, using a knife for this purpose rather than your hands. Roll up the paste into close folds as you would a sheet of music. Flatten it that your rolling-pin can take hold, and roll out again as thin as before. Baste, roll up and then out, until your butter is gone. It is a good plan to sprinkle the inside of each sheet with a little flour after buttering it, before making it into a roll. Finally, make out your crust; butter your pie-plates, lay the paste lightly within them, cut it off evenly about the edges after fitting it neatly; gather up the scraps left from cutting, and make into another sheet. If the pies are to have a top crust, fill the plates with fruit or whatever you have ready, lay the paste on this, cut it to fit, and press down the edges to prevent the escape of the juice, with a spoon, knife, or jagging-iron, ornamenting it in a regular figure.

Bake in a moderate oven until a light brown. Be particularly careful to have your heat as great at the bottom as at the top, or the lower crust will be clammy and raw.

Pastry is always best when fresh.

It is well, when you can spare the time, to lay the roll, when all the butter is used up, in a very cold place for fifteen minutes or so before rolling it into crust. Indeed, some good housewives let it stand on the ice an hour in hot weather. They say it tends to make it flaky as well as firm.

Touch as little with your hands as may be practicable.

FAMILY PIE-CRUST (No. 2.) ✠

1 lb. flour. ¾ lb. butter. 1 teaspoonful soda. 2 teaspoonfuls cream-tartar. Ice-water to make into a stiff dough.

Chop half the butter into the flour until it looks like yellow sand (sift the soda and cream-tartar with the flour, passing it through the sieve twice to make sure it is well mixed); work with ice-water into stiff dough; roll into a thin sheet, baste with one-third the remaining butter, fold up closely into a long roll, flatten and re-roll, then baste again. Repeat this operation three times, until the butter is gone, when make out your crust.

This is an easy and sure receipt, and the paste very fine.

FRENCH PUFF PASTE. ✠

1 lb. flour. ¾ lb. butter. 1 egg; use the yolk only. Ice-water.

Chop half the butter into the flour; stir the beaten egg into half a cup ice-water, and work the flour into a stiff dough; roll out _thin_, baste with one-third the remaining butter, fold closely, roll out again, and so on until the butter is used up. Roll very thin, and set the last folded roll in a very cold place ten or fifteen minutes before making out the crust. Wash with beaten egg while hot. This paste is very nice for oyster-_pâtés_ as well as for fruit-pies.

PUFF-PASTE.

1 pint flour. ½ lb. butter. 1 egg, well beaten. Use the yolk only. 1 gill ice-water.

Mix the flour, a tablespoonful of butter, the beaten egg and ice-water into a paste with a wooden spoon. Flour your pastry-board, and roll out the crust very thin. Put the rest of the butter, when you have washed it, in the centre of this sheet, in a flat cake. Turn the four corners of the paste over it, and roll out carefully, not to break the paste. Should it give way, flour the spot, that it may not stick to the roller. When very thin, sprinkle lightly with flour, fold up, and roll out four times more. Set in a cool place for an hour, roll out again, and cut into tartlet-shells or top crust for pies.

The bottom crust of pies may often be made of plainer pastry than the upper.

TRANSPARENT CRUST. (_Very rich._)

1 lb. flour. 1 lb. butter. 1 egg—the yolk only.

Wash the butter, dry, and then melt it in a vessel set in another of boiling water, stirring gently all the while to prevent oiling. Take off the salty scum from the top, and when almost cold beat up the butter little by little with the egg, which should be previously whipped light. When these are thoroughly incorporated, work in the flour, roll out twice, sprinkling lightly with flour before you fold it up; let it stand folded five minutes in a cold place, and make out for tartlets or _pâtés_. It is not suitable for large pies. Bake before you fill them, and brush over with a beaten egg while hot.

MINCE PIES (_No. 1._)

4 lbs. meat—_i. e._, two-thirds apple, one-third meat. 3 lbs. raisins, seeded and chopped. 2 lbs. currants, washed, picked over, and dried. 3 quarts cider. 1 pint brandy. 1 heaping teaspoonful cinnamon. 1 heaping teaspoonful nutmeg. The same of cloves, and half the quantity of mace. Make very sweet with brown sugar.

The meat should be a good piece of lean beef, boiled the day before it is needed. Half a pound of raw suet, chopped fine, may be added. Chop the meat, clean out bits of skin and gristle, and mix with twice the quantity of fine juicy apples, also chopped; then put in the fruit, next the sugar and spice, lastly the liquor. Mix very thoroughly, cover closely, and let all stand together for twenty-four hours before making the pies.

MINCE PIES (_No. 2._) ✠