Chapter 1

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SEVENTY-FIVE RECEIPTS FOR PASTRY CAKES, AND SWEETMEATS

BY MISS LESLIE, OF PHILADELPHIA.

1832

PREFACE.

The following Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats, are original, and have been used by the author and many of her friends with uniform success. They are drawn up in a style so plain and minute, as to be perfectly intelligible to servants, and persons of the most moderate capacity. All the ingredients, with their proper quantities, are enumerated in a list at the head of each receipt, a plan which will greatly facilitate the business of procuring and preparing the requisite articles.

There is frequently much difficulty in following directions in English and French Cookery Books, not only from their want of explicitness, but from the difference in the fuel, fire-places, and cooking utensils, generally used in Europe and America; and many of the European receipts are, so complicated and laborious, that our female cooks are afraid to undertake the arduous task of making any thing from them.

The receipts in this little book are, in every sense of the word, American; but the writer flatters herself that (if exactly followed) the articles produced from them will not be found inferior to any of a similar description made in the European manner. Experience has proved, that pastry, cakes, &c. prepared _precisely_ according to these directions will not fail to be excellent: but where economy is expedient, a portion of the seasoning, that is, the spice, wine, brandy, rosewater, essence of lemon, &c. may be omitted without any essential deviation of flavour, or difference of appearance; retaining, however, the given proportions of eggs, butter, sugar, and flour.

But if done at home, and by a person that can be trusted, it will be proved, on trial, that any of these articles may be made in the best and most liberal manner at _one half_ of the cost of the same articles supplied by a confectioner. And they will be found particularly useful to families that live in the country or in small towns, where nothing of the kind is to be purchased.

CONTENTS.

PART THE FIRST.

Preliminary Remarks Puff Paste Common Paste Mince Pies Plum Pudding Lemon Pudding Orange Pudding Cocoa Nut Pudding Almond Pudding A Cheesecake Sweet Potato Pudding Pumpkin Pudding Gooseberry Pudding Baked Apple Pudding Fruit Pies Oyster Pie Beef Steak Pie Indian Pudding Batter Pudding Bread Pudding Rice Pudding Boston Pudding Fritters Fine Custards Plain Custards Rice Custard Cold Custards Curds and Whey A Trifle Whipt Cream Floating Island Ice Cream Calf's Feet Jelly Blanc-mange

PART THE SECOND

General directions Queen Cake Pound Cake Black Cake, or Plum Cake Sponge Cake Almond Cake French Almond Cake Maccaroons Apees Jumbles Kisses Spanish Buns Rusk Indian Pound Cake Cup Cake Loaf Cake Sugar Biscuits Milk Biscuits Butter Biscuits Gingerbread Nuts Common Gingerbread La Fayette Gingerbread A Dover Cake Crullers Dough Nuts Waffles Soft Muffins Indian Batter Cakes Flannel Cakes Rolls

PART THE THIRD

General directions Apple Jelly Red Currant Jelly Black Currant Jelly Gooseberry Jelly Grape Jelly Peach Jelly Preserved Quinces Preserved Pippins Preserved Peaches Preserved Crab-Apples Preserved Plums Preserved Strawberries Preserved Cranberries Preserved Pumpkin Preserved Pine-Apple Raspberry Jam

APPENDIX.

Miscellaneous Receipts

As all families are not provided with scales and weights, referring to the ingredients generally used in cakes and pastry, we subjoin a list of weights and measures.

WEIGHT AND MEASURE

Wheat flour one pound is one quart. Indian meal one pound, two ounces, is one quart. Butter--when soft one pound is one quart. Loaf-sugar, broken one pound is one quart. White sugar, powdered one pound, one ounce, is one quart. Eggs ten eggs are one pound.

LIQUID MEASURE

Sixteen large table-spoonfuls are half a pint. Eight large table-spoonfuls are one gill. Four large table-spoonfuls are half a gill.

A common-sized tumbler holds half a pint. A common-sized wine-glass half a gill.

Allowing for accidental differences in the quality, freshness, dryness, and moisture of the articles, we believe this comparison between weight and measure, to be nearly correct as possible.

PART THE FIRST.

PASTRY

The eggs should not be beaten till after all the other ingredients are ready, as they will fail very soon. If the whites and yolks are to be beaten separately, do the whites first, as they will stand longer.

Eggs should be beaten in a broad shallow pan, spreading wide at the top. Butter and sugar should be stirred in a deep pan with straight sides.

Break every egg by itself, in a saucer, before you put it into the pan, that in case there should be any bad ones, they may not spoil the others.

Eggs are beaten most expeditiously with rods. A small quantity of white of egg may be beaten with a knife, or a three-pronged fork.

There can be no positive rules as to the exact time of baking each article. Skill in baking is the result of practice, attention, and experience. Much, of course, depends on the state of the fire, and on the size of the things to be baked, and something on the thickness of the pans or dishes.

If you bake in a stove, put some bricks in the oven part to set the pans or plates on, and to temper the heat at the bottom. Large sheets of iron, without sides, will be found very useful for small cakes, and to put under the pans or plates.

PUFF PASTE.

Half a pound and two ounces of sifted flour. Half a pound of the best fresh butter--washed. A little cold water.

_This will make puff-paste for two Puddings, or for one soup-plate Pie, or for four small Shells_.

Weigh half a pound and two ounces of flour, and sift it through a hair-sieve into a large deep dish. Take out about one fourth of the flour, and lay it aside on one corner of your pasteboard, to roll and sprinkle with.

Wash, in cold water, half a pound of the best fresh butter. Squeeze it hard with your hands and make it up into a round lump. Divide it in four equal parts; lay them on one side of your paste-board, and have ready a glass of cold water.

Cut one of the four pieces of butter into the pan of flour. Cut it as small as possible. Wet it gradually with a very little water (too much water will make it tough) and mix it well with the point of a large case-knife. Do not touch it with your hands. When the dough gets into a lump, sprinkle on the middle of the board some of the flour that you laid aside, and lay the dough upon it, turning it out of the pan with the knife.

Rub the rolling-pin with flour, and sprinkle a little on the lump of paste. Roll it out thin, quickly, and evenly, pressing on the rolling-pin very lightly. Then take the second of the four pieces of butter, and, with the point of your knife, stick it in little bits at equal distances all over the sheet of paste. Sprinkle on some flour, and fold up the dough. Flour the paste-board and rolling-pin again; throw a little flour on the paste and roll it out a second time. Stick the third piece of butter all over it in little bits. Throw on some flour, fold up the paste, sprinkle a little more flour on the dough, and on the rolling-pin, and roll it out a third time, always pressing on it lightly. Stick it over with the fourth and last piece of butter. Throw on a little more flour, fold up the paste and then roll it out in a large round sheet. Cut off the sides, so as to make the sheet of a square form, and lay the slips of dough upon the square sheet. Fold it up with the small pieces of trimmings, in the inside. Score or notch it a little with the knife; lay it on a plate and set it away in a cool place, but not where it can freeze, as that will make it heavy.

Having made the paste, prepare and mix your pudding or pie. When the mixture is finished, bring out your paste, flour the board and rolling-pin, and roll it out with a short quick stroke, and pressing the rolling-pin rather harder than while you were putting the butter in. If the paste rises in blisters, it will be light, unless spoiled in baking.

Then cut the sheet in half, fold up each piece and roll them out once more, separately, in round sheets the size of your plate. Press on rather harder, but not too hard. Roll the sheets thinnest in the middle and thickest at the edges. If intended for puddings, lay them in buttered soup-plates, and trim them evenly round the edges. If the edges do not appear thick enough, you may take the trimmings, put them all together, roll them out, and having cut them in slips the breadth of the rim of the plate, lay them all round to make the paste thicker at the edges, joining them nicely and evenly, as every patch or crack will appear distinctly when baked. Notch the rim handsomely with a very sharp knife. Fill the dish with the mixture of the pudding, and bake it in a moderate oven. The paste should be of a light brown colour. If the oven is too slow, it will be soft and clammy; if too quick, it will not have time to rise as high as it ought to do.

In making the best puff-paste, try to avoid using more flour to sprinkle and roll with, than the small portion which you have laid aside for that purpose at the beginning. If you make the dough too soft at first, by using too much water, it will be sticky, and require more flour, and will eventually be tough when baked. Do not put your hands to it, as their warmth will injure it. Use the knife instead. Always roll from you rather than to you, and press lightly on the rolling-pin, except at the last.

It is difficult to make puff-paste in the summer, unless in a cellar, or very cool room, and on a marble table. The butter should, if possible, be washed the night before, and kept covered with ice till you use it next day. The water should have ice in it, and the butter should be iced as it sets on the paste-board. After the paste is mixed, it should be put in a covered dish, and set in cold water till you are ready to give it the last rolling.

With all these precautions to prevent its being heavy, it will not rise as well, or be in any respect as good as in cold weather.

The handsomest way of ornamenting the edge of a pie or pudding is to cut the rim in large square notches, and then fold over triangularly one corner of every notch.

COMMON PASTE FOR PIES.

A pound and a half of sifted flour. Three quarters of a pound of butter--washed.

_This will make one large pie or two small ones_.

Sift the flour into a pan. Cut the butter into two equal parts. Cut one half of the butter into the flour, and cut it up as small as possible. Mix it well with the flour, wetting it gradually with a little cold water.

Spread some flour on your paste-board, take the lump of paste out of the pan, flour your rolling-pin, and roll out the paste into a large sheet. Then stick it over with the remaining half of the butter in small pieces, and laid at equal distances. Throw on a little flour, fold up the sheet of paste, flour it slightly, and roll it out again. Then fold it up, and cut it in half or in four, according to the size of your pies. Roll it out into round sheets the size of your pie-plates, pressing rather harder on the rolling-pin.

Butter your pie-plates, lay on your under crust, and trim the edge. Fill the dish with the ingredients of which the pie is composed, and lay on the lid, in which you must prick some holes, or cut a small slit in the top. Crimp the edges with a sharp knife.

Heap up the ingredients so that the pie will be highest in the middle.

Some think it makes common paste more crisp and light, to beat it hard on both sides with the rolling-pin, after you give it the first rolling, when all the butter is in.

If the butter is very fresh, you may mix with the flour a salt-spoonful of salt.

MINCE PIES

One pound and a half of boiled beef's heart, or fresh tongue--chopped when cold. Two pounds of beef suet, chopped fine. Four pounds of pippin apples, chopped. Two pounds of raisins, stoned and chopped. Two pounds of currants, picked, washed, and dried. Two pounds of powdered sugar. One quart of white wine. One quart of brandy. One wine-glass of rose-water. Two grated nutmegs. Half an ounce of powdered cinnamon A quarter of an ounce of powdered cloves A quarter of an ounce of powdered mace A teaspoon of salt. Two large oranges. Half a pound of citron, cut in slips.

Parboil a beef's heart, or a fresh tongue. After you have taken off the skin and fat, weigh a pound and a half. When it is cold, chop it very fine. Take the inside of the suet; weigh two pounds, and chop it as fine as possible. Mix the meat and suet together, adding the salt. Pare, core, and chop the apples, and then stone and chop the raisins. Having prepared the currants, add them to the other fruit, and mix the fruit with the meat and suet. Put in the sugar and spice, and the grated peel and juice of the oranges. Wet the whole with the rose water and liquor, and mix all well together.

Make the paste, allowing for each pie, half a pound of butter and three quarters of a pound of sifted flour. Make it in the same manner as puff-paste, but it will not be quite so rich. Lay a sheet of paste all over a soup-plate. Fill it with mince-meat, laying slips of citron on the top. Roll out a sheet of paste, for the lid of the pie. Put it on, and crimp the edges with a knife. Prick holes in the lid.

Bake the pies half an hour in a brisk oven.

Keep your mince meat in a jar tightly covered. Set it in a dry, cool place, and occasionally add more brandy to it.

Instead of the heart or tongue, you may, if you choose, use part of a round of fresh beef.

PLUM PUDDING

One pound of raisins, stoned and cut in half. One pound of currants, picked, washed and dried. One pound of beef suet chopped fine. One pound of grated stale bread, or, half a pound of flour and half a pound of bread. Eight eggs. A quarter of a pound of sugar. A glass of brandy. A pint of milk. A glass of wine. Two nutmegs, grated. A table-spoonful of mixed cinnamon and mace. A salt-spoonful of salt.

You must prepare all your ingredients the day before (except beating the eggs) that in the morning you may have nothing to do but to mix them, as the pudding will require six hours to boil.

Beat the eggs very light, then put to them half the milk and beat both together. Stir in gradually the flour and grated bread. Next add the sugar by degrees. Then the suet and fruit alternately. The fruit must be well sprinkled with flour, lest it sink to the bottom. Stir very hard. Then add the spice and liquor, and lastly the remainder of the milk. Stir the whole mixture very well together. If it is not thick enough, add a little more grated bread or flour. If there is too much bread or flour, the pudding will be hard and heavy.

Dip your pudding-cloth, in boiling water, shake it out and sprinkle it slightly with flour. Lay it in a pan and pour the mixture into the cloth. Tie it up carefully, allowing room for the pudding to swell.

Boil it six hours, and turn it carefully out of the cloth.

Before you send it to table, have ready some blanched sweet almonds cut in slips, or some slips of citron, or both. Stick them all over the outside of the pudding.

Eat it with wine, or with a sauce made of drawn butter, wine and nutmeg.

The pudding will be improved if you add to the other ingredients, the grated rind of a large lemon or orange.

LEMON PUDDING

One small lemon, with a smooth thin rind. Three eggs. A quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar. A quarter of a pound of fresh butter--washed. A table-spoonful of white wine and brandy, mixed. A tea-spoonful of rose-water.

Five ounces of sifted flour, and a quarter of a pound of fresh butter for the paste.

Grate the yellow part of the rind of a small lemon. Then cut the lemon in half, and squeeze the juice into the plate that contains the grated rind, carefully taking out all the seeds. Mix the juice and rind together.

Put a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar into a deep earthen pan, and cut up in it a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter. If the weather is very cold, set the pan near the fire, for a few minutes, to soften the butter, but do not allow it to melt or it will be heavy. Stir the butter and sugar together, with a stick or wooden spoon, till it is perfectly light and of the consistence of cream.

Put the eggs in a shallow broad pan, and beat them with an egg-beater or rods, till they are quite smooth, and as thick as a boiled custard. Then stir the eggs, gradually, into the pan of butter and sugar. Add the liquor and rose water by degrees, and then stir in, gradually, the juice and grated rind of the lemon. Stir the whole very hard, after all the ingredients are in.

Have ready a puff-paste made of five ounces of sifted flour, and a quarter of a pound of fresh butter. The paste must be made with as little water as possible. Roll it out in a circular sheet, thin in the centre, and thicker towards the edges, and just large enough to cover the bottom, sides, and edges of a soup-plate. Butter the soup-plate very well, and lay the paste in it, making it neat and even round the broad edge of the plate. With a sharp knife, trim off the superfluous dough, and notch the edges. Put in the mixture with a spoon, and bake the pudding about half an hour, in a moderate oven. It should be baked of a very light brown. If the oven is too hot, the paste will not have time to rise well. If too cold, it will be clammy. When the pudding is cool, grate loaf-sugar over it.

Before using lemons for any purpose, always roll them awhile with your hand on a table. This will cause them to yield a larger quantity of juice.

ORANGE PUDDING.

One large orange, of a deep colour, and smooth thin rind. One lime. A quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar. A quarter of a pound of fresh butter. Three eggs. A table-spoonful of mixed wine and brandy. A tea-spoonful of rose-water.

Grate the yellow rind of the orange and lime, and squeeze the juice into a saucer or soup-plate, taking out all the seeds.

Stir the butter and sugar to a cream.

Beat the eggs as light as possible, and then stir them by degrees into the pan of butter and sugar. Add, gradually, the liquor and rose-water, and then by degrees, the orange and lime. Stir all well together.

Have ready a sheet of puff-paste made of five ounces of sifted flour, and a quarter of a pound of fresh butter. Lay the paste in a buttered soup-plate. Trim and notch the edges, and then put in the mixture. Bake it about half an hour, in a moderate oven. Grate loaf-sugar over it, before you send it to table.

COCOA-NUT PUDDING

A quarter of a pound of cocoa-nut, grated. A quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar. Three ounces and a half of fresh butter. The whites only of six eggs. A table-spoonful of wine and brandy mixed. Half a tea-spoonful of rose-water.

Break up a cocoa-nut, and take the thin brown skin carefully off, with a knife. Wash all the pieces in cold water, and then wipe them dry, with a clean towel. Weigh a quarter of a pound of cocoa-nut, and grate it very fine, into a soup-plate.

Stir the butter and sugar to a cream, and add the liquor and rose-water gradually to them.

Beat the whites only, of six eggs, till they stand alone on the rods; and then stir the beaten white of egg, gradually, into the butter and sugar. Afterwards, sprinkle in, by degrees, the grated cocoa-nut, stirring hard all the time. Then stir all very well at the last.

Have ready a puff-paste, sufficient to cover the bottom, sides, and edges of a soup-plate. Put in the mixture, and bake it in a moderate oven, about half an hour.

Grate loaf-sugar over it, when cool.

ALMOND PUDDING.

Half a pound of sweet almonds, which will be reduced to a quarter of a pound, when shelled and blanched. An ounce of blanched bitter almonds or peach-kernels. The whites only, of six eggs. A quarter of a pound of butter. A quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar. A table-spoonful of mixed brandy, wine, and rose-water.

Shell half a pound of sweet almonds, and pour scalding water over them, which will make the skins peal off. As they get cool, pour more boiling water, till the almonds are all blanched. Blanch also the bitter almonds. As you blanch the almonds, throw them into a bowl of cold water. Then take them out, one by one, wipe them dry in a clean towel, and lay them on a plate. Pound them one at a time to a fine paste, in a marble mortar, adding, as you pound them, a few drops of rose-water to prevent their oiling. Pound the bitter and sweet almonds alternately, that they may be well mixed. They must be made perfectly fine and smooth, and are the better for being prepared the day before they are wanted for the pudding.

Stir the butter and sugar to a cream, and add to it, gradually, the liquor.

Beat the whites of six eggs till they stand alone. Stir the almonds and white of eggs, alternately, into the butter and sugar; and then stir the whole well together.

Have ready a puff-paste sufficient for a soup-plate. Butter the plate, lay on the paste, trim and notch it. Then put in the mixture.

Bake it about half an hour in a moderate oven.

Grate loaf-sugar over it.

A CHEESECAKE.

Four eggs. A gill of milk. A quarter of a pound of butter. A quarter of a pound of powdered sugar. Two ounces of grated bread. A table-spoonful of mixed brandy and wine. A tea-spoonful of rose-water. A tea-spoonful of mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg, mixed. A quarter of a pound of currants.

Pick the currants very clean. Wash them through a colander, wipe them in a towel, and then dry them on a dish before the fire.

When dry take out a few to scatter over the top of the cheesecake, lay them aside, and sprinkle the remainder of the currants with the flour.

Stir the butter and sugar to a cream. Grate the bread, and prepare the spice. Beat the eggs very light.

Boil the milk. When it comes to a boil, add to it half the beaten egg, and boil both together till it becomes a curd, stirring it frequently with a knife. Then throw the grated bread on the curd, and stir all together. Then take the milk, egg, and bread off the fire and stir it, gradually, into the butter and sugar. Next, stir in the remaining half of the egg.

Add, by degrees, the liquor and spice.

Lastly, stir in, gradually, the currants.

Have ready a puff-paste, which should be made before you prepare the cheesecake, as the mixture will become heavy by standing. Before you put it into the oven, scatter the remainder of the currants over the top.

Bake it half an hour in rather a quick oven.

Do not sugar the top.

You may bake it either in a soup-plate, or in two small tin patty-pans, which, for cheesecakes, should be of a square shape. If baked in square patty-pans, leave at each side a flap of paste in the shape of a half-circle. Cut long slits in these flaps and turn them over, so that they will rest on the top of the mixture.

You can, if you choose, add to the currants a few raisins stoned, and cut in half.

SWEET POTATO PUDDING.