Part 31

For _Shamrock_ rolls, put three small round balls of dough in each gem or muffin cup.

_Cleft_ rolls. Make dough into balls; when light, cut each roll across the top with a sharp knife, about 1 in. deep, or, once each side of the center, or, once each way, making a cross roll.

=Buttermilk Rolls=

1 pt. buttermilk ½-¾ cup oil 4 tablespns. yeast with warm water to make ½ cup 1 tablespn. sugar 1 teaspn. salt white flour

Warm buttermilk, add yeast and sugar with flour for sponge; when light, add salt, and flour for soft dough, let rise and shape into rolls.

=Swiss Rolls. Bennett’s=

1½ cup skimmed milk 1 tablespn. sugar 1½ tablespn. butter 1 cake compressed yeast ½ teaspn. salt 1 egg, white flour

Boil milk, sugar and butter together, cool, add yeast, sprinkle in flour gradually, agitating and beating liquid with batter whip; beat in the egg and flour, beating with strong spoon, for a very stiff batter, so stiff that it beats hard (may knead to soft dough). Leave in warm kitchen 1 hr. or longer, set in icebox for several hrs. or 2 days; roll, handling lightly, ¾ in. thick, spread with soft butter, roll up, cut off 1½ in. thick, let rise, bake in moderate oven. The dough may be baked in loaves and used for dainty sandwiches.

=★ Crumb Rolls=

_Sponge_--

1 pt. skimmed milk ⅓ cup oil ⅔ cake yeast 4 cups bread flour

_When light_--2 cups dry bread crumbs (not very fine), a little salt if crumbs are not very salt, flour to knead rather soft. Shape, and bake when light.

One chef made himself famous by making rolls of crumbs.

=★ Crumb Rolls of Brown Bread=

_Sponge_--

1 pt. water 2 tablespns. oil ⅔ cake of yeast 3 cups bread flour

_When light_--

½ teaspn. salt 1 qt. fine, stale, brown bread crumbs 2 cups flour, or enough to knead

Let rise in bulk, shape as desired, bake when light.

=Rolled Rolls=

Roll dough for rolls (p. 438) in a square ¼-½ in. thick, brush with butter or not, sprinkle with maple sugar or chopped hickory nuts or granulated sugar and ground coriander or anise seed, with or without currants or raisins, or with a mixture of chopped citron, English walnuts and sugar (maple or granulated), or chopped nuts, figs, raisins and cocoanut. Roll tight, cut from the end in 1 or 1½ in. lengths, lay close together in pan, let rise, and bake in moderate oven. Or, roll bread dough out and spread with hard sauce flavored with vanilla, lemon, coriander or anise. Sprinkle with currants or raisins. Roll, bake, glaze with sugar and hot water.

=★ Potato Biscuit=

1 cake yeast 1 qt. water 1 cup sugar 2 cups mashed potato 1 scant cup oil (or oil and melted butter mixed) 4 or 5 eggs salt white flour

Add beaten eggs, warm water and all other ingredients to warm mashed potato, with flour for stiff dough; when light, roll out, cut into biscuit, let rise, bake.

=Split Biscuit=

Use only 2 tablespns. of sugar in potato biscuit with milk for wetting.

Roll light dough ½ in. thick, cut into biscuit, butter half of them on top and lay one of the other half on top of each; lay close together in pan, brush with butter, let rise, bake.

=★ Raised Biscuit=

Take roll dough or add a little more oil to bread dough, cut into small biscuit and place a little way apart in pan, prick with fork, let rise and bake. Or, cut strips of dough into small pieces, roll into balls and place close together in tin. When there is a little piece of dough left, break it into small, irregular pieces and put one on the top of each biscuit.

=Breakfast Biscuit--rice, corn and flour=

Take cold boiled rice, double its quantity of flour, a little fine corn meal, and yeast. Mix with water to dough and let rise over night. Roll and cut into biscuit in the morning, let rise and bake for breakfast.

=★ Rusk=

1 pt. milk ⅔ cup oil ½-1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 cake yeast white flour coriander or anise

Beat oil and sugar together, stir in a little flour, add beaten eggs and warm milk, then dissolved yeast and flour for sponge. When light, add flour for smooth dough, let rise, mold into small biscuit, place close together in biscuit tin or put into muffin rings, or roll 1 in. thick, cut with biscuit cutter and place on pans a little distance apart; when light, brush with equal quantities of sugar and cream (or milk) boiled together 1 minute, dust with ground coriander or anise, bake, and sprinkle with granulated sugar or chopped almonds as they are taken from the oven. The brushing and dusting may be done after baking if preferred.

=Browned Rusk=

Bake rusk dough in loaf cake pans in a moderate oven and the next day cut into slices and dry and brown delicately the same as zwieback. Only ½ cup each of sugar and oil may be used or the sugar may be omitted entirely. Thin biscuit of the dough baked separately without brushing may be toasted the same as slices.

=Buns--plain=

1 pt. milk ⅔-1 cake yeast ⅓-½ cup oil or melted butter 2 tablespns. to ⅔ cup of sugar ½-1 teaspn. salt white flour

Add sugar, oil, salt and yeast to warm milk, with flour for soft dough; knead, let rise, turn down and when half risen turn on to board without stirring, roll out and cut with biscuit cutter, place on pans with spaces between, let rise, bake. When buns are done, the tops may be wet with molasses and milk, sugar and milk, or spread with beaten white of egg, dusted with sugar and set in the oven to dry.

_Nut Buns_--Add 1 cup coarse chopped nuts to dough after first rising.

_Currant Buns_--1 cup of currants in place of nuts in above, with or without 3 or 4 teaspns. ground coriander seed or ½ teaspn. ground anise seed.

Raisins cut in quarters may be substituted for currants, with any desired flavor, and nuts and raisins may be used for Fruit and Nut Buns, and dried blueberries for Blueberry Buns.

=Beadles=

Mix universal crust stiff at first; after rising twice, roll ⅓-½ in. thick, cut out with large round cutter, wash with mixture of beaten yolks, milk and sugar flavored with lemon (grated rind may be used) and dust the center with sugar, then draw over three sides of each toward the center to form a triangle, but far enough apart to leave an opening in the center to show the washed part. Brush with milk. When light bake in quick oven. Four sides may be drawn over, making a square instead of a triangle. When baked, a little jelly may be dropped in the center for Jelly Beadles; cream puff filling for Cream Beadles, or thick prune marmalade for Prune Beadles.

=Sr. Purdon’s Lemon Buns=

_Sponge_--

1¼ cup milk 2½ tablespns. sugar 1 cake yeast 2 cups flour

_When light_--

½ teaspn. salt ⅓ cup oil or butter 3 tablespns. sugar ½ cup seeded raisins in quarters ½ teaspn. lemon extract, or grated rind of lemon flour for soft dough

Let rise, shape as desired, when light brush with milk, bake.

=Bread Sticks=

Work the white of one egg into a pint of light bread dough, mold into slender sticks, place in stick pans, let rise, brush with milk or white of egg and water; bake in hot oven.

Or, roll shortened dough to the size of a pencil and 6-8 in. long. Lay on tins, let rise a little, bake in moderate oven.

Serve with soups or warm drinks.

=Crumb Cakes=

1 cup milk or water 1 tablespn. oil ⅔ cup flour ¼ teaspn. salt ⅓ cake compressed yeast 1 egg about ⅔ cup coarse zwieback crumbs

Mix sugar and salt with dry flour, pour warm milk over gradually, stirring; when smooth add yeast, and zwieback crumbs for not too stiff batter, then the egg, white and yolk beaten separately; when light, bake on griddle.

=Old-time Buckwheat Cakes--corn meal and flour=

Stir ½ cup of yellow corn meal into 1 qt. of boiling water; cook, stirring, until thickened; when lukewarm add:

1 teaspn. salt 2-4 tablespns. soft yeast ½ cup white flour 3 cups buckwheat flour

Beat, set in cool place until morning; add a little warm water if too thick and use less flour next time.

=★ Buckwheat Cakes--bread crumbs=

2 cups buckwheat flour 2½ cups warm water ½ cake compressed yeast 1 teaspn. salt 1 cup stale bread crumbs (white or graham) 1 cup milk

Add yeast to warm water and pour gradually over flour and salt, stirring; when light add crumbs soaked in milk and warmed a little.

BREADS--UNLEAVENED--WITHOUT CHEMICALS

“The use of soda and baking powder in bread making is harmful and unnecessary. Soda causes inflammation of the stomach and often poisons the entire system.”

The chemical substances left in foods by the union of soda and cream of tartar in baking powders cannot be used by the system, so the excretory organs are overworked in their efforts to throw them off.

Experiments have also proven that the chemicals of baking powder retard digestion.

The use of yeast is preferable to baking powder or soda, but breads made without baking powder, soda or yeast are best of all.

Unfermented breads are generally baked in small loaves, so that they are dry and require thorough mastication.

Because of their dryness, dough breads are more desirable than batter breads.

With the other advantages, unleavened breads have all the sweet taste of the flour.

The substitute for carbonic acid gas is as pure and “as free as the air we breathe,” for it is the air we breathe, the very same thing; consequently it is inexpensive and the use of it requires less time and labor than the making of fermented breads.

The _Essentials of Success_ in making unleavened breads are, after good materials (the flour must be of the best); (_a_) that the ingredients be as nearly ice cold as possible; (_b_) that the breads stand or rest before baking, in a cold place for from 20 m. to 3 or 4 hrs., or over night; (_c_) that the oven is not too hot when they are first put in--not that they must be beaten very vigorously.

Iron is the best material for batter bread pans as it gives a firm, steady heat. The irons with thin, flat, oval (not square cornered) cups are best, but the small round cups are not objectionable and the stick shaped pans are excellent. Next to irons are earthen custard cups.

When meal is to be scalded, heat it in the oven before pouring liquid over it.

=Gems=

Batter breads baked in irons.

Have materials and utensils cold, put liquid with salt, oil and yolks of eggs when used, in stone milk crock or deep pan, agitate for a moment by moving wire batter whip briskly back and forth, when the liquid will be full of bubbles. Sprinkle flour in, not too slowly, with the left hand, keeping up the agitating motion. When the batter is quite stiff, beat it (never stir it as that drives out the air) just enough to incorporate all the flour. Give a few turns of the egg beater to the whites of eggs (which are in a bowl with a little salt), so that they are full of large bubbles, rinse off the beater with cold water, give it a shake and hang it in its place. Turn the eggs on to the batter and mix them in lightly, beating a little if necessary to mix well; cover the dish and set it in the ice box (or in a pan of cold water with a wet cloth over it) in summer, or in a cold room where it will not freeze in winter, for not less than 20 m. and longer if possible. (I always stir my gems up over night when making them for breakfast.)

Slightly warm the pans and oil them.

When ready to bake the gems, warm the irons a little and without stirring the batter dip it into the cups, filling them to the brim, set into a slow oven that bakes well from the bottom.

Bake until well risen, increase the heat sufficiently to brown the gems nicely, then lower the temperature and finish baking. Be sure that the gems are well baked to the center. Turn out of pans at once and let stand for 10 or 15 m. before serving. There is no objection to serving unleavened breads warm.

If the oven does not bake well at the bottom, leave the pans on top of the stove where it is not too hot, for 10-15 m., then place carefully in the oven.

When baking with gas, put the gems on the top grate of the oven before it is lighted; use one burner only at first and have that turned rather low.

=Whole Wheat and Graham Gems=

1⅓-1½ cup of milk, 1 egg and flour for drop batter.

Graham gems should not be quite as stiff as whole wheat. Use the quantity of milk that will just fill the pan; skimmed milk with 1½-2 tablespns. of oil to the quart equals whole milk. Brazil or other nut butter or meal, with water, is sometimes used.

All whole wheat or graham flour may be used, but combining either with ⅓-⅔ white flour makes gems more digestible.

The batter may be made thinner than a drop batter, but I have better gems when it is quite stiff. I take only 3 eggs to a quart of milk, but more may be used. When we are so happy as to get a spring wheat graham flour, 2 eggs to the quart of liquid is sufficient.

Gems may be made without eggs with all whole wheat, or graham flour of spring wheat. They require a little more beating, the longer rest is imperative, and the oven should be a little warmer at first.

Cold boiled rice may be added to thin gem batter sometimes, also grated cocoanut.

=White, and Sally Lunn Gems=

Make the same as whole wheat gems, using white bread flour, and 1 egg to each cup of milk, add 2 tablespns. of sugar for Sally Lunns.

=Fruit and Nut Gems=

Add a few English currants, seeded raisins in quarters, with or without fine cut dates, or dried or fresh blueberries to any gem batter. Use chopped nuts alone or with fruit. Ground citron goes nicely with nuts.

=Rye Gems=

1 pt. skimmed milk 1 tablespn. oil ½ teaspn. salt 1 egg 3 cups rye meal or 3½-4 cups rye flour with or without a few caraway seeds

No oil is required with whole milk.

Plain rye or corn gems may be served with maple syrup.

=Rye and Wheat Gems=

1 cup skimmed milk 1 tablespn. oil 1 egg salt ½-⅞ cup rye meal ⅞ cup white bread flour

=★ Crumb Gems=

1 qt. skimmed milk 2 tablespns. oil salt 3 small eggs or 2 large ones graham flour for thin batter 1 cup fine zwieback crumbs

Or, 1½ cup crumbs, ½ cup white flour, 2 eggs, 1 teaspn. sugar, with the milk, salt and oil.

=★ Corn Meal and White Flour Gems=

½ cup granular corn meal ¾ cup boiling water ½ cup cold water ½ teaspn. salt 2 teaspns. oil 1 egg 1¼ cup white bread flour

Scald meal with boiling water, add oil, salt, cold water and yolk of egg; beat, add white flour, beating, and lastly stiffly-beaten white of egg; rest. Bake in moderate oven.

=Corn and Graham Gems--no eggs=

3 cups milk 2 teaspns. oil 3⅓ cups white corn meal 1⅔ cup graham flour salt

=★ Cream Corn Gems or Griddle Cakes=

Stir enough corn meal into not too thick cream to make a stiff batter; about 1½ cup meal to 1 of cream; add salt, beat a little, rest, bake in gem irons or on griddle.

=Pop Overs=

1 egg 1 cup milk 1 cup flour salt

Beat egg with salt; add half the milk, beat in the flour and add the remainder of the milk, and without beating strain into a pitcher; rest. Pour into rather hot irons and bake in moderate oven.

Sometimes the mixed egg and milk are poured gradually into the flour, stirring, and sometimes the beaten white of egg only is used, being added after straining batter. And again, a teaspoonful of oil or melted butter is put in after the flour is beaten into half the milk.

German puffs call for 4 eggs and Vanity puffs for 6 eggs, with the other ingredients the same.

=Other Variations of Pop Overs=

(_a_) 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 cup flour, 2 teaspns. oil or melted butter.

(_b_) 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, 2 cups flour.

(_c_) 2 eggs, 2 cups milk, 1½ cup flour.

(_d_) 2 eggs, 1½ cup milk, 1½ cup flour.

=Whole Wheat Pop Overs=

⅔ cup whole wheat flour ⅓ cup white flour ⅞ cup milk salt 1 egg

Mix flours and salt, stir into milk, add beaten egg, rest. Put into rather hot oiled gem pans, bake.

=★ Corn Pop Overs=

⅔ cup corn meal ⅓ cup white flour ⅞ cup milk salt 1 egg white and yolk beaten separate

=★ Sweet Potato Bread=

3 large (or 1¼-1½ lb.) sweet potatoes 1 teaspn. salt 1½ level tablespn. butter or oil 1½ cup granular corn meal ⅞ cup milk 1 egg

Bake potatoes, peel and rub through colander, add salt, oil, meal, milk and beaten egg; beat well. Bake in moderate oven 30-40 m. Serve hot.

=★ Rice Breakfast or Supper Cake=

2 cups boiled rice 1 tablespn. oil 1 tablespn. melted butter 1 cup milk salt 3-6 eggs 1 cup flour

Add stiffly-beaten whites of eggs last, rest, bake in shallow pans or patty pans. Serve hot. The flour is sometimes omitted.

Take 1 cup each of rice and hominy for Rice and Hominy cake.

=★ Corn Bread=

2 cups yellow granular meal 2¼ cups boiling water 1 teaspn. salt 1¼ tablespn. oil 1 egg

Pour boiling water over meal, add salt, oil and yolk of egg; cool, add beaten white and bake in oiled pan. Use a little less water for Rhode Island meal.

=Crumbs and Corn Bread=

1 pt. hot milk ½ cup stale bread crumbs 2 cups white corn meal 2 eggs 1½ tablespn. oil or melted butter 1 teaspn. salt

Pour boiling milk over corn meal, stir well, add oil, salt and crumbs; cool, add beaten yolks of eggs, then stiffly-beaten whites. Bake in oiled pie pans. Or, soak meal and crumbs in cold milk for several hours and add salt, oil and eggs as before.

=★ The Laurel Brown Bread. Sr. Olive Jones Tracy=

1 qt. each of corn meal, rye meal and cold water 1½ cup molasses 2 teaspns. salt 2 tablespns. oil 6 eggs

Mix water, salt, molasses, oil and yolks of eggs and add mixed meals; then stiffly-beaten whites of eggs. Steam 3 hrs., bake in slow oven ½ hr. 1 qt. of thin cream may be used in place of oil and water.

Halved, seeded raisins may be added occasionally or fine cut steamed prunes or broken pieces of nuts.

=Crumb Brown Bread--no eggs or yeast=

1 cup granular corn meal or 1½ of Rhode Island meal ½ cup rye meal ¾ cup molasses 1 teaspn. salt 2 cups water 2½ cups (not too fine) dry bread crumbs

Mix and steam 3 hrs.

2 cups of granella in place of the crumbs is better still.

½ cup sugar with ½ cup more of water may be used in place of the molasses. Cereal coffee may be used for the liquid, or a little browned flour may be mixed with the meal.

=★ Johnny Cake=

2½ cups granular corn meal 3 tablespns. oil or melted butter salt about 1½ cup milk

Mix; rest 1 hr. or longer in cold place, bake in iron skillet in quick oven.

=Southern Johnny Cakes=

½ cup each fine hominy, rice and rice flour, salt, water, milk. Cook rice and hominy in 2 cups of water, each. Add ½-1 cup milk, salt and rice flour; drop by spoonfuls on hot, oiled griddle, flatten with fingers dipped in cold water, bake in oven or on top of stove.

=★ Bannock=

⅔ cup granular meal 3½ cups boiling water ¾ teaspn. salt 1 tablespn. oil or butter 2 eggs

Cook meal in water for 10 m., add oil, cool a little, add yolks of eggs, beat well, fold in stiffly-beaten whites of eggs, bake in oiled pudding dish or pie plates, in moderate oven. Serve at once.

=Water Corn Bread=

1½ cup granular corn meal, salt, 1 cup cold water. Rest 1-2 hrs., spread thin on hot griddle or frying pan, bake in hot oven, serve hot.

=No. 2=

1 cup granular meal, salt, ¾ cup boiling water. Spread at once, thin, on hot griddle or frying pan and bake in hot oven. Serve hot.

=Oat Cake=

1 cup fine oatmeal, ½ teaspn. salt, boiling water, 1-1½ cup perhaps. Grind rolled oats (not too fine) if very fine meal is not obtainable. Pour over enough boiling water to moisten, spread very thin on hot oiled frying pan or griddle (or spread spoonfuls in cakes), bake on top of stove or in hot oven.

=Corn Meal Crusts=

1 cup yellow meal ½ teaspn. salt 1½ tablespn. oil or melted butter 1 teaspn. sugar 1½ cup boiling water

Pour boiling water over meal, sugar and salt; beat well; add butter, spread very thin on well oiled pans, bake. Pull apart while hot.

=White Corn Meal Crusts=

1 cup white corn meal, 2 cups boiling milk, 1 teaspn. salt; stir smooth and pour ⅓-½ in. deep in oiled pan. Bake in moderate oven. Split for eating.

=Rhode Island Johnny (Journey) Cakes=

Those who have not made the acquaintance of Rhode Island Johnny cakes have missed much. To make them in their perfection Rhode Island meal is required, though white meal will do. Do not try them with yellow granular meal. Rhode Island meal has a creamy tint and is lighter in texture than granular meal.

Mix the meal with salt in a cake bowl and pour perfectly boiling water over it to more than moisten. (A rule for the quantity is out of the question). Stir, and if necessary add more water. The batter should be soft, but the meal must be well wet with the boiling water. Beat and drop in spoonfuls on to a hot, well oiled griddle. Dip the hand in water and flatten the cakes to about ¾ in. thick. Keep the griddle hot until cakes are nicely browned on one side, turn, adding more oil if necessary and brown on the other side; after which set back where cakes will bake slowly for 20 m. to ½ hr. Serve with cream, nut cream or butter, or with some meaty flavored gravy; sometimes honey or maple syrup.

In many families these cakes form the bread for three times a day six days in the week, and one soon comes to feel lost without them.

_As Toast_--Split cold cakes, lay in deep dish with salt and bits of butter and pour hot milk over.

=Pone, or Corn Bread “Straight”=

1 qt. white corn meal, 1 teaspn. salt, cold water for soft dough. With hands moistened with cold water mold into oblong mounds, a little thicker in the center than at the ends. Lay on hot oiled or floured pan, press a little with the fingers and bake in hot oven. Break (not cut). Eat hot.

A little oil may be added to the meal for pone, but then it will not be “straight.”

=Ash Cake=

Brush a place clean before the fire and lay the pones upon it. Let the tops dry a little and cover with hot ashes. Bake until dry and firm, 15-30 m. Draw from the fire, brush off the ashes, wash and wipe, serve. Buttermilk is the ideal accompaniment to ash cake or pone.

A cabbage leaf may be laid above and below the cake in the ashes; then it will not require washing, but will need to be baked a little longer.

=Hoe Cake=

One hoe cake is the pone mixture baked on a hoe or griddle in one large cake or in several small ones ¼-¾ in. thick.

Another--1 cup white Southern corn meal or Rhode Island meal, mix with ½ teaspn. salt and pour boiling milk or water over to make a batter thick enough not to spread. Drop by spoonfuls on well oiled griddle and press ½ in. thick. When nicely browned on one side, put a small piece of butter or a little oil on top of each cake and turn. Bake thoroughly. Serve hot. A teaspn. of sugar is sometimes added to the meal, but “no Southern cook would risk the spoiling of her corn breads by sweetening them.”

For campers, the batter may be spread on a floured oak board, the board slanted in front of the fire and the hoe cake baked “in its original way and with its original flavor;” or it may be baked on a smooth flat stone which has been heated and floured. Sometimes the scalded meal is allowed to stand for an hour or longer, then formed into cakes ½-¾ in. thick before baking.

=★ Sr. Welch’s Corn Dodgers=

⅔ cup common yellow corn meal good ⅓ cup white flour 1-2 teaspns. sugar salt 1⅓ cup milk or water or half of each 1 large egg 1 teaspn. oil or melted butter

Mix corn meal and flour and heat in oven, add sugar and salt and pour boiling liquid over, stir rapidly until smooth, add oil and yolk of egg, then stiffly-beaten white; drop in spoonfuls on hot oiled pan; bake in quite hot oven.

=Sr. Welch’s Corn Dodgers--granular meal=