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=
1 cup yellow granular corn meal
large ½ cup white flour
½ tablespn. sugar
salt
2¾-3 cups boiling milk or water, or half of each
1 large or 2 small eggs
Mix and bake as with common meal. If the liquid is not rich milk, use 1
tablespn. oil or melted butter.
Use ¾-1 cup of nut meal or butter and all water for Nut Corn Dodgers.
=Corn Meal Porridge Dodgers=
1 cup corn meal
½ teaspn. salt
1 cup boiling water
1 tablespn. oil or melted butter
Pour boiling water over corn meal and salt in inner cup of double
boiler; stir smooth, cook 1 hr., add oil, drop by spoonfuls on oiled
griddle, dip fingers in cold water and pat down flat; when browned put
a dot of butter or a little oil on top of each and turn. Serve with
poached eggs if desired.
=Griddle Cakes=
Batter for griddle cakes should stand 2 hrs. or longer in the ice box,
or in winter in some cold place, to lighten it by allowing the starch
grains and glutenous portion of the flour to swell.
An iron or steel griddle is best for baking cakes. Soapstone, so highly
recommended, is objectionable because little particles of the stone
adhere to the cakes.
The griddle should stand on a not too hot part of the stove and heat
slowly for a long time before the cakes are to be baked. Professional
pancake bakers have their griddle over a slow fire all night.
When oil is used in the batter, less or none is required on the griddle.
Have the griddle hot before putting the cakes on, brown them
delicately, then turn once only. A second turning makes them heavy.
Cakes ought to be eaten as soon as baked, but should not be covered
when required to stand for a short time.
=Plain Griddle Cakes=
1 cup milk
2 tablespns. oil
2 eggs
1¼-1½ cup bread flour
¼-⅓ teaspn. salt
Rest 2 hrs. or longer. May spread with jelly, or with butter and sugar
and roll.
=Rice Griddle Cakes=
Add 1-2 cups cold boiled rice to plain cakes.
=Crumb Griddle Cakes=
Use only 1 cup of flour in plain cakes and add stale or dry bread
crumbs to make quite a thick batter.
=Buckwheat Cakes=
Use ⅔ buckwheat in place of all white flour in plain cakes.
=Savory Meat Griddle Cakes=
Add crumbled trumese, fine chopped onion and powdered sage to rice or
crumb cakes.
=Mushroom Griddle Cakes=
Lay a spoonful or two of chopped mushroom stems, simmered in oil with
or without a little tomato, browned flour and onion, on each small thin
cake, roll lightly and serve with or without Italian or Boundary Castle
sauce.
=Plain Griddle Cakes--Roux. Delicate and Creamy=
1 full tablespn. oil
2 tablespns. bread flour
½ cup milk
½ cup water
½ cup flour
½ teaspn. salt
2 eggs
Heat oil, add the 2 tablespns. flour, hot water and milk, boil well;
when cool, add salt, yolks of eggs and ½ cup of flour, beating; then
the stiffly-beaten whites of eggs; rest.
=Variations=
(_a_) 2 cups dry bread crumbs in place of the half cup of flour and
less or no salt.
(_b_) Add 2-4 cups of cold boiled hominy to plain batter and another ¼
cup of flour if necessary.
(_c_) Add 1½-2 cups cold boiled rice to plain cakes and a little more
flour if necessary.
(_d_) Add 1-1½ cup drained canned corn to plain cakes, more flour if
necessary.
(_e_) Add 4 tablespns. granular corn meal scalded with about ⅔ cup of
boiling water, to plain cakes.
=Crumb Griddle Cakes--no flour=
1 cup milk
1 cup dry crumbs
⅓ teaspn. salt
1 egg
=Corn and Crumb Griddle Cakes--no eggs=
½ cup granular meal
½ cup boiling water
1 teaspn. oil
½ teaspn. salt
¾ cup dry bread crumbs
¾ cup whole milk
Cool. If necessary, add ¼ cup more of milk.
=Rice Griddle Cakes--no flour=
½ cup rice
3 eggs
1 cup milk
½ teaspn. salt
1 tablespn. oil
Boil rice in 2 cups water, partly cool, beat smooth with milk, add salt
and beaten eggs. Another yolk of egg may be used. If rice is thin, use
less milk.
=Hominy Griddle Cakes=
½ cup hominy
3 eggs
⅓ cup milk
1½ tablespn. oil
salt
Cook hominy in 2 cups water and proceed as in Rice Cakes.
=Corn Meal Griddle Cakes--no flour=
1 pt. granular meal
1 teaspn. each butter, salt and sugar
1 pt. boiling water
½-¾ cup cold milk
2 eggs
Scald meal with boiling water, add butter, salt, sugar and cold milk,
then yolks of eggs; beat batter and fold in stiffly-beaten whites. Or,
beat eggs all together.
For Rhode Island meal, 1½ pt. boiling water will be required.
=Green Corn Batter Cakes=
2 tablespns. oil or melted butter
3 tablespns. flour
⅞ cup boiling water
½-¾ cup of grated or ground green corn
1 teaspn. sugar if corn is not sweet
3 tablespns. fine dry or toasted bread crumbs
1 egg
salt
Heat oil, add flour, then boiling water; remove from fire, add salt and
crumbs, cool, add corn and beaten egg. Bake on well oiled griddle.
=Nut Butter Griddle Cakes=
2 tablespns. almond, Brazil or other nut butter, 1 cup water, salt, 2
eggs, whites beaten separate, 1 cup bread flour.
=Nut and Egg Cakes=
For those who cannot take starchy foods.
Rub 2 tablespns. nut butter smooth with 2 full tablespns. of water; add
a beaten egg with salt. Bake on moderate griddle to delicate brown.
=Dough Breads=
Grind dough breads 5-8 times through a food cutter with the finest
plate instead of kneading; it saves time and strength and the breads
are better.
A good spring wheat graham flour makes better rolls than whole wheat
flour, but poor graham flour does not make good “anything.” The
simplest rolls are made with flour and water, with or without salt,
and require more thorough working than those made with shortening.
Rolls may be reheated whole, or be split and toasted.
Sticks and rolls may be mixed with milk instead of water.
All crackers and wafers (except fruit) should be crisped thoroughly in
the oven before serving.
=Plain Graham Rolls=
Put a cupful of ice water into a cold bowl. Add ¼ teaspn. of salt if
desired, but the rolls will have more of the sweet, nutty flavor of the
flour without it. Agitate the water until full of bubbles and sprinkle
in the cold flour as for gems. When the batter is too stiff to beat,
take it out on to a cold floured board and knead, using as little flour
as possible, until smooth and elastic. About 3 cupfuls of flour will be
taken up. Divide the dough, roll it quickly and evenly to about ¾ in.
in diameter, cut into 3 in. lengths and set in ice box to rest. Bake
in a moderate oven with steady heat until the rolls will not yield to
pressure between the thumb and finger and are of a delicate brown.
If preferred, the water may be poured over the flour and the dough
kneaded the same. The dough may rest before being rolled out.
The yolk of a hard boiled egg rubbed into each pint of flour makes more
tender rolls; or one beaten raw yolk may be added to each ¾ cup of
water.
=Nut Rolls=
Add ¾-1 cup of nut meal to water in plain rolls recipe.
=Cream Rolls=
Mix rich cold cream and graham flour together quickly. Press together
without kneading, rest for 2 hrs. or more, shape into rolls and bake,
or put on ice again until ready to bake.
Rolls may be kneaded, and if kneaded at all should be kneaded
thoroughly. Cocoanut cream may be substituted for dairy.
=★ Shortened Rolls=
The quantity of oil required will depend entirely upon the quality of
the flour, but for ordinary graham flour take ⅓ cup of oil to each pint
of flour; to a good spring wheat flour not more than ¼ cup. Rub the oil
into the salted flour, add ice water for moderately stiff dough, press
into a mass and set to rest, unless preferring to knead. Finish the
same as cream rolls. ⅓ white flour may be used with the graham.
=Fruit Rolls=
Roll shortened dough ¼ in. thick. Cut into strips 2½-3 in. wide, put a
strip of halves of stoned dates, pieces of nice fresh figs or a roll of
seeded and ground raisins along the length of the dough a little one
side of the center; slightly moisten the edge of the dough farthest
away from the fruit, lap the edge nearest, over the fruit and roll it
up in the dough, leaving a long roll with the fruit in the center; roll
over and over until the edge of the dough is well fastened down; cut
roll into 2 or 3 inch lengths (1 inch for some occasions); bake.
This way of putting the fruit in the roll has the advantage of leaving
no pieces of fruit sticking through the dough to be burned in baking,
and also of not having any “sad” portion of dough in the center of the
roll.
=Fruit and Nut Rolls=--may be made by adding pieces of nuts to the
fruit in the roll.
=Sticks=
Roll any of the roll doughs or the graham cracker dough to about the
size of a lead pencil or not over ⅓ of an inch in diameter; cut in 5-7
in. lengths, rest and bake the same as rolls. Sticks are more crisp and
delightful than rolls. They should be on the table for every meal.
=White Sticks=
Take 1-1½ tablespn. of oil to each cup of white bread flour, with a
trifle of salt, and water for stiff dough.
Dainty white sticks are nice to serve with soups, salads and some
desserts.
=Porridge Sticks.=
1 cup cold, thick oatmeal porridge
1 tablespn. oil
salt
½ cup graham flour
1¼ cup white flour
Mix and knead thoroughly. Dough must be very stiff.
=Beaten Biscuit--Whole Wheat=
1 qt. true whole wheat flour
½ teaspn. salt
⅓ cup oil
1 scant cup ice water, about
Rub salt and oil with flour, add water, knead until smooth (the dough
should be very stiff), then separate dough into several pieces and put
it through the food cutter 6 or 8 times. This takes the place of the
laborious beating. Shape into small thick biscuit; make a hole through
the center of each one from the top with the thumb or finger, rest;
bake thoroughly in moderate oven.
If you have time to form the biscuit you will be well repaid for your
trouble as they are so beautiful; but if your time is limited, roll the
dough ½-1 in. thick, cut with small round cutter and prick with fork.
You may even cut the dough into small squares. Rolled very thin, cut
with a large cutter and pricked well, the dough makes nice wafers. If a
food cutter is not at hand, beat with a mallet or the rolling pin, or
pick apart with the thumb and fingers, over and over again, until the
dough snaps when pulled apart.
A cup of medium thick cream may be used instead of oil and water.
=Maryland Beaten Biscuit=
1 qt. white flour
1 teaspn. salt
2-4 tablespns. oil or 1-2 tablespns. butter,
(use only ½ teaspn. salt with butter)
¾-⅞ cup of ice cold milk or water, or half of each
Proceed as with whole wheat biscuit.
=Maryland Biscuit--Unbeaten=
1 qt. whole wheat or white flour
salt
4 tablespns. oil or melted butter
cold water or milk for stiffest possible dough
Knead 20 m., or until dough blisters; set aside 1-2 hrs., or over
night; knead 5-10 m., roll and cut, or shape by hand. Bake.
=★ White Crackers=
1 qt. bread flour
4 tablespns. oil, or 2 of oil and 1 of butter (2 of melted butter)
salt
cold milk for very stiff dough
Knead until smooth, run through food cutter 6-8 times, or beat or pick
as beaten biscuit; rest, roll thin, prick dough all over, cut into any
desired shape, bake in moderate oven. ¼ or ½ of pastry flour may be
used; also water and a little more shortening.
=Swedish Milk Biscuit=
Make white crackers of milk, roll as thin as paper, prick, cut into
biscuit the size of a saucer. Turn the wafers on the tins often while
baking. Serve with some desserts, fruit or other salads, and with
cottage cheese. Cut a hole in the center of some of the biscuit before
baking and serve salads or suitable meat dishes on them in individual
servings.
=Cocoanut Wafers=
2½ cups pastry flour
1 cup dessicated cocoanut
2 tablespns. butter or 3 of oil
salt
water
Rub butter into flour, add salt and mix with cocoanut which has been
ground through a food cutter. Add ice water for stiff dough, roll out
at once or rest before rolling as preferred. Bake carefully so as not
to scorch the cocoanut. Dried grated cocoanut of your own preparing is
preferable. 2 cups of cocoanut may be used.
If a sweet wafer is desired, add sugar to the dough or sprinkle with
sugar before baking.
=Fruit Bars=
Roll any desired dough thin, cut into 3-3½ in. strips, spread one half
of the width with stoned dates, halved raisins, steamed figs, sweet
prunes or any suitable fruit, which has been cut into strips with the
shears; moisten the edge next to the fruit, fold the other half of
the dough over, pressing the edges well together, and roll lightly to
flatten the bar; cut with a sharp knife into 2½-3 in. lengths.
Add nuts to make fruit and nut bars, or make nut bars sometimes. The
dough may be slightly sweetened.
=Crackers with Nuts=
Brush baked crackers with beaten white of egg and spread thick with
chopped or coarse ground nuts (English walnuts or pecans or both). Put
into warm oven to dry.
These crackers are nice to serve with fruit or vegetable salads, or
with cereal coffee or tea-hygiene.
=Graham Crackers--Sweet=
2 cups each graham and white flour
½ cup butter or oil
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspn. salt
cold water for stiff dough
Mix well together, run through food cutter (with finest knife) 5 or 6
times, roll about ⅛ in. thick, prick with fork, cut into any desired
shape, set in cold place for 2 hrs. or longer, bake in moderate oven.
Omit sugar for unsweetened crackers. Dough may be kneaded, picking it
apart into small pieces, if food cutter is not at hand. Or, crackers
are very good made up without any kneading, when rested in cold place.
=★ Sour Cream Crackers=
⅔ cup thick sour cream
2 tablespns. oil
½ teaspn. salt
pastry flour for rather stiff dough
Rest and finish as other crackers. If the cream is not rich, use more
oil.
=Nut Wafers=
½-1 cup fine chopped or ground nuts
1 pt. flour, graham or white, or half of each
¼ teaspn. salt
water for stiff dough
Finish the same as graham crackers. Nice with fruit soups.
=Fruit Wafers=
Roll any of the cracker doughs thin, place figs, dates, raisins or
prunes cut in thin pieces with the shears, on the dough, cover with
another thin layer of dough, roll with rolling pin to press all
together, prick with fork, cut in squares, rest, bake.
=★ Oat Cakes=
1 part oil, 2 parts water, salt, coarse oat flour to knead. Roll ¼
in. thick of size to fit pie pan, crease in quarters, rest; bake in
moderate oven. The dough may be cut into crackers if preferred. Grind
rolled oats or oatmeal in food cutter, to make the flour.
=★ Graham Crisps or Flakes=
Prepare dough as for plain graham rolls, kneading very stiff. After
resting, separate into small pieces and roll each piece as thin as
paper. When all are rolled, put as many as convenient into a hot oven
on perforated pans or on the grate of the oven. Turn them over on the
pans often while baking and bake to a delicate brown. Serve whole or in
broken pieces.
This is one of the most delicate and digestible of unleavened breads
and has a crispness and nutty flavor peculiarly its own. It should
be one of the staple articles of food in our homes and is especially
adapted to school, picnic and travelling lunches.
=Cream Crisps=
Mix with thin cream instead of water and bake in slower oven than water
crisps. With cream, whole wheat or white flour may be used, as well as
graham.
=Nut Crisps=
Use nut roll dough, kneading it very stiff. Beaten biscuit dough may
also be used for shortened crisps.
=Cocoanut Crisps=
Use equal quantities of desiccated cocoanut and pastry flour, with
water or milk for liquid.
=Nut Straws=
Take equal quantities of any nut meal and pastry flour, with a little
salt. Add just enough ice water to make the particles hold together,
roll out without kneading to ¼ in. thick, then cut into strips ¼ in.
wide and 5-8 in. long. Bake in quick oven to delicate cream color.
Serve tied with narrow ribbon in bunches of 3-5 with individual plates
of salad or on celery dish. ⅔ nut meal and ⅓ flour may be used for
richer straws.
=Unleavened Bread for Communion=
2 cups pastry flour
2½-3 tablespns. olive oil
½ teaspn. salt
⅓ to scant ½ cup of ice water
Mix salt, flour, and oil together, add enough ice water for stiff
dough, press together as for pie crust and set in refrigerator an hour
or longer. Roll dough three-sixteenths of an inch thick, prick all over
with a fork, mark off in nine-sixteenth-inch squares by a rule, cut
into convenient sized pieces for baking. Lay on a pan or perforated
sheet, then crease marked squares half through the dough with a spatula
or the back of a knife. Bake very carefully in a moderate oven.
1½-2 tablespns. of butter may be used instead of the oil, but olive oil
seems more suitable for the purpose.