jumble-paste--rolling out in any desired shape; cut some paste in
thick, narrow strips and lay around your cakes, so as to form a deep,
cup-like edge; place on a well-buttered tin and bake. When done, fill
with iced fruit prepared as follows: Take rich, ripe peaches (canned
ones will do if fine and well drained from all juice) cut in halves;
plums, strawberries, pineapples cut in squares or small triangles, or
any other available fruit, and dip in the white of an egg that has
been very slightly beaten and then in pulverized sugar, and lay in the
centre of your cakes.
WAFERS.
Dissolve four ounces of butter in half a teacup of milk; stir together
four ounces of white sugar, eight ounces of sifted flour and the yolk
of one egg, adding gradually the butter and milk, a tablespoonful of
orange-flour water and a pinch of salt; mix it well. Heat the
wafer-irons, butter their inner surfaces, put in a tablespoonful of
the batter and close the irons immediately; put the irons over the
fire, and turn them occasionally, until the wafer is cooked; when the
wafers are all cooked roll them on a small round stick, stand them
upon a sieve and dry them; serve with ices.
PEACH CAKES.
Take the yolks and whites of five eggs and beat them separately (the
whites to a stiff froth.) Then mix the beaten yolks with half a pound
of pulverized and sifted loaf or crushed sugar, and beat the two
together thoroughly. Fifteen minutes will be none too long for the
latter operation if you would have excellence with your cakes.
Now add half a pound of fine flour, dredging it in a little at a time,
and then put in the whites of the eggs, beating the whole together for
four or five minutes. Then with a large spoon, drop the batter upon a
baking tin, which has been buttered and floured, being careful to have
the cakes as nearly the same size as possible and resembling in shape
the half of a peach. Have a quick oven ready and bake the cakes about
ten minutes, watching them closely so that they may only come to a
light brown color. Then take them out, spread the flat side of each
with peach jam, and stick them together in pairs, covering the outside
with a thin coat of icing, which when dry can be brushed over on one
side of the cake, with a little cochineal water.
CUP CAKES.
Two cups of sugar, one cup of butter, one cup of milk, three cups and
a half of flour and four eggs, half a teaspoonful of soda, large spoon
cream of tartar; stir butter and sugar together and add the beaten
yolks of the eggs, then the milk, then flavoring and the whites. Put
cream of tartar in flour and add last. Bake in buttered gem-pans, or
drop the batter, a teaspoonful at a time, in rows on flat buttered
tins.
To this recipe may be added a cup of English currants or chopped
raisins; and also another variety of cake may be made by adding a half
cup citron sliced and floured, a half cupful of chopped almonds and
lemon extract.
VARIEGATED CAKES.
One cup powdered sugar, one-half cup of butter creamed with the sugar,
one-half cup of milk, four eggs, the whites only, whipped light, two
and one-half cups prepared flour. Bitter almond flavoring, spinach
juice and cochineal. Cream the butter and sugar; add the milk,
flavoring, the whites and flour. Divide the batter into three parts.
Bruise and pound a few leaves of spinach in a thin muslin bag until
you can express the juice. Put a few drops of this into one portion of
the batter, color another with cochineal, leaving the third white. Put
a little of each into small, round pans or cups, giving a light stir
to each color as you add the next. This will vein the cakes prettily.
Put the white between the pink and green, that the tints may show
better. If you can get pistachio nuts to pound up for the green, the
cakes will be much nicer. Ice on sides and top.
CORNSTARCH CAKES.
One cupful each of butter and sweet milk and half a cup of cornstarch,
two cupfuls each of sugar and flour, the whites of five eggs beaten to
a stiff froth, two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar and one of soda;
flavor to taste. Bake in gem-tins or patty-pans.
SPONGE DROPS.
Beat to a froth three eggs and one teacup of sugar; stir into this one
heaping coffeecup of flour, in which one teaspoonful of cream of
tartar and half a teaspoonful of saleratus are thoroughly mixed.
Flavor with lemon. Butter tin sheets with washed butter and drop in
teaspoonfuls about three inches apart. Bake instantly in a very quick
oven. Watch closely as they will burn easily. Serve with ice cream.
SAVORY BISCUITS OR LADY FINGERS.
Put nine tablespoonfuls of fine white sugar into a bowl and put the
bowl into hot water to heat the sugar; when the sugar is thoroughly
heated, break nine eggs into the bowl and beat them quickly until they
become a little warm and rather thick; then take the bowl from the
water and continue beating until it is nearly or quite cold; now stir
in lightly nine tablespoonfuls of sifted flour; then with a paper
funnel, or something of the kind, lay this mixture out upon papers, in
biscuits three inches long and half an inch thick, in the form of
fingers; sift sugar over the biscuits and bake them upon tins to a
light brown; when they are done and cold, remove them from the papers,
by wetting them on the back; dry them and they are ready for use. They
are often used in making Charlotte Russe.
PASTRY SANDWICHES.
Puff paste, jam of any kind, the white of an egg, sifted sugar.
Roll the paste out thin; put half of it on a baking sheet or tin, and
spread equally over it apricot, greengage, or any preserve that may be
preferred. Lay over this preserve another thin paste, press the edges
together all round, and mark the paste in lines with a knife on the
surface, to show where to cut it when baked. Bake from twenty minutes
to half an hour; and, a short time before being done, take the pastry
out of the oven, brush it over with the white of an egg, sift over
pounded sugar and put it back in the oven to color. When cold, cut it
into strips; pile these on a dish pyramidically and serve.
This may be made of jelly-cake dough, and, after baking, allowed to
cool before spreading with the preserve; either way is good, as well
as fanciful.
NEAPOLITAINES.
One cup of powdered sugar, half a cup of butter, two tablespoonfuls of
lemon juice, three whole eggs and three yolks, beaten separately,
three cups of sifted flour. Put this all together with half a
teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of milk. If it is too
stiff to roll out, add just enough more milk. Roll it a quarter of an
inch thick and cut it out with any tin cutter. Place the cakes in a
pan slightly greased and color the tops with beaten egg and milk, with
some chopped almonds over them. Bake in a rather quick oven.
BRUNSWICK JELLY CAKES.
Stir one cup of powdered white sugar and one-half cup of butter
together, till perfectly light; beat the yolks of three eggs till very
thick and smooth; sift three cups of flour and stir it into the beaten
eggs with the butter and sugar; add a teaspoonful of mixed spice
(nutmeg, mace and cinnamon) and half a glass of rose-water or wine;
stir the whole well and lay it on your paste-board, which must first
be sprinkled with flour; if you find it so moist as to be
unmanageable, throw in a little more flour; spread the dough into a
sheet about half an inch thick and cut it out in round cakes with a
biscuit-cutter; lay them in buttered pans and bake about five or six
minutes; when cold, spread over the surface of each cake a liquor of
fruit jelly or marmalade; then beat the whites of three or four eggs
till they stand alone; beat into the froth, by degrees, a sufficiency
of powdered loaf sugar to make it as thick as icing; flavor with a few
drops of strong essence of lemon, and with a spoon heap it up on each
cake, making it high in the centre; put the cakes into a cool oven,
and as soon as the tops are colored a pale brown, take them out.
LITTLE PLUM CAKES.
One cup of sugar and half a cup of butter beaten to a smooth cream;
add three well-beaten eggs, a teaspoonful of vanilla extract, four
cups of sifted flour, one cup of raisins and one of currants, half of
a teaspoonful of baking soda dissolved in a little water, and milk
enough to make a stiff batter; drop this batter in drops on
well-buttered tins and bake in a _quick_ oven.
JUMBLES.
Cream together two cups of sugar and one of butter, add three
well-beaten eggs and six tablespoonfuls of sweet milk, two
teaspoonfuls of baking powder, flavor to taste, flour enough to make
into a soft dough; do not roll it on the paste-board, but break off
pieces of dough the size of a walnut and make into rings by rolling
out rolls as large as your finger, and joining the ends; lay them on
tins to bake, an inch apart, as it rises and spreads; bake in a
_moderate_ oven. These jumbles are very delicate and will keep a long
time.
WINE JUMBLES.
One cup of butter, two of sugar, three eggs, one wine-glass of wine,
one spoonful of vanilla and flour enough to roll out. Roll as thin as
the blade of a knife and cut with an oval cutter. Bake on tin-sheets
in a quick oven until a dark brown. These will keep a year if kept in
a tin box and in a dry place.
COCOANUT JUMBLES.
Grate one large cupful of cocoanut; rub one cupful of butter with one
and a half cupfuls of sugar; add three beaten eggs, whites and yolks
separately, two tablespoonfuls of milk and five cupfuls of sifted
flour; then add by degrees the grated nut, so as to make a stiff
dough, rolled thin and cut with a round cutter, having a hole in the
middle. Bake in a quick oven from five to ten minutes.
PHILADELPHIA JUMBLES.
Two cups of sugar, one cup of butter, eight eggs beaten light; essence
of bitter almond or rose to taste; enough flour to enable you to roll
them out.
Stir the sugar and butter to a light cream, then add the well-whipped
eggs, the flavoring and flour; mix well together, roll out in powdered
sugar in a sheet a quarter of an inch thick; cut into rings with a
jagging-iron and bake in a quick oven on buttered tins.
ALMOND JUMBLES.
Three cupfuls of soft sugar, two cupfuls of flour, half a cupful of
butter, one teacupful of loppered milk, five eggs well beaten, two
tablespoonfuls of rose-water, three-quarters of a pound of almonds,
blanched and chopped _very_ fine, one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in
boiling water.
Cream butter and sugar; stir in the beaten yolks the milk, flour,
rose-water, almonds and, lastly, the beaten whites very lightly and
quickly; drop in rings on buttered paper and bake at once.
FRUIT JUMBLES.
Two cups of sugar, one cup of butter, five cupfuls of flour, five
eggs, one small teacupful of milk, in which dissolve half a
teaspoonful of soda; cream the butter, add the sugar, cream again;
then add yolks of eggs, the milk, beaten whites and flour; a little
cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ground cloves and one-quarter of a
pound of currants, rolled in flour.
COOKIES.
One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, a _small_ teacupful of sweet
milk, half a grated nutmeg and five cups of sifted flour, in which
there has been sifted with it two teaspoonfuls of baking powder; mix
into a soft dough and cut into round cakes; roll the dough as thin as
pie crust. Bake in a quick oven a light brown. These can be made of
sour milk and a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in it, or sour or sweet
cream can be used in place of butter.
Water cookies made the same as above, using water in place of milk.
Water cookies keep longer than milk cookies.
FAVORITE COOKIES.
One cup of butter, one and a half cups of sugar, one-half cup of sour
milk one level teaspoonful of soda, a teaspoonful of grated nutmeg
Flour enough to roll; make quite soft. Put a tablespoonful of fine
sugar on a plate and dip the tops of each as you cut them out. Place
on buttered tins and bake in a quick oven a light brown.
FRUIT COOKIES.
One cupful and a half of sugar, one cupful of butter, one-half cup of
sweet milk, one egg, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, a teaspoonful
of grated nutmeg, three tablespoonfuls of English currants or chopped
raisins. Mix soft and roll out, using just enough flour to stiffen
sufficiently. Cut out with a large cutter, wet the tops with milk and
sprinkle sugar over them. Bake on buttered tins in a quick oven.
CRISP COOKIES. (Very Nice.)
One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three eggs well beaten, a
teaspoonful of soda and two of cream of tartar, spoonful of milk, one
teaspoonful of nutmeg and one of cinnamon. Flour enough to make a soft
dough just stiff enough to roll out. Try a pint of sifted flour to
begin with, working it in gradually. Spread a little sweet milk over
each and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a quick oven a light brown.
LEMON COOKIES.
Four cups of sifted flour, or enough for a stiff dough, one teacupful
of butter, two cups of sugar, the juice of one lemon and the grated
peel from the outside, three eggs whipped very light. Beat thoroughly
each ingredient, adding, after all is in, a half teaspoonful of soda
dissolved in a tablespoonful of milk. Roll out as any cookies and bake
a light brown. Use no other wetting.
COCOANUT COOKIES.
One cup grated cocoanut, one and one-half cups sugar, three-fourths
cup butter, one-half cup milk, two eggs, one large teaspoonful baking
powder, one-half teaspoonful extract of vanilla and flour enough to
roll out.
DOUGHNUTS OR FRIED CAKES.
Success in making good fried cakes depends as much on the _cooking_ as
the mixing. In the first place, there should be boiling lard enough to
free them from the bottom of the kettle, so that they swim on the top,
and the lard should never be so hot as to smoke or so cool as not to
be at the boiling point; if it is, they soak grease and are spoiled.
If it is at the right heat, the doughnuts will in about ten minutes be
of a delicate brown outside and nicely cooked inside. Five or six
minutes will cook a cruller. Try the fat by dropping a bit of the
dough in first; if it is right, the fat will boil up when it is
dropped in. They should be turned over almost constantly, which causes
them to rise and brown evenly. When they are sufficiently cooked,
raise them from the hot fat and drain them until every drop ceases
dripping.
CRULLERS OR FRIED CAKES.
One and a half cupfuls of sugar, one cupful of sour milk, two eggs,
two scant tablespoonfuls of melted butter, half a nutmeg grated, a
large teaspoonful of cinnamon, a teaspoonful of salt and one of soda;
make a little stiffer than biscuit dough, roll out a quarter of an
inch thick, and cut with a fried-cake cutter, with a hole in the
centre. Fry in hot lard.
These can be made with sweet milk and baking powder, using two heaping
teaspoonfuls of the baking powder in place of soda.
RAISED DOUGHNUTS.
Old-fashioned "raised doughnuts" are seldom seen nowadays, but are
easily made. Make a sponge as for bread, using a pint of warm water or
milk, and a large half cupful of yeast; when the sponge is very light,
add half a cupful of butter or sweet lard, a coffeecupful of sugar, a
teaspoonful of salt and one small teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a
little water, one tablespoonful of cinnamon, a little grated nutmeg;
stir in now two well-beaten eggs, add sifted flour until it is the
consistency of biscuit dough, knead it well, cover and let rise; then
roll the dough out into a sheet half an inch thick, cut out with a
very small biscuit-cutter, or in strips half an inch wide and three
inches long, place them on greased tins, cover them well and let them
rise before frying them. Drop them in very hot lard. Raised cakes
require longer time than cakes made with baking powder. Sift powdered
sugar over them as fast as they are fried, while warm. Our
grandmothers put allspice into these cakes; that, however, is a matter
of taste.
BAKERS' RAISED DOUGHNUTS.
Warm a teacupful of lard in a pint of milk; when nearly cool add
enough flour to make a thick batter and add a small cupful of yeast;
beat it well and set it to rise; when light work in gradually and
carefully three cupfuls of sugar, the whipped whites of six eggs, half
a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a spoonful of milk, one teaspoonful
of salt, a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon and half of a nutmeg grated;
then work in gradually enough flour to make it stiff enough to roll
out; let it rise again and when very light roll it out in a sheet an
inch thick; cut into rounds; put into the centre of each round a large
Sultana raisin, seeded, and mold into perfectly round balls; flatten a
little; let them stand a few minutes before boiling them; have plenty
of lard in the pot and when it boils drop in the cakes; when they are
a light, brown take them out with a perforated skimmer; drain on soft
white paper and roll, while warm, in fine powdered sugar.
_Purcell's Bakery, New York City._
CRULLERS OR WONDERS.
Three eggs, three tablespoonfuls of melted lard or butter, three
tablespoonfuls of sugar; mix very hard with sifted flour, as hard as
can be rolled, and to be rolled very thin like pie crust; cut in
squares three inches long and two wide, then cut several slits or
lines lengthwise to within a quarter of an inch of the edges of the
ends; run your two forefingers through every other slit; lay them down
on the board edgewise and dent them. These are very dainty when fried.
Fry in hot lard a light brown.
GERMAN DOUGHNUTS.
One pint of milk; four eggs, one small tablespoonful of melted butter,
flavoring, salt to taste; first boil the milk and pour it, while hot,
over a pint of flour; beat it very smooth and when it is cool have
ready the yolks of the eggs well beaten; add them to the milk and
flour, beaten well into it, then add the well-beaten whites; then,
lastly, add the salt and as much more flour as will make the whole
into a soft dough; flour your board, turn your dough upon it, roll it
in pieces as thick as your finger and turn them in the form of a ring;
cook in plenty of boiling lard. A nice breakfast cake with coffee.
[Illustration: CUTTING PUMPKIN FOR PIES.]
NUT CAKES. (Fried.)
Beat two eggs well, add to them one ounce of sifted sugar, two ounces
of warmed butter, two tablespoonfuls of yeast, a teacupful of
luke-warm milk and a little salt. Whip all well together, then stir in
by degrees one pound of flour, and, if requisite, more milk, making
thin dough. Beat it until it falls from the spoon, then set it to
rise. When it has risen make butter or lard hot in a frying pan, cut
from the light dough little pieces the size of a walnut, and, without
molding or kneading, fry them pale brown. As they are done lay them on
a napkin to absorb any of the fat.
TRIFLES.
Work one egg and a tablespoonful of sugar to as much flour as will
make a stiff paste; roll it as thin as a dollar piece and cut it into
small round or square cakes; drop two or three at a time into the
boiling lard; when they rise to the surface and turn over they are
done; take them out with a skimmer and lay them on an inverted sieve
to drain. When served for dessert or supper put a spoonful of jelly on
each.
PUFF-BALL DOUGHNUTS.
These doughnuts, eaten fresh and warm, are a delicious breakfast dish
and are quickly made. Three eggs, one cupful of sugar, a pint of sweet
milk, salt, nutmeg and flour enough to permit the spoon to stand
upright in the mixture; add two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder
to the flour; beat all until very light. Drop by the dessertspoonful
into boiling lard. These will not absorb a bit of fat and are not at
all rich and consequently are the least injurious of this kind of
cakes.
PASTRY, PIES AND TARTS.
GENERAL REMARKS.
Use the very best materials in making pastry; the shortening should be
fresh, sweet and hard; the water cold (ice-water is best), the paste
rolled on a cold board and all handled as little as possible. When the
crust is made, it makes it much more flaky and puff much more to put
it in a dish covered with a cloth and set in a very cold place for
half an hour, or even an hour; in summer, it could be placed in the
ice box.
A great improvement is made in pie crust by the addition of about a
heaping teaspoonful of baking powder to a quart of flour, also
brushing the paste as often as rolled out, and the pieces of butter
placed thereon, with the white of an egg, assists it to rise in
_leaves_ or _flakes_. As this is the great beauty of puff paste, it is
as well to try this method.
If currants are to be used in pies, they should be carefully picked
over and washed in several waters, dried in a towel and dredged with
flour before they are suitable for use.
Raisins, and all dried fruits for pies and cakes, should be seeded
stoned and dredged with flour before using.
Almonds should be blanched by pouring boiling water upon them and then
slipping the skin off with the fingers. In pounding them, always add a
little rose or orange-water, with fine sugar, to prevent their
becoming oily.
Great care is requisite in heating an oven for baking pastry. If you
can hold your hand in the heated oven while you count twenty, the oven
has just the proper temperature and it should be kept at this
temperature as long as the pastry is in; this heat will bake to a
light brown and will give the pastry a fresh and flaky appearance. If
you suffer the heat to abate, the under crust will become heavy and
clammy and the upper crust will fall in.
Another good way to ascertain when the oven is heated to the proper
degree for puff paste: put a small piece of the paste in previous to
baking the whole, and then the heat can thus be judged of.
Pie crust can be kept a week, and the last be better than the if put
in a tightly covered dish and set in the ice chest in summer and in a
cool place in winter, and thus you can make a fresh pie every day with
little trouble.
In baking custard, pumpkin or squash pies, it is well, in order that
the mixture may not be absorbed by the paste, to first partly bake the
paste before adding it, and when stewed fruit is used the filling
should be perfectly cool when put in, or it will make the bottom crust
sodden.
HOW TO MAKE A PIE.
After making the crust, take a portion of it, roll it out and fit it
to a buttered pie-plate by cutting it off evenly around the edge;
gather up the scraps left from cutting and make into another sheet for
the top crust; roll it a little thinner than the under crust; lap
one-half over the other and cut three or four slits about a quarter of
an inch from the folded edge (this prevents the steam from escaping
through the rim of the pie, and causing the juices to run out from the
edges). Now fill your pie-plate with your prepared filling, wet the
top edge of the rim, lay the upper crust across the centre of the pie,
turn back the half that is lapped over, seal the two edges together by
slightly pressing down with your thumb, then notch evenly and
regularly with a three-tined fork, dipping occasionally in flour to
prevent sticking. Bake in a rather quick oven a light brown, and until
the filling boils up through the slits in the upper crust.
To prevent the juice soaking through into the crust, making it soggy
wet the under crust with the white of an egg, just before you put in
the pie mixture. If the top of the pie is brushed over with the egg,
it gives it a beautiful glaze.
FOR ICING PASTRY.
To ice pastry, which is the usual method adopted for fruit tarts and
sweet dishes of pastry, put the white of an egg on a plate and with
the blade of a knife beat it to a stiff froth. When the pastry is
nearly baked, brush it over with this and sift over some pounded
sugar; put it back into the oven to set the glaze and in a few minutes
it will be done. Great care should be taken that the paste does not
catch or burn in the oven, which is very liable to do after the icing
is laid on.
Or make a meringue by adding a tablespoonful of white sugar to the
beaten white of one egg. Spread over the top and slightly brown in the
oven.
FINE PUFF PASTE.
Into one quart of sifted flour mix two teaspoonfuls of baking powder
and a teaspoonful of salt; _then sift again_. Measure out one
teacupful of butter and one of lard, hard and cold. Take the lard and
rub into the flour until a very fine smooth paste. Then put in just
enough _ice-water_, say half a cupful, containing a beaten white of
egg, to mix a very stiff dough. Boll it out into a thin sheet, spread
with one-fourth of the butter, sprinkle over with a little flour, then
roll up closely in a long roll, like a scroll, double the ends towards
the centre, flatten and re-roll, then spread again with another
quarter of the butter. Repeat this operation until the butter is used
up. Put it on an earthen dish, cover it with a cloth and set it in a
cold place, in the ice box in summer; let it remain until _cold_; an
hour or more before making out the crust. Tarts made with this paste
cannot be cut with a knife when fresh; they go into flakes at the
touch.
You may roll this pastry in any direction, from you, toward you,
sideways, any way, it matters not, but you must have nice flour,
_ice-water_ and very _little_ of it, and strength to roll it, if you
would succeed.