A DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE CAKE
Boil together chocolate, sugar and milk. Add butter and when cool add yolk of eggs; then the flour, flavoring and stiffly beaten whites of 2 eggs. Beat all thoroughly and bake in a loaf or layers.
CHOCOLATE ICING
Boil together 5 tablespoonfuls grated chocolate, ¾ cup granulated sugar, 2 tablespoonfuls milk, 1 egg.
When the mixture begins to thicken and look creamy, spread on cake. If baked in layers, ice on top and between the two layers.
A WHITE COCOANUT CAKE
Cream together ¾ cup butter and 2 cups sugar. Add whites of 5 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 teaspoonful cream of tartar, ½ teaspoonful soda sifted with 3 cups flour and 1 grated cocoanut. Bake in a loaf. This is an excellent old recipe of Aunt Sarah's.
A POTATO CAKE (NO YEAST REQUIRED)
Cream together:
One teaspoonful of baking powder sifted with one cup of flour added to the batter alternately with the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Bake in two layers, in a moderately hot oven. Ice top and put layers together with white icing. This is a delicious, if rather unusual cake.
A CITRON CAKE
Bake in a loaf in a moderate oven about 45 minutes after mixing ingredients together as for any ordinary cake. This is a very good cake.
AUNT AMANDA'S SPICE "KUCHEN"
Mix all like any ordinary cake. From one-half this recipe was baked an ordinary sized loaf cake.
A GOOD, CHEAP CHOCOLATE CAKE
One cup of flour, 1 teaspoonful of baking powder and 1 cup of granulated sugar were sifted together. Two eggs were broken into a cup, also 1 large tablespoonful of melted butter. Fill up the cup with sweet milk, beat all ingredients well together. Flavor with vanilla and add 2 extra tablespoonfuls of flour to the mixture. Bake in two layer cake pans.
Place the following mixture between the two layers: ½ cup of grated chocolate, ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup of liquid coffee. Cook together a short time until the consistency of thick cream, then spread between layers.
AN ICE CREAM CAKE
Two cups of pulverized sugar, 1 cup of butter, 1 cup sweet milk, whites of 8 eggs, 1 teaspoonful soda, 2 teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, 3 cups of flour. From same proportions of everything, only using the 8 yolks instead of whites of eggs, may be made a yellow cake, thus having two good sized layer cakes with alternate layers of white and yellow. Put cakes together with white icing. This was an old recipe of Aunt Sarah's mother, used when cream of tartar and soda took the place of baking powder.
SMALL SPONGE CAKES
For these small cakes take 6 eggs, 1 cup of sugar and ¾ cup of flour and ½ teaspoonful of baking powder, a pinch of salt, flavor with lemon. Beat yolks of eggs separately, then add sugar and beat to a cream, then add the stiffly beaten whites of eggs alternately with the sifted flour and baking powder; add a pinch of salt and flavoring. Bake in small muffin tins in a very moderate oven.
SMALL CAKES AND COOKIES—"AUNT SARAH'S" LITTLE LEMON CAKES
Stiffen the dough with about 3½ cups flour and use about 1 extra cup of flour to dredge the bake-board when rolling out dough and for sifting over the greased baking sheets so the cakes will come off readily. Roll dough very thin and cut in any desired shape. From this recipe may be made 100 small cakes. The baking sheet (for which I gave measurements in bread recipe) holds 20 of these small round cakes. Do all young housewives know that if dough for small cakes be mixed the day before baking and stood in a cool place, the cakes can be cut out more easily and the dough may be rolled thinner, and as less flour may then be used, the cakes will be richer?
Aunt Sarah always cut these cakes with a small round or heart-shaped cutter and when all were on the baking sheet she either placed a half of an English walnut meat in the centre of each cake or cut out the centre of each small cake with the top of a pepper box lid before baking them.
OATMEAL CRISPS
Beat eggs, add salt and sugar, mix baking powder with oats and stir all together. Drop from a teaspoon on to flat pan or sheet iron, not too close together, as they spread. Flatten very thin with a knife dipped in cold water and bake in a moderate oven a light brown. These cakes are fine and easily made. Did you not know differently, you would imagine thesecakes to be macaroons made from nuts, which they greatly resemble.
AUNT SARAH'S GINGER SNAPS
1 cup molasses, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup of a mixture of lard and butter, 1 egg, 1 teaspoonful of ginger, 1 teaspoonful of cinnamon, ½ a grated nutmeg, 1 teaspoonful of soda dissolved in 1 teaspoonful of vinegar. About 3 cups of flour should be added.
Dough should be stiff enough to roll out very thin, and the cakes may be rolled thinner than would be possible otherwise, should the cake-dough stand aside over night, or on ice for several hours, until thoroughly chilled. Cut cakes small with an ordinary cake cutter and bake in a quick oven. These are excellent and will remain crisp some time if kept in a warm, dry place.
GERMAN "LEBKUCHEN"
This is a recipe for good, old-fashioned "German Christmas cakes," from which Aunt Sarah's mother always baked. She used:
Mix well together. Do not roll thin like ginger snaps, but about a half inch thick. Cut out about size of a large coffee cup. Bake in a moderate oven and when cold ice the cakes with the following icing:
ICING FOR GERMAN LEBKUCHEN.
Boil 2 cups of sugar and ½ cup of water seven minutes. Pour over the stiffly beaten whites of three eggs; ice the cakes. Place cakes in a tin box when icing has become cold and these will keep quite a long time. I have eaten high-priced, imported Lebkuchen no better than those made from this recipe.
GRANDMOTHER'S MOLASSES CAKES
One quart of New Orleans molasses, 3 eggs, butter size of an egg. Place all together in a stew-pan on range, allow it to come to boil, stirring constantly, and when cool stir in one tablespoonful of saleratus dissolved in a very little vinegar, and about 3 pounds of flour. Do not have cake dough too stiff. Dough should stand until the following day. Roll out at least ½ inch thick. Cut cakes as large around as an ordinary coffee cup or cut with a knife into small, oblong pieces, a little larger than half a common soda cracker. Bake in a moderate oven. Should too much flour be used, cakes will be hard and dry instead of soft and spongy. This very old and excellent recipe had belonged to the grandmother of Sarah Landis. Cakes similar to the ones baked from this recipe, also those baked from recipe for "honey cakes," were sold in large sheets marked off in oblong sections, seventy years ago, and at that time no "vendue," or public sale, in certain localities throughout Bucks County, was thought complete unless in sound of the auctioneer's voice, on a temporary stand, these cakes were displayed on the day of "the sale," and were eagerly bought by the crowd which attended such gatherings.
ANGEL CAKES (BAKED IN GEM PANS)
The whites of four eggs should be beaten very stiff and when partly beaten sprinkle over ½ teaspoonful of cream of tartan Finish beating egg whites and sift in slowly ½ cup of fine granulated sugar, then sift ½ cup of flour (good measure). Flavor with a few drops of almond flavoring. Bake in small Gem pans, placing a tablespoonful of butter in each. Sift pulverized sugar over tops of cakes. Bake 20 minutes in averymoderate oven. The recipe for these dainty little cakes was given Mary by a friend who, knowing her liking for angel cake, said these were similar in taste.
"ALMOND BROD"
Three-fourths cup sugar, 3 eggs, 2½ tablespoonfuls olive oil 2 cups flour, ½ teaspoonfuls baking powder, ½ cup sweetalmonds, pinch of salt. A couple of drops of almond extract.
In a bowl place ¾ cup of granulated sugar. Add 3 well-beaten eggs, 2 cups of flour sifted with 1½ teaspoonfuls of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix all well together. Add 1 cup whole (blanched) almonds and 2½ tablespoonfuls of good olive oil.
Knead the dough thoroughly. Do not have dough too stiff. Divide the dough into four equal parts, roll each portion of dough on awell-flouredbake board into long, narrow rolls. Place the four rolls on a baking sheet over which flour had been previously sifted. Place the rolls a short distance apart and bake in a quick oven about twenty minutes or until light brown on top. On removing the baking sheet from the oven cut rolls at once, while the almonds are still warm, into two-inch pieces. From this recipe was made thirty pieces of almond bread. The olive oil, used as shortening, is not tasted when baked. These are a very good little cake, and not bread, as their name would lead one to suppose.
"GROSSMUTTER'S" HONEY CAKES
One quart of boiled honey (if possible procure the honey used by bakers, as it is much cheaper and superior for this purpose than the clear, strained honey sold for table use). Add to the warm honey two generous tablespoonfuls of butter, yolks of four eggs, two ounces of salaratus (baking soda), dissolved in a very small quantity of vinegar, just enough to moisten the salaratus. Add just enough flour to enable one to stir well with a spoon. Work the dough a half hour and allow it to stand until the following day, when cut cakes from the dough which had been rolled out on the bake-board one-half inch thick. The dough should be only just stiff enough to roll out, as should the dough betoo softthe cakes will become hard and crisp, instead of light and spongy, and if too great a quantity of flour is added the cakes will not be good. As the thickening qualities of flour differ, the exact amount required cannot be given. When about to cut out cakes, the bake-board should be well-floured. Cut the cakes the size of the top of a large coffee-cup, or roll out in one-half inch thick on a well-floured baking sheet and markin small, oblong sections with a knife, they may then be easily broken apart when baked. These cakes should he baked in a moderately hot oven and not ahot oven.
These are the real, old-time honey cakes as made by Aunt Sarah's grandmother on a "Bucks County" farm, and Mary's Aunt informed her she still remembered in her earlier days having bought these cakes at "Bucks County" sales or "vendues," as they were then designated.
LEMON WAFERS OR DROP CAKES
Mix the same as other small cakes. Drop spoonfuls quite a distance apart on the cold pan or tin on which they are to be baked as the dough spreads. These are very thin, delicious wafers when baked.
FRAU SCHMIDT'S SUGAR COOKIES
Beat all well together. Add flour enough that they may be rolled out, no more. Flour bake-board well; cut dough with cake cutter into small round cakes and bake in a rather quick oven. This recipe will make a large number of cakes if dough be rolled thin as a wafer. Frau Schmidt was able to keep these cakes some time—under lock and key. If cake dough be mixed one day and allowed to stand over night, cakes may be rolled out much more easily and cut thinner.
ALMOND MACAROONS (AS PREPARED BY MARY)
Three eggs (whites only), ¾ pound of pulverized sugar,½ pound of almond paste (which may be bought ready prepared). Beat eggs very stiff, add other ingredients. Drop teaspoonfuls on a baking sheet and bake in a moderate oven 15 or 20 minutes. Macaroons prepared from this recipe are delicious and resemble those sold by confectioners.
"HONIG KUCHEN" (HONEY CAKES)
Two pounds of flour, ½ pound of butter, ⅔ pound of almonds, 2 pounds of honey in liquid form, the grated yellow rind of one lemon, ½ teaspoonful of cloves, ½ teaspoonful of cinnamon, 1 ounce of hartshorn, dissolved in a small quantity of water. Boil together honey and butter, remove from fire, and when mixture has cooled add the hartshorn, coarsely chopped almonds and flour. Allow this mixture to stand several days, roll out ⅓ inch thick. Cut in small round cakes, place a whole almond in centre of each cake. Bake a light brown in a moderate oven.
FRAU SCHMIDT'S MOLASSES SNAPS
Two cups of New Orleans molasses, 1 cup of lard, 1 tablespoonful of ginger, 1 teaspoonful of cinnamon, ¼ teaspoonful of cloves, ½ a grated nutmeg, 1 tablespoonful of saleratus dissolved in a small quantity of hot water. Add enough flour to form averystiff dough. Stand dough aside until the following day, when roll out very thin on a well-floured bake-board. Cut with a small round cake cutter and bake in a hot oven. These are good, cheap small cakes.
HICKORY NUT CAKES
One cup of hickory nut meals, 1 cup of pulverized sugar, 1 egg, a pinch of salt, 2 teaspoons of flour. Mix all ingredients together. Drop small pieces on a sheet-iron and bake.
"LEBKUCHEN" (AS THE PROFESSOR'S WIFE MADE THEM)
Two pounds of sugar, 8 large eggs, ¾ pound of almonds (shelled), ¼ pound of citron, ¼ of a pound each of candied orange and lemon peel, the grated yellow rind of one lemon, 4 teaspoonfuls of cinnamon, 1 teaspoonful allspice, about 2 pounds flour. Separate the eggs. Cream the yolks of eggs and sugar well together. Then add the almonds (which have been blanched by pouring boiling water over them, when the skins may be readily removed), the citron and lemon peel chopped fine. Then add 1 level teaspoonful of different spices. Then add the stiffly beaten whites of eggs, alternately, with the sifted flour. The recipe called for two pounds of flour, but "Frau" Schmidt said; "She was never able to use the whole amount, so she added just enough flour to prevent the mixture spreading when dropped on the baking sheet by tablespoonfuls."
FRUIT JUMBLES
Two cups sugar, 3 eggs (beaten separately), 1 cup butter, 1 cup milk, 3½ cups flour, 3 teaspoonfuls baking powder, ¼ of nutmeg, grated, 1 cup currants. Mix all together and bake in a broad, shallow pan. This is similar to Spanish Bun. When cake is cooled, but not cold, cut in two-inch squares or diamonds before removing from the pan in which the cake was baked.
BROWN "PFEFFERNUSSEN"
For these German cakes Frau Schmidt used the following: 3 pounds of flour, 2 pounds of sugar syrup, ⅛ teaspoonful of black pepper, ¼ pound of lard, ¼ teaspoon of cardamom powder, ¼ pound of butter, ½ teaspoonful of cloves, ½ pound of brown sugar and 2 eggs.
Use as much "Hirschhorn Salz" as can be placed on the point of a knife ("Hirschhorn Salz" translated is carbonate of ammonia and is used for baking purposes). Allow the syrup to heat on the range. Skim off the top. When syrup has cooled mix all ingredients together and stand aside for one week orlonger, when form the dough into small balls size of a hickory nut. Place on greased pans and bake half hour in a slow oven.
SMALL OATMEAL CAKES
Cream together 1½ cups of light brown sugar, ½ cup of lard and butter, mixed, and the yolk of one egg. Add ½ cup of hot water and ¾ teaspoonful of saleratus (baking soda) dissolved in a little boiling water; add 2½ cups of oatmeal the stiffly beaten white of egg and 2½ cups of white flour. Mix all together. Dredge the bake board with flour, roll thin. Cut out with a small round cake cutter. Sift a little flour over the well-greased baking sheets, on which place cakes and bake in a moderately hot oven.
FRAU SCHMIDT'S RECIPE FOR "GERMAN" ALMOND SLICES
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, one at a time. Then add all the ingredients. Mix with flour. Flour bake board and take a handful of dough and roll with the hands in shape of a sausage roll. This quantity of dough makes eight rolls. Place on greased baking sheets a short distance apart, so they will not touch when being baked. Bake them in awarm, not hot, oven. Take from the oven when baked and cut while still warm into small slices across the roll. Slices should be about three-quarters of an inch wide. Cover the three sides with the following icing:
Beat together until smooth and creamy 1 cupful of sweet cream, adding enough confectioners' sugar to make it spread.
You may expedite the work by preparing raisins and almonds the day before.
The Professor's wife always served these almond cakes with coffee when she gave a "kaffee klatch" to her country friends.
"JULY ANN'S" GINGER SNAPS
Two cups of molasses (New Orleans), 1 cup of light brown sugar, 1 egg, 1 tablespoonful of soda, 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar, 1 tablespoonful of ginger and about 5½ cups of flour.
Place molasses and sugar in a sauce-pan on the range, cook together until sugar is dissolved, no longer.
Mix the soda and vinegar and when foamy add to the sugar and molasses with a portion of the required amount of flour; then add the egg and the flour remaining. Turn dough out on a well-floured bake-board, roll out into a thin sheet and cut out small cakes with a tin cutter. Bake in a moderately hot oven.
No shortening of any kind was used in these cakes. One hundred cakes were baked from the above ingredients.
COCOANUT COOKIES
Three cups of sugar, 1 cup of butter, 2 eggs, 1 cup of sweet milk, 1 cup of grated cocoanut, 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Mix all together, sift flour with baking powder, add flour to form a dough just stiff enough to roll out, no more. Cut with a small tin cake cutter into round cakes and bake.
CHOCOLATE COOKIES
Two cups of white sugar, 1 cup of grated, unsweetened chocolate, 2 eggs, ½ cup of butter, 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Flavor with vanilla. Mix together sugar, butter and eggs, add melted chocolate and flour to stiffen, just enough flour being used to allow of their being cut with a cake cutter. The baking powder should have been sifted with a small amount of flour before adding.
SMALL "BELSNICKEL" CHRISTMAS CAKES
Mix in just enough flour so the cake dough may be rolled out quite thin on a floured board, using as little flour as possible. Cut out small cakes and bake lightly in a moderately hot oven.
The butter, when melted, should fill one cup; pour it over the two cups of sugar in a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy; add the eggs, beating one at a time into the mixture. Sift the teaspoonful of baking soda several times through the flour before adding to the cake mixture. Stand this dough in a cold place one hour at least before cutting out cakes. No flavoring is used. Sift granulated sugar thickly over cakes before placing them in oven to bake.
From these ingredients were made over one hundred cakes. One-half this recipe might be used for a small family. The cakes keep well in a dry, cool place.
This old recipe of Aunt Sarah's mother derived its name "Belsnickel" from the fact that the Belsnickels, who invariably visited the houses of "Bucks County" farmers on Christmas Eve, were always treated to some of these delicious little Christmas cakes.
"PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH" KISSES
One cup of pulverized sugar, whites of 3 eggs, 1 heaping cup of nut meats (Mary used hickory nut meats), a pinch of salt. To the very stiffly beaten whites of eggs add sugar, salt and lastly the nut meats. Drop teaspoonfuls of this batter on a greased, floured baking tin. Bake in a moderate oven.
LITTLE CRUMB CAKES
For these small cakes Aunt Sarah creamed together ½ cup of granulated sugar, ¼ cup butter. One quite large egg was used. The egg yolk was added to the creamed sugar and butterand thoroughly beaten, then scant ½ cup of milk was added, and one heaping cup of fine dried bread crumbs sifted with ¾ teaspoonful of baking powder and ¼ cup of finely chopped or rolledblackwalnut meats. Lastly, add the stiffly beaten white of egg. Flavor with grated nutmeg. Bake in small muffin pans in a moderate oven. This makes nine small cakes. No flour is used in these cakes, but, instead of flour, bread crumbs are used.
DELICIOUS VANILLA WAFERS (AS MARY MADE THEM)
Cream together butter and sugar, add yolks of eggs, beat well, then add stiffly beaten whites of eggs and flour alternately.
Flavor with essence of vanilla, drop from spoon on tocoldiron pan, not too close together, as the cakes will spread. Bake quickly in a hot oven until outer edge of cakes have browned.
MACAROONS (AS AUNT SARAH MADE THEM)
One-half pound of almonds, blanched and chopped fine, ½ pound of pulverized sugar, whites of 4 eggs. Place sugar and almonds in a pan on the range, until colored a light yellow-brown. Beat whites of eggs very stiff, mix all ingredients together, then drop with a spoon on tins waxed with bees' wax, and bake in a quick oven.
"SPRINGERLES" (GERMAN CHRISTMAS CAKES)
Beat whites and yolks of eggs separately, mix with sugar and beat well. Add flour until you have a smooth dough. Rollout pieces of dough, which should be half an inch thick. Press the dough on a floured form or mold, lift the mold, cut out the cakes thus designed and let lie until next day on a floured bread board. The next day grease pans well, sprinkle anise seed over the pans in which the cakes are to be baked; lay in cakes an inch apart and bake in a moderate oven to a straw color. The form used usually makes six impressions or cakes 1½ inches square, leaving the impression of a small figure or flower on surface when dough is pressed on form.
OATMEAL COOKIES
Drop with tablespoon on well-greased baking sheet over which has been sifted a little flour. Bake in rather quick oven. This recipe makes 65 small cakes.
PEANUT BISCUITS
Sift together 2 cups flour and 3 teaspoonfuls baking powder. Add 1 egg, ½ cup sugar, ½ cup peanuts and pecan nut meats, mixed (run through food-chopper), ½ cup sweet milk, ½ teaspoonful salt. Beat sugar and yolk of egg together add milk, stiffly beaten white of egg, chopped nut meats and flour, alternately. Add salt. Place a large spoonful in each of 12 well-greased Gem pans. Allow to stand in pans about 25 minutes. Bake half an hour.
PLAIN COOKIES
Cream butter and sugar, add milk slowly, add well-beaten eggs. Beat well, add flour and baking powder, sifted together. Roll thin. Cut with a small cake cutter any desired.
WALNUT ROCKS
Cream together 1½ cups of sugar, ½ cup of butter, a small teaspoonful of salt. Dissolve 1 teaspoonful of soda in 4 tablespoonfuls of warm water, two eggs. Sift 3 cups of flour, add 1 teaspoonful of ginger, 1 teaspoonful of cloves, ½ teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, 1 pound of English walnuts, 1 pound of seeded raisins. Drop by teaspoon on a cold sheet iron and bake in a moderate oven. These are excellent.
CINNAMON WAFERS (AS MADE BY AUNT SARAH)
Mix like ordinary cake. Divide this into three parts. Flavor one part with vanilla, 1 with chocolate and the other with cinnamon. These latter will be darker than the first. Place a piece of dough as large as a small marble in a small hot, well-greased waffle or wafer iron. Press two sides of iron together, which flattens out cake, and hold by a long handle over fire, turning it over occasionally until cakes are baked. The cake, when baked, is a delicious, thin, rich wafer, about the size of half a common soda cracker. I have never eaten these Christmas cakes at any place excepting at Aunt Sarah's. The wafer iron she possessed was brought by her Grandmother from Germany. The waffle or wafer irons might be obtained in this country.
ZIMMET WAFFLES (AS MADE BY FRAU SCHMIDT)
Work together and form into small balls. Place in hot buttered wafer irons, hold over fire and bake. This is an old German recipe which Frau Schmidt's grandmother used.
"BRAUNE LEBKUCHEN"
Place syrup in stew-pan on range to heat, add butter, almonds, spices, etc.
Remove from range, stir in flour gradually. Use about 10 cups of flour. When cool add the dissolved hartshorn. Allow the cake dough to stand in a warm place eight to ten days before baking.
Then place a portion of the cake dough on a greased baking sheet which has been sprinkled lightly with flour, roll cake dough out on the sheet about ⅓ inch in thickness; place in avery moderateoven. When well dried out and nicely browned on top cut the sheets into small squares, the size of ordinary soda crackers.
This is a very old recipe given Mary by Frau Schmidt.
PEANUT COOKIES
One pint of roasted peanuts, measured, after being shelled.Rub off the brown skin, run through a food-chopper. Cream together 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, 1 cup of sugar. Add 3 eggs, 2 tablespoonfuls of milk, ¼ teaspoonful of salt and the chopped peanuts. Add flour to make a soft dough. Roll out on a floured board, cut with a small cake cutter and bake in a moderate oven. This recipe was given Mary by a friend living in Allentown.
PIES—FLAKY PIE CRUST
Have all the materials cold when making pastry. Handle as little as possible. Place in a bowl 3½ cups flour, ¾ teaspoonful salt and 1 cup good, sweet lard. Cut through with a knife into quite small pieces and mix into a dough with a little less than a half cup of cold water. Use only enough water to make dough hold together. This should be done with a knife or tips of the fingers. The water should be poured on the flour and lard carefully, a small quantity at a time, and never twice at the same place. Be careful that the dough is not too moist. Press the dough with the hands into a lump, but do not knead. Take enough of the dough for one pie on the bake board, roll lightly, always in one direction, line greased pie tins and fill crust. If fruit pies, moisten the edge of the lower crust, cover with top crust, which has been rolled quite thin. A knife scraped across the top crust several times before placing over pie causes the crust to have a rough, flaky, rich-looking surface when baked. Cut small vents in top crust to allow steam to escape. Pinch the edges of fruit pies well together to prevent syrup oozing out. If you wish light, flaky pie crust, bake in a hot oven. If a sheet of paper placed in oven turns a delicate brown, then the oven is right for pies. The best of pastry will be a failure if dried slowly in a cool oven.
When baking a crust for a tart to be filled after crust has been baked, always prick the crust with a fork before putting in oven to bake. This prevents the crust forming little blisters.
Aunt Sarah always used for her pies four even cups of flour, ¼ teaspoonful baking powder and one even cup of sweet,rich, home-made lard, a pinch of salt with just enough cold water to form a dough, and said her pies were rich enough for any one. They certainly were rich and flaky, without being greasy, andshe said, less shortening was necessary when baking powder was used. To cause her pies to have a golden brown color she brushed tops of pies with a mixture of egg and milk or milk and placed immediately in a hot oven.
Mary noticed her Aunt frequently put small dabs of lard or butter on the dough used for top crust of pies before rolling crust the desired size when she wished them particularly rich.
Aunt Sarah always used pastry flour for cake and pie. A smooth flour which showed the impression of the fingers when held tightly in the hand (the more expensive "bread flour") feels like fine sand or granulated sugar, and is a stronger flour and considered better for bread or raised cakes in which yeast is used, better results being obtained by its use alone or combined with a cheaper flour when baking bread.