Strain it into a bowl, add a pint of cream, and a little wine or brandy, to taste. Stir it occasionally, to prevent the cream from settling on the surface. Turn it, avoiding the settlings, into molds, to harden; or, in place of almonds, a stick of cinnamon may be substituted; or infuse a few more almonds, and omit the wine or brandy; or, the blanc-mange may be flavored with maraschino, or any other liqueur. I prefer blanc-mange made with corn starch, as the same ingredients necessary for a blanc-mange proper are better made into Bavarian creams.
Ingredients: One and one-half pints of rich milk, one large heaping table-spoonful of corn starch, one scant cupful of sugar, four eggs, omitting two whites, a little salt, and flavoring.
Bring the milk and the sugar almost to a boil, then add thecorn starch (stirred smooth with a little milk), and a pinch of salt. Stir it at the back of the range for five minutes, not allowing it to boil. Then take it off the fire; when a little cooled, stir in the eggs, and when well and smoothly mixed, place the kettle again on the fire for only a few moments, to be sure that the eggs are slightly cooked. Now stir in the flavoring, if it is an extract. Zest (sugar rubbed on fresh lemon-peel) is an exceedingly delicate flavoring. The vanilla powder boiled in the milk is better than the extract.
It makes a pretty dish to pour this into cups or little molds, and, when cold and solid, to arrange them in a circle or, according to taste, on a platter, with strawberry, grape, or any kind of fruit sauce, or whipped cream poured into the bottom of the dish; or, mold it in a circular form, and pile up any kind of berries in the centre, with or without whipped cream. For an invalid I prefer the other receipt for “a corn-starch pudding.”
The common rule for corn-starch pudding is one quart of milk, three eggs, three table-spoonfuls of corn starch, one even cupful of sugar; add flavoring and a little salt.
Soak some crumbled bread in milk. Put a layer of this (rather moist) in the bottom of a pudding-dish; sprinkle over some raisins and a little cinnamon powder, then another layer of soaked bread-crumbs, raisins, and cinnamon powder. Now beat up three eggs (to about a quart of soaked bread-crumbs) with two heaping table-spoonfuls of sugar; mix into it a quarter of a cupful of rum, brandy, or wine, and pour it all over the pudding in the dish. Bake about twenty minutes.
Strew layers of English currants between slices of buttered bread (crust cut off). Pour over them a boiled custard flavored with nutmeg or any other flavoring desired. Set them into the oven to soak, and bake about fifteen minutes.
Cut the crust from slices of bread. Cut them into pieces of the same shape and size. Soak them a few moments in custard—i.e., some milk, one or two eggs, and sugar to taste, and a flavoring of cinnamon.Sautéthem in hot lard to a delicate brown. Serve with brandy-sauce, or almost any kind of sweet sauce.
Scald a quart of milk, and stir in seven table-spoonfuls of sifted corn-meal, a tea-spoonful of salt, one tea-cupful of molasses, a table-spoonful of ginger. Bake three hours.
Thereis not a more delicious dessert than that of Bavarian cream. These creams are exceedingly easy to make, and, as they are prepared some time before dinner, they have the advantage of being out of the way when cooking this meal. They are a cheap country dessert, where one has plenty of cream, yet are not so very expensive in the city, as it only requires a pint of common cream to make a quart and a half of Bavarian cream.
When cream is thoroughly chilled, it is much more readily whipped. A pint can be whipped in a few minutes with a little tin tube cream-whipper. If no whipper is at hand, beat the cream with a fork, and skim off the whipped cream as it rises. It is always better not to cook gelatine; it should be soaked in a little water near the fire for an hour or two, when it will be entirely dissolved, and then it should be stirred into the custard while it is still hot. In making the Bavarian creams, do not add the whipped cream to the ingredients with the gelatine until they are quite cold and are beginning to set, or they would otherwise dissolve the cream. The ingredients will set very soon if placed on ice. The pine-apple Bavarian is especially nice, and can be made with the canned pine-apple if the fresh pine-apple can not be obtained; however, there is not much choice, as they are all delicious.
The Bavarian creams all make goodcharlottes-russe, the peach Bavarian making an especially delicious one. Sometimes these mixtures are frozen, and put intocharlottemolds; the cake is formed in molds a trifle larger. When the cream is frozen, it is inserted into the cake just before serving. When freezing the mixture, the whipped cream is not added until the custard or ingredients with the gelatine are partly frozen.
Whip one pint of cream to a stiff froth, laying it on a sieve. Boil another pint of cream or rich milk, with a vanilla bean, and two table-spoonfuls of sugar, until it is well flavored; then take it off the fire and add half a box of Nelson’s or Coxe’s gelatine soaked for an hour in half a cupful of water, in a warm place near the range; when slightly cooled, stir in the yolks of four eggs well beaten. When it has become quite cold, and begins to thicken, stir it without ceasing a few minutes until it is very smooth, then stir in the whipped cream lightly until it is well mixed. Put it into a mold or molds, and set it on ice, or in some cool place.
Bavarian Cream, with Chocolate,
is made as the preceding cream, adding two sticks of chocolate, soaked and smoothed, to the yolks of the eggs.
After picking two pounds and a half of strawberries, squeeze them through a colander, and add six ounces of sugar to the juice; when the sugar is dissolved, add half a box of gelatine soaked as before described. Place it on the ice, stir it smooth when it begins to set, then stir in a pint of cream whipped; put it into a mold or molds, and serve with fresh strawberries around it.
Take three ounces of sweet and one ounce of bitter almonds, blanch and skin them, and put them into a pan on a moderate fire, stirring them continually. As soon as they have acquired a fine yellow color, take them off the fire, and when cold poundthem into fine pieces. Then add a pint of cream or rich milk (nearly boiling), and two or three table-spoonfuls of sugar, and half a package of gelatine, which has been soaked as before described. Put it upon the ice, and when about to thicken stir it until it is very smooth, then stir in lightly a pint of cream whipped, and put it into a mold.
Cut eighteen fine peaches into small pieces, and boil them with half a pound of sugar. When they are reduced to a marmalade, squeeze them through a sieve or colander. Then add half a package of dissolved gelatine, and a glassful of good cream. Stir it well, to make it smooth when it is about to set, then add the pint of cream whipped, and mold it. It makes a still prettier dish to serve halves or quarters of fresh peaches half frozen, around the cream.
Cut a pine-apple into fine pieces; boil it with one half-pound, or a coffee-cupful of sugar; pass the marmalade through a sieve or colander; turn off part of the juice; add half a package of dissolved gelatine. Stir, and add the pint of cream whipped, as before described. Mold it.
Throw three heaping table-spoonfuls of fresh roasted and ground Mocha coffee into a pint of boiling rich milk. Make a strong infusion, strain it, and add to it the whipped yolks of four eggs well beaten, with an even cupful of sugar. Stir the custard over the fire until it begins to thicken; take it off the fire, and add to it, while still hot, half a box of gelatine which has been standing an hour on the hearth to dissolve in a little cold water. When just beginning to set, stir it well to make it smooth, then add the pint of cream whipped. Mold it.
The sponge-cake may be made with four eggs, one cupful of sugar, one and one-half cupfuls of flour, and two even tea-spoonfuls of yeast powder, or as described for sponge jelly-cake (see page 300).
To make an even sheet, professional cooks pass the cake batter through theméringuebag on a large sheet of foolscap paper in rows which touch each other, and which run together smoothly when baking; or, without theméringuebag, it may be spread over the sheet as evenly as possible. When baked, an oval piece is cut to fit the bottom of thecharlottepan, then even-sized parallelograms are cut to fit around the sides. Fill with cream made as follows: Whip one pint of cream flavored with vanilla to a stiff froth, and add to it the well-beaten whites of two eggs, and one half-pound of pulverized sugar; mix it all lightly and carefully together. Fill thecharlottepan, or pans, and put them into the ice-chest to set.
This is the best and simplest manner of making acharlotte-russe. Many take the trouble to add gelatine, which is unnecessary. Professor Blot made the filling of hischarlotte-russeof sweetened and flavored whipped cream only. It will harden without difficulty if placed upon the ice, and it is very delicate; yet the whites of eggs are an improvement. If there is only enough cake at hand to fit the sides of the pan, put a paper in the bottom of the mold cut to fit it, and thecharlottecan be served without a top.
Thesecharlottesare very prettily decorated on top with icing squeezed through a small-sized funnel; or, you may pour a transparent icing over the whole, and make the decoration over this with the common icing. Sometimes they are made in little molds, onecharlottefor each plate, and, again, a largecharlotteis decorated with a circle of strawberries around it.
Cream is much more easily frothed when placed on ice and thoroughly chilled before whipping; when whipping it, place the froth on a sieve, and all that drops through can be returned to the bowl to be rewhipped. Sometimes professional cooks work the froth with an egg-whisk to make it finer grained.
Slice peeled oranges. Make alternate layers of orange slices, sugar, and grated cocoa-nut, until a glass dish is filled, having grated cocoa-nut on top; now pour a little sherry wine over the top, to run through the mixtures. It is as often served without the wine.
Always cook rice with plenty of salt; it is insipid without it. It is sometimes cooked in a steamer, with milk, without stirring it; although it is more quickly cooked by soaking it an hour or two, and then throwing it into salted boiling water in the brightest of saucepans. To half a pound of the rice use about five pints of water. Let it simmer about twenty minutes. Handle it carefully, not to break the kernels.
This receipt makes one of the plainest and best puddings ever eaten. It is a success where every grain of rice seems lying in a creamy bed.
Ingredients: One cupful of boiled rice (better if just cooked, and still hot), three cupfuls of milk, three-quarters of a cupful of sugar, a table-spoonful of corn starch, two eggs; add flavoring.
Dissolve the corn starch first with a little milk, and then stir in the remainder of the milk; add the yolks of the eggs and the sugar beaten together. Now put this over the fire (there is less risk of burning in a custard-kettle), and when hot add the hot rice. It will seem as if there were too much milk for the rice; but there is not. Stir it carefully until it begins to thicken like boiled custard, then take it off the fire, and add the flavoring, say, extract of lemon. Put it into a pudding-dish, and place it in the oven. Now beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and add a little sugar and flavoring. Take the pudding from the oven when colored a little, spreadthe froth over the top, and return it to the oven for a few minutes to give the froth a delicate coloring.
Mold boiled rice, when hot, in cups which have been previously dipped in cold water; when cold, turn them out on a flat dish, arranging them uniformly; then with a tea-spoon scoop out a little of the rice from the top of each cone, and put in its place any kind of jelly. Just before serving, pour in the bottom of the dish hot brandy-sauce. For a change, it is well to boil a stick of cinnamon in the rice to flavor it.
When some rice is cooked in a steamer with milk, and is still hot, add a little butter, sugar, and one or two eggs. Butter a plain pudding-mold, strew the butter with bread-crumbs, and put in a layer of rice half an inch thick; then a layer of peaches, and continue alternate layers of each until the mold is full. Bake this for about fifteen or twenty minutes in an oven; when done, turn the cake out of the mold, and pour in the bottom of the dish a boiled custard-sauce flavored with wine, or any thing preferred.
Prepare rice as above. Cut the pine-apple into dice, and boil them in sirup (water and sugar boiled ten or fifteen minutes); drain and mix them in the rice. Butter a plain pudding-mold or basin, and strew it with bread-crumbs; put in the rice and pine-apple, and bake it; when done, turn it out of the mold, and pour around it a sauce made as follows: Peel three large apples, and cook them in one pint of sirup sweetened to taste. When the apples are quite soft, strain them through a sieve, and mix this sirup with that in which the pine-apple was cooked; boil, or reduce it until it coats the spoon.
Steam one quarter of a pound of ground rice and one pint of cream a quarter of an hour, then flavor it with vanilla; addone ounce of butter, the yolks of four eggs, let it cool, and beat it for half an hour; beat up the whites of the eggs to a froth, which mix in gently. Steam it a quarter of an hour. Serve it with half a pint of boiled custard, having one ounce of soaked and mashed chocolate stirred well into it, poured into the bottom of the dish.
Boil some rice for ten minutes, drain, and let it cool. Pare some oranges, taking off all the thick white skin; spread the rice in as many portions as there are oranges, on some pudding or dumpling cloths. Tie the fruit (surrounded by the rice) separately in these, and boil the balls for an hour; turn them carefully on a dish, sprinkle over plenty of sifted sugar. Serve with any kind of sauce or sweetened cream.
Pare and core some large apples without dividing them. Prepare the rice as in the foregoing receipt; inclose the apples separately in it, and boil them three-quarters of an hour.
Sauce.—A little butter and sugar mixed to a cream; a spoonful of corn starch cooked in two cupfuls of boiling water; flavoring of cinnamon. To mix, see Sweet Sauces.
Ingredients: Half a cupful of rice, one even cupful of sugar, one pint of milk, butter the size of a butter-nut, half a lemon, five eggs.
Throw the rice into boiling salted water, and let it boil for ten minutes. Then put it into a stew-pan with the milk, butter and sugar, and set this to simmer very slowly for about half an hour, when the rice should be very soft (or the pan can be placed in a vessel of boiling water, or in a steamer). If it is placed directly on the range, much care should be taken not to let it burn. Now work the rice, etc., with a wooden spoon until it is a smooth paste; add the yolks of the eggs beaten to a perfect froth, and a lump of loaf sugar (mashed) which has absorbed all the oil out of the rind of the whole lemon (called zest); addalso the juice of half of the lemon. If the rice is now too firm, add a little cream also. When cold, stir into this the whites of the eggs beaten to the stiffest possible froth, and put the mixture into a flat pudding-dish, or into little paper cases (see page 61). Sprinkle granulated sugar over the top or tops. Bake in the oven about ten minutes. Serve immediately, or thesouffléwill fall. Ground rice may be used instead of whole rice. It should be rubbed smooth with a little cold milk, and then added to the remainder of the milk and the butter on the fire, and stirred until it thickens. It is then taken off the fire, sweetened, and flavored; the beaten yolks and then the beaten whites are stirred in quickly, and the sugar is sprinkled over the top, when all is put into the oven.
Ingredients: To half a pound of rice, one quart of milk, one tea-cupful of sugar, a very little butter, yolks of one or two eggs beaten, flavoring, and a little salt.
Soak the rice three or four hours in water; drain, and put into a basin with the milk and salt. Set the basin in the steamer, and cook until thoroughly done. Then stir in carefully the sugar, the yolks of one or two eggs, very little butter, and flavor with extract of lemon or vanilla. If fresh lemon is used, add a little zest. When cool enough to handle, form into small balls; press the thumb into the centre of each; insert a little marmalade, or jelly of any kind, and close the rice well over them. Roll in beaten eggs (sweetened a little), and bread-crumbs. Fry in boiling-hot lard.
Make the pancakes (see page 70), and while hot spread them with butter, and with almost any kind of preserve or jelly; roll them, cut off the ends, arrange them tastefully on a hot platter, sprinkle sugar over the tops, and serve immediately.
Ingredients: One box of gelatine soaked in one pint of clear cold water, one pint of wine, the juice and the thin cuts of rinds of three lemons, one and three-quarter pounds of loaf-sugar, one quart of clear boiling water, the whites of two eggs (well beaten) and the shells, with a small stick of cinnamon.
Soak the gelatine in the pint of cold water an hour, then pour over it the quart of boiling water, stirring it well; now add the wine, sugar, eggs, lemon-juice (strained in a fine strainer), and the thinnest possible cuts from the peels of the lemons. These cuts take only the little globules of oil in the peel, which are exceedingly delicate in flavor, the white part being bitter. Add also the small stick of cinnamon, as it adds much to the flavor of the jelly. Put this into a porcelain kettle, let it boil rapidly about a quarter of a minute without stirring it; now, setting the kettle on the hearth, let it remain another half-minute to settle, then skim off carefully the scum which is at the top; pour it through the jelly-bag. It should be entirely clear: if, however, the first should not be so, return it to the bag.
Cold water should be poured into the molds, then emptied just before using. Jelly hardens much quicker on ice, or in the coolest place to be found.
Dip the molds into warm water a moment, before taking out the jelly. If allowed to remain a moment too long, the jelly might dissolve a little, injuring the form.
Many kinds of wines and liquors may be used. The above receipt is well proportioned for sherry, Madeira, or port; a smaller proportion of brandy, maraschino, noyau, or of punch would make sufficient flavoring; a larger portion of Champagne might be used, as it is not so strong.
Ingredients: Eight oranges, two lemons, three-quarters of a box of gelatine soaked in half a pint of cold water, three-quarters of a pound of loaf-sugar, one pint of boiling water, beaten whites and shells of two eggs.
Rub the loaf-sugar on the peels of two oranges and one lemon; squeeze the juice from six or seven oranges and two lemons, and strain it. Take off the peel carefully from two oranges, leaving only the transparent skin surrounding the quarters, and separate all the sections without breaking them. Soak the gelatine half an hour in half a pint of water; boil the other pint of water and the sugar together, skimming all the time until no more scum rises; then put in the sections of oranges, and when they have boiled about a minute take them out, and put them one side. Pour this sirup over the soaked gelatine, adding the orange and lemon juice, the beaten whites and the shells of two eggs. Put it on the fire, and let it boil about a quarter of a minute without stirring; then, placing it at the side of the fire, skim off carefully all the scum at the top, and pass it through the jelly-bag. When half of the jelly is in the mold, put it on the ice, and let it set hard enough to hold the orange sections, which place in a circular row around the edge of the mold; then add enough more jelly to cover the sections; when this has hardened, pour over the remainder of the jelly, which should have been kept in a warm place to prevent it from hardening. All the sections of orange may be put in with the first half of the jelly, as they will rise to the top, although they will not hold their places evenly. Or, if time is valuable, mold the jelly without the sections, and save them to garnish the jelly on the dish.
Ingredients: Half a box of gelatine soaked in half a pint of water, juice of five large lemons, two cupfuls of loaf-sugar, or sugar to taste, beaten white and shell of an egg, one and a half pints of boiling water.
Soak the gelatine in the half-pint of water half an hour. Rub several of the pieces of the sugar on the peel of the lemon, tosoak the oil on the surface. Pour a pint and a half of boiling water on the soaked gelatine, and add lemon-juice, sugar, and egg; let it come to a boil, then set it at the side of the range a few moments; skim carefully, and pass through the jelly-bag into molds.
This is made with any kind of jelly; however, jelly made with Champagne or sherry is preferable. Any of the delicate fruits of the season, such as grapes, cherries, peaches, strawberries, raspberries, mulberries, currants (on their stems), plums, and orange sections, or preserved fruits, such as brandied cherries, peaches, etc., are tastefully imbedded in the jelly, so as to show their forms and colors to best advantage. A fine bunch of Hamburg or of Malaga grapes is exceedingly pretty, incorporated whole into a clear Champagne jelly; it should be suspended with a small thread in the centre of the jelly-mold, and the jelly poured in when quite cold, although not set. The bunches of grapes are in this way much more easily imbedded than other fruits. In the latter case, the mold is placed on ice; a little jelly is poured in, and, when set, some fruits are arranged in a circle, or according to taste; more jelly poured in, and left to harden again; more fruit added, and thus continued until the mold is full.
Do not heat the jelly a second time; merely keep it in a warm place, awaiting that on the ice to harden.
Jelly is sometimes formed in a mold with a cylindrical tube in the centre; the open space in the centre is then filled with whipped cream. Then, to be still more fanciful, the whipped cream may be dotted with strawberries, or any kind of preserved fruits, such as cherries, grapes, cuts of peaches, etc., etc.
Then there is ribbon jelly, or jelly made in two colors, in this way: Half of a Champagne or sherry jelly is colored quite red with a few drops of prepared cochineal; a little pale jelly is poured into the mold, and, when set, a layer of the red jelly is poured carefully over it, and so continued until the mold is filled with alternate layers of the two colors.
Italian jelly is pretty also. The mold is half filled with jelly, and, when set, a chain of cakes ofblanc-mange(made rather firm, hardened in a thin layer, and cut of equal sizes with a pepper-box cover or a small tin cutter) is arranged; then the remainder of the jelly is added to the mold.
Whipped jelly makes a pretty change. When it is set a little, put it into a bowl; whip it with an egg-whisk until it is full of air-bubbles. Fill the mold, and put on ice.
Add lemon-juice; beat the jelly until it becomes entirely white, which will take some time, and put it into a mold again.
I have made calf’s-foot jelly twice, and never intend to make it again. I would not have made it the second time, except for the purpose of succeeding, and getting a reliable receipt for this book. At the first attempt, I happened to have company who had heard that I pretended to be a cook. The jelly was opaque, tasteless, and split in two. Here is a successful receipt. It requires almost every thing known in the cooking calender; but do not attempt it with less, and after a trial use gelatine only for jellies.
Ingredients: Four calf’s feet boiled in a gallon of water, seven eggs, one and a half pounds of sugar, one pint of sherry wine, a stick of cinnamon, three cloves, and half a box of gelatine.
Split the calf’s feet, break the bones, and place them on the fire at the back of the range, with a gallon of cold water, to boil gently for five hours. Skim the water often, which should be reduced to rather less than two quarts; then strain the jelly into a pan, and, when perfectly firm, remove the fat and sediment.
Add to the jelly the beaten whites and crushed shells of seven eggs, one and a half pounds of sugar, a pint of sherry wine, a stick of cinnamon, three cloves, and half a box of gelatine soaked in a little water, and whip this well together; set it over the fire, and when it has just begun to boil throw in the juice of six lemons, and one or two table-spoonfuls of clear, cold water; take the kettle off the fire, let it remain at the side inrather a hot place about ten minutes, then skim off carefully all the scum from the top. Put into the jelly-bag the thin cuts from the peels of four lemons, not cutting the white or under skin, as that is bitter; then pour in the jelly, having the apparatus near the fire to prevent the jelly hardening before it has all passed through.
Prepare about two cupfuls of preserved fruits—for instance, pine-apples, peaches, greengages, and cherries; keep the cherries whole, but cut the others into dice; moisten them all with sherry.
Prepare about a quart of Champagne, sherry, or brandy jelly, and when strained pour it into a basin, which place on the ice, or on ice and salt; whip it now gently with the egg-whisk, adding the juice of two lemons; when it begins to set, and is quite frothy (not too much so, however), stir in the fruits; place all into a mold, and surround it with ice.
Rules for Cake.—Have every thing ready before mixing the material—i. e., the ingredients all measured and prepared, and the tins buttered. The sooner the cake is mixed (after the ingredients are ready) and put into the oven, the better. Sift the flour, and have it dry. Mix baking-powder or cream of tartar, if used, well into the flour, passing it through the sieve several times, if particular. Roll the sugar; mix sugar and butter together to a cream. The eggs must then bevery, very wellbeaten separately. If one person makes the cake, beat the yolks first. If soda is used, dissolve it in the milk, or, if no milk is used, in a little lukewarm water; add it the last thing, unless fruit is used, when it should always be rolled in flour, and added the last thing. Cake, to be light, should be baked slowly at first, until the batter is evenly heated all through. Many leave the oven door slightly open for the first ten or fifteen minutes. The prepared flour is especially good for cake.
This is the most perfect of sponge-cakes, when properly made.
Ingredients: Ten eggs, one pound ofpulverizedsugar, half a pound of flour, juice of half a large lemon, with the rind grated.
After all the ingredients are quite ready—i. e., the flour and sugar sifted, the lemon-peel grated, the half lemon squeezed, and the tins buttered—the success of this cake is in the beating of the eggs. Two persons should beat them at least half an hour, one beating the whites, and the other the yolks and half of the sugar together. Next cut the yolks into the whites, then stir in lightly the remainder of the sugar, then the flour and lemon by degrees.[J]
The oven heat should be rathermoderateat first. Much of the success depends upon this, as the batter should be evenly heated throughout before it begins to rise. When baked, spread over the cakes a wafer thickness of icing (see page 304) slightly flavored with vanilla.
I venture to say there is not to be found a better receipt for white cake than the following. The cake is mixed contrary to the usual rules for making cake, but it is the best mode for making it fine-grained and delicate.
Ingredients: Whites of six eggs, scant three-quarters of a cupful of butter, one and one-quarter cupfuls of pulverized sugar, two cupfuls of flour, juice of half a lemon, one-quarter of a tea-spoonful of soda.
If soda is used, mix it well with the flour, and pass it through the sieve several times to distribute it equally. Beat the butter to a light cream, and add the flour to it, stirring it in gradually with the ends of the fingers until it is a smooth paste. Beatthe whites of the six eggs to a stiff froth, and mix in them the pulverized sugar; now stir the egg and sugar gradually into the flour and butter, adding also the lemon-juice, and mix it smoothly together with the egg-whisk. As soon as it is perfectly smooth, put it into the oven, the heat of which should be rather moderate at first. When done and still hot, spread over it a frosting made with the white of one egg, pulverized sugar (see page 304), and a flavoring of lemon. The frosting is a decided improvement, and, according to the receipt, only requires a few minutes to prepare.
This cake may be made with one tea-spoonful of baking-powder, or with prepared flour, or with the one-quarter tea-spoonful of soda and one-half tea-spoonful of cream of tartar, when the essence of lemon should be used instead of the lemon-juice.
Ingredients: Two cupfuls of sugar, three eggs (beaten separately); one cupful of butter, just enough flour to roll it out.
Mix quickly, and roll it thin. Cut out the cakes with a round cake-cutter, cutting them out again in the centre with the top of the pepper-glass of the caster. When they are in the pans, wet the tops, using a paste-brush or feather, with the white of an egg slightly beaten. Then sprinkle over very coarse-pounded lump-sugar; the sugar, in fact, in little lumps.
Ingredients: One pound of sugar, one-half pound of butter, one pound of almonds blanched and chopped fine, two eggs, flour enough to mix stiff.
Roll thin. Moisten the top of each one with the white of eggs, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake quickly.
Some persons wet the jumbles with a brush or a little cloth saturated with sherry-wine after they are cooked, and then return them to the oven a few moments to dry.
Ingredients: One-half coffee-cupful of butter, two small tea-spoonfuls of cream of tartar, two and one-half coffee-cupfuls ofsugar, one small tea-spoonful of soda, four and one-half coffee-cupfuls of flour, two grated cocoa-nuts, one coffee-cupful of sweet milk, the whites of seven eggs.
Reserve a large handful of the grated cocoa-nut to sprinkle on the frosting. This cake looks most beautiful mixed with fruit-cake in a cake-basket.
Ingredients: One pound of flour, one pound of sugar, one and one-eighth pound of butter, one-half pound of candied citron, four pounds of currants, four pounds of raisins (stoned and chopped), nine eggs, one table-spoonful each of ground cloves, of cinnamon, of mace, and of nutmeg, and three gills of brandy.
This cake is perhaps not too large, as it will keep for years.
Ingredients: One pound of butter beaten to a cream, one pound of pounded sugar, ten eggs (whites and yolks beaten separately), one pound of dried flour, eight ounces of almonds, eight ounces of candied peel, two wine-glasses of brandy.
When all are well beaten together, add three pounds of English currants and one pound of raisins (both dredged in flour). Set it immediately in a moderate oven, and bake three hours at least.
Paste.—One pint of water, half a pound of butter, three-quarters of a pound of flour, ten eggs.
Boil the water and butter together; stir in the flour while boiling, and let it cook a moment; when cool, add the eggs, well beaten, with a tea-spoonful of saleratus and a little salt. Drop with a spoon on buttered tins, forming little cakes some distance apart. Bake in a quick oven; they will puff in baking. When done and cold, cut one side large enough to insert the cream with a spoon. This will make about sixty cakes.
Cream.—One cupful of flour, two cupfuls of sugar, four eggs, one quart of milk.
Beat the eggs and sugar together, then add flour and enoughof the milk to make a smooth and thin paste; pour this into the remainder of the milk when it is boiling, and stir constantly until it is sufficiently thickened; flavor with vanilla. Do not use it until it is cold. It is better to make this, as indeed all custards, in a custard-kettle.
Beat three eggs well with four table-spoonfuls of sugar; add four or five table-spoonfuls of melted lard, then flour enough to make it not too stiff. Roll rather thin (one-third of an inch). Cut the cakes into shapes, and throw them into boiling lard, like doughnuts. They may be simply shaped, as in Fig. 1. To give them the shape of Fig. 3, first cut the paste, as in Fig. 2; hold the first line with the thumb and finger of the left hand, then with the right hand slip the second line under the first, then the third under the second, and so on until they are all slipped under; pinch the two ends together, and the cruller will be in form of Fig. 3.
Ingredients: Two eggs, one cupful of sugar, one cupful of sour milk, half a tea-spoonful of soda, four table-spoonfuls of melted lard; add flour, making the dough rather soft.
Fry them in hot lard, and sprinkle pulverized sugar over them while still hot.
Ingredients: Three cupfuls of bread-dough, one cupful of butter, three scant cupfuls of sugar, one cupful of raisins or English currants, three eggs, a nutmeg grated, one tea-spoonful of soda, two of cream of tartar, a wine-glassful of brandy.
Gingerbread(Mrs. Lansing), No. 1.
Ingredients: Two cupfuls of molasses, one cupful of butter,one cupful of sugar, one cupful of milk (sour or sweet), five eggs, five cupfuls of sifted flour, two table-spoonfuls of ginger, half a tea-spoonful of cloves, one tea-spoonful of soda.
Ingredients: One cupful (half a pint) of molasses, one cupful (half a pint) of boiling water, butter the size of an egg, one tea-spoonful each of ground cloves, ground cinnamon, ginger, and soda, half a pound of flour (light weight).
First, put butter (partly melted) into the molasses, then spices. Dissolve the soda in the boiling water; stir it into the molasses, etc.; then the flour. Cream of tartar should not be used with molasses.
Make a cup-cake with the following ingredients: One cupful of butter, two cupfuls of sugar, three cupfuls of flour, one cupful of milk, four eggs beaten separately, one tea-spoonful of soda, two tea-spoonfuls of cream of tartar, or two tea-spoonfuls of yeast powder.
Cut the cup-cake, when baked, through the middle, or bake it in two or three parts. Put a layer of the chocolate mixture between and on the top and sides of the cake.
Chocolate Mixture.—Five table-spoonfuls of grated chocolate, with enough cream or milk to wet it, one cupful of sugar, and one egg well beaten. Stir the ingredients over the fire until thoroughly mixed; then flavor with vanilla.
Ingredients: Whites of six eggs, one and a quarter cupfuls of sugar, one and a quarter cupfuls of flour, half a cupful of butter, half a cupful of sweet milk, half a cupful of corn starch, a little vanilla, two tea-spoonfuls of baking-powder.
Bake it in two or three parts, like jelly-cake; put a frosting between the layers and on top of the cake, made of the whites of four eggs, nine table-spoonfuls of pulverized sugar, and a little vanilla; or use grated cocoa-nut, mixed thickly in the frosting, without vanilla; or use the chocolate mixture in the preceding receipt; or make it a jelly-cake.
This is an excellent dessert cut as a pie, or it may be served as a cake for tea.
Crust.—Three eggs, one cupful of sugar, one cupful of flour, one-third of a tea-spoonful of soda, and one tea-spoonful of cream of tartar. Beat the whites and yolks well separately; stir all together as quickly as possible, and bake in two pans (if rather small; if large, use only one), the batter three-quarters of an inch thick.
Cream.—Two and a half cupfuls of sweet milk, four even table-spoonfuls of sugar, two table-spoonfuls of flour, and one egg. Boil this a few moments until it has thickened, and flavor with vanilla or lemon.
When the crust is cold, split it, and put the custard between.
This cake is much improved with a boiled icing.
Ingredients: Five eggs, one cupful of sugar, one cupful of flour, two even tea-spoonfuls of yeast-powder, and grated rind of a lemon.
Beat the yolks, sugar, and lemon together to a cream; add whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth; then the flour and yeast-powder perfectly mixed. Bake in a dripping-pan, and when done spread jelly (not sweet) over the bottom of the cake, roll it from the side, and sprinkle sugar over the top; or bake it in two or three jelly-cake pans, and spread jelly between. The cake may be iced on the bottom. The rolled jelly-cake may be cut into slices, and served with a sweet sauce for dessert.
Ingredients: One pound of cocoa-nut grated, half a pound of sugar, the whites of two eggs, and the yolk of one egg.
Beat the yolk well; add the sugar to it; then the cocoa-nut and whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Drop by the tea-spoonful on sheets of buttered paper placed on tins. Form each little cake into the shape of a cone, and bake in a moderate oven about half an hour.
Ingredients: Three-quarters of a pound of shelled almonds, half a pound of citron, three-quarters of a pound of sugar, three-quarters of a pound of flour, and six eggs.
Blanch and halve the almonds, and slice the citron; mix them well together, and roll them in flour; add to them the sugar, then the eggs (well beaten), lastly the flour. Butter shallow pans, and lay in the mixture two inches thick. After it is baked in a quick oven, slice the cake into strips one inch wide, and turn every strip. Return the pan to the oven, and bake the sides a little. When cold, put it away in tin boxes. This cake will keep a year or more, and for reserve use is quite invaluable.
Put them over the fire in cold water, and let them remain until the water is almost at the boiling-point, not allowing them to boil; then throw them into cold water. Remove the skins, and dry the almonds in a cloth before using.
When they are to be pounded for macaroons,méringues, etc., they should be first dried for two or three days in a gentle heat.
Ingredients: Half a cupful of butter, one cupful of sugar, one cupful of sweet milk, one egg, one pint of flour, one tea-spoonful of soda, and two tea-spoonfuls of cream of tartar.
For a change, a cupful of raisins or of English currants, or a mixture of both, or an addition of sliced citron, may be added.
Ingredients: One pint of molasses, one coffee-cupful of brown sugar, one coffee-cupful of butter, one table-spoonful of ginger, and one heaping tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in one table-spoonful of hot water.
Mix very thick with flour, and roll them very thin.
Ingredients: One cupful of butter (or half butter and halflard), two cupfuls of sugar, one cupful of milk, two eggs, about a quart of flour (cookies are better to have no more flour than is necessary for rolling them thin without sticking), three tea-spoonfuls (not heaping) of yeast-powder, or one tea-spoonful of cream of tartar and half a tea-spoonful of soda.
Sour milk can be used, when add the half tea-spoonful of soda, and omit the cream of tartar. Bake in a quick oven.
Blanch and skin eight ounces of Jordan almonds and one ounce of bitter ones; dry them on a sieve, and pound them to a smooth paste in a mortar, adding occasionally a very little water, to prevent them from getting oily; add to them five ounces of pulverized sugar, one tea-spoonful of rice flour, and the whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth; with a spoon, put this on paper in drops the size of a walnut; bake in a slow oven until they are of a light-brown color, and firmly set; take them from the paper by wetting the under side of it.
Mix six yolks of eggs with half a pound of powdered sugar; work the preparation with a spoon until it is frothy; then mix into it the whites of six eggs well beaten, and at the same time a quarter of a pound of flour, dried and sifted. Put this batter into améringuebag, and squeeze it through in strips, two or three inches long, and sprinkle over some fine sugar; bake in a slack oven twelve or fourteen minutes.
Ingredients: Six whites of eggs, nine ounces of pulverized sugar, half a pint of cream (whipped), three ounces of sugar with the cream, a slight flavoring of vanilla.
Whip the eggs to a very stiff froth, add three or four drops of vanilla, and mix in the pulverized sifted sugar, by turning the sugar all over the eggs at once, and cutting it together very carefully. Sprinkle sugar over a tin platter, and on it place table-spoonfuls of this mixture at convenient distances apart; smooth the tops, and sprinkle a little sugar over them also.
The secret of makingméringuesis in the baking. Put them into a moderate oven, and leave the oven-door open for thirty-five minutes at least. They should not be allowed to color for that time, which would prevent them from drying properly, and a thin paper crust is very undesirable for améringue; in fact, the longer they dry before coloring, the thicker will be the crust. They should be in the oven at least three-quarters of an hour, only allowing them to color slightly the last two or three minutes. While they are still hot, scoop out carefully the soft contents, and when they are cold fill them with whipped cream, press two of them together, forming a ball, and put them into the refrigerator to set the cream.
Whipped Cream.—Add the three ounces of sugar and a flavoring of vanilla, sherry, or any thing preferred, to the cream, and when whipped put the froth into a kitchen bowl, and whip it again with the egg-whip or a machine egg-beater; this makes it finer-grained and stiffer.