Dough—
Add yeast to warm milk with flour for batter; let rise, add salt, oil, and flour to knead. Knead and pound dough until elastic. Let rise in bulk or roll out at once. 1 tablespn. of sugar is sometimesadded to light sponge; also 1 egg or 2 yolks or 2 beaten whites.
An excellent way is to let the dough rise in bulk after kneading, and when light, turn from the oiled bowl on to the board and roll out without mixing.
ForParker Houserolls, roll dough ½ in. thick, cut out with large biscuit cutter, press across the center or a little one side of the center with a small round stick (the bakers have a piece of broom handle rubbed smooth with sandpaper) or knife handle, brush one side with oil or butter and fold the other side over, place on oiled and floured pan with spaces between so the shape will not be spoiled in baking. Let rise until very light, when nearly light, wring a cloth out of warm water, not too dry, and lay it over the rolls for a short time. Bake in quick oven.
ForCrescents, roll the dough as nearly square as possible, less than ¼ in. thick, cut into strips 7 in. wide, cut the strips into squares and the squares diagonally into halves; brush lightly with water, then commence to roll firmly from the long side, opposite the point of the triangle; leave the point underneath. Lay on the pans in the shape of a horseshoe, when light, bake in a quick oven. May brush with white of egg or thin cooked starch paste when nearly done.
TheViennaroll is made by shaping the same as the Vienna loaf (a little smaller at each end), about 6 in. in length. When the rolls are light in the pan, gash the top of each diagonally three times with a sharp knife. Bake in a moderate oven.
Roll dough into a long strip, cut into 3-in. lengths, lay close together in pan, brush with syrup made by cooking together for one minute equal quantities of milk and sugar; let rise, bake, forFingerrolls.
Sometimes roll dough thick and cut with small round cutter.
ForShamrockrolls, put three small round balls of dough in each gem or muffin cup.
Cleftrolls. Make dough into balls; when light, cut each rollacross the top with a sharp knife, about 1 in. deep, or, once each side of the center, or, once each way, making a cross roll.
Warm buttermilk, add yeast and sugar with flour for sponge; when light, add salt, and flour for soft dough, let rise and shape into rolls.
Boil milk, sugar and butter together, cool, add yeast, sprinkle in flour gradually, agitating and beating liquid with batter whip; beat in the egg and flour, beating with strong spoon, for a very stiff batter, so stiff that it beats hard (may knead to soft dough). Leave in warm kitchen 1 hr. or longer, set in icebox for several hrs. or 2 days; roll, handling lightly, ¾ in. thick, spread with soft butter, roll up, cut off 1½ in. thick, let rise, bake in moderate oven. The dough may be baked in loaves and used for dainty sandwiches.
Sponge—
When light—2 cups dry bread crumbs (not very fine), a little salt if crumbs are not very salt, flour to knead rather soft. Shape, and bake when light.
One chef made himself famous by making rolls of crumbs.
Sponge—
When light—
Let rise in bulk, shape as desired, bake when light.
Roll dough for rolls (p. 438) in a square ¼–½ in. thick, brush with butter or not, sprinkle with maple sugar or chopped hickory nuts or granulated sugar and ground coriander or anise seed, with or without currants or raisins, or with a mixture of chopped citron, English walnuts and sugar (maple or granulated), or chopped nuts, figs, raisins and cocoanut. Roll tight, cut from the end in 1 or 1½ in. lengths, lay close together in pan, let rise, and bake in moderate oven. Or, roll bread dough out and spread with hard sauce flavored with vanilla, lemon, coriander or anise. Sprinkle with currants or raisins. Roll, bake, glaze with sugar and hot water.
Add beaten eggs, warm water and all other ingredients to warm mashed potato, with flour for stiff dough; when light, roll out, cut into biscuit, let rise, bake.
Use only 2 tablespns. of sugar in potato biscuit with milk for wetting.
Roll light dough ½ in. thick, cut into biscuit, butter half of them on top and lay one of the other half on top of each; lay close together in pan, brush with butter, let rise, bake.
Take roll dough or add a little more oil to bread dough, cut into small biscuit and place a little way apart in pan, prick with fork, let rise and bake. Or, cut strips of dough into small pieces, roll into balls and place close together in tin. When there is a little piece of dough left, break it into small, irregular pieces and put one on the top of each biscuit.
Take cold boiled rice, double its quantity of flour, a little fine corn meal, and yeast. Mix with water to dough and let rise over night. Roll and cut into biscuit in the morning, let rise and bake for breakfast.
Beat oil and sugar together, stir in a little flour, add beaten eggs and warm milk, then dissolved yeast and flour for sponge. When light, add flour for smooth dough, let rise, mold into small biscuit, place close together in biscuit tin or put into muffin rings, or roll 1 in. thick, cut with biscuit cutter and place on pans a little distance apart; when light, brush with equal quantities of sugar and cream (or milk) boiled together 1 minute, dust with ground coriander or anise, bake, and sprinkle with granulated sugar or chopped almonds as they are taken from the oven. The brushing and dusting may be done after baking if preferred.
Bake rusk dough in loaf cake pans in a moderate oven and the next day cut into slices and dry and brown delicately the same as zwieback. Only ½ cup each of sugar and oil may be used or the sugar may be omitted entirely. Thin biscuit of the dough baked separately without brushing may be toasted the same as slices.
Add sugar, oil, salt and yeast to warm milk, with flour for soft dough; knead, let rise, turn down and when half risen turn on to board without stirring, roll out and cut with biscuit cutter, place on pans with spaces between, let rise, bake. When bunsare done, the tops may be wet with molasses and milk, sugar and milk, or spread with beaten white of egg, dusted with sugar and set in the oven to dry.
Nut Buns—Add 1 cup coarse chopped nuts to dough after first rising.
Currant Buns—1 cup of currants in place of nuts in above, with or without 3 or 4 teaspns. ground coriander seed or ½ teaspn. ground anise seed.
Raisins cut in quarters may be substituted for currants, with any desired flavor, and nuts and raisins may be used for Fruit and Nut Buns, and dried blueberries for Blueberry Buns.
Mix universal crust stiff at first; after rising twice, roll ⅓–½ in. thick, cut out with large round cutter, wash with mixture of beaten yolks, milk and sugar flavored with lemon (grated rind may be used) and dust the center with sugar, then draw over three sides of each toward the center to form a triangle, but far enough apart to leave an opening in the center to show the washed part. Brush with milk. When light bake in quick oven. Four sides may be drawn over, making a square instead of a triangle. When baked, a little jelly may be dropped in the center for Jelly Beadles; cream puff filling for Cream Beadles, or thick prune marmalade for Prune Beadles.
Sponge—
When light—
Let rise, shape as desired, when light brush with milk, bake.
Work the white of one egg into a pint of light bread dough,mold into slender sticks, place in stick pans, let rise, brush with milk or white of egg and water; bake in hot oven.
Or, roll shortened dough to the size of a pencil and 6–8 in. long. Lay on tins, let rise a little, bake in moderate oven.
Serve with soups or warm drinks.
Mix sugar and salt with dry flour, pour warm milk over gradually, stirring; when smooth add yeast, and zwieback crumbs for not too stiff batter, then the egg, white and yolk beaten separately; when light, bake on griddle.
Stir ½ cup of yellow corn meal into 1 qt. of boiling water; cook, stirring, until thickened; when lukewarm add:
Beat, set in cool place until morning; add a little warm water if too thick and use less flour next time.
Add yeast to warm water and pour gradually over flour and salt, stirring; when light add crumbs soaked in milk and warmed a little.
UNLEAVENED BREADSGEMSBEATEN BISCUITSTICKSCRACKERSROLLSGEM IRONS
UNLEAVENED BREADSGEMSBEATEN BISCUITSTICKSCRACKERSROLLSGEM IRONS
“The use of soda and baking powder in bread making is harmful and unnecessary. Soda causes inflammation of the stomach and often poisons the entire system.”
The chemical substances left in foods by the union of soda and cream of tartar in baking powders cannot be used by the system, so the excretory organs are overworked in their efforts to throw them off.
Experiments have also proven that the chemicals of baking powder retard digestion.
The use of yeast is preferable to baking powder or soda, but breads made without baking powder, soda or yeast are best of all.
Unfermented breads are generally baked in small loaves, so that they are dry and require thorough mastication.
Because of their dryness, dough breads are more desirable than batter breads.
With the other advantages, unleavened breads have all the sweet taste of the flour.
The substitute for carbonic acid gas is as pure and “as free as the air we breathe,” for it is the air we breathe, the very same thing; consequently it is inexpensive and the use of it requires less time and labor than the making of fermented breads.
TheEssentials of Successin making unleavened breads are, after good materials (the flour must be of the best); (a) that the ingredients be as nearly ice cold as possible; (b) that the breads stand or rest before baking, in a cold place for from 20 m. to 3 or 4 hrs., or over night; (c) that the oven is not too hot when they are first put in—not that they must be beaten very vigorously.
Iron is the best material for batter bread pans as it gives a firm, steady heat. The irons with thin, flat, oval (not square cornered) cups are best, but the small round cups are not objectionable and the stick shaped pans are excellent. Next to irons are earthen custard cups.
When meal is to be scalded, heat it in the oven before pouring liquid over it.
Batter breads baked in irons.
Have materials and utensils cold, put liquid with salt, oil and yolks of eggs when used, in stone milk crock or deep pan, agitate for a moment by moving wire batter whip briskly back and forth, when the liquid will be full of bubbles. Sprinkle flour in, not too slowly, with the left hand, keeping up the agitating motion. When the batter is quite stiff, beat it (never stir it as that drives out the air) just enough to incorporate all the flour. Give a few turns of the egg beater to the whites of eggs (which are in a bowl with a little salt), so that they are full of large bubbles, rinse off the beater with cold water, give it a shake and hang it in its place. Turn the eggs on to the batter and mix them in lightly, beating a little if necessary to mix well; cover the dish and set it in the ice box (or in a pan of cold water with a wet cloth over it) in summer, or in a cold room where it will not freeze in winter, for not less than 20 m. and longer if possible. (I always stir my gems up over night when making them for breakfast.)
Slightly warm the pans and oil them.
When ready to bake the gems, warm the irons a little and without stirring the batter dip it into the cups, filling them to the brim, set into a slow oven that bakes well from the bottom.
Bake until well risen, increase the heat sufficiently to brown the gems nicely, then lower the temperature and finish baking. Be sure that the gems are well baked to the center. Turn out of pans at once and let stand for 10 or 15 m. before serving. There is no objection to serving unleavened breads warm.
If the oven does not bake well at the bottom, leave the pans on top of the stove where it is not too hot, for 10–15 m., then place carefully in the oven.
When baking with gas, put the gems on the top grate of the oven before it is lighted; use one burner only at first and have that turned rather low.
Graham gems should not be quite as stiff as whole wheat. Use the quantity of milk that will just fill the pan; skimmed milk with 1½–2 tablespns. of oil to the quart equals whole milk. Brazil or other nut butter or meal, with water, is sometimes used.
All whole wheat or graham flour may be used, but combining either with ⅓–⅔ white flour makes gems more digestible.
The batter may be made thinner than a drop batter, but I have better gems when it is quite stiff. I take only 3 eggs to a quart of milk, but more may be used. When we are so happy as to get a spring wheat graham flour, 2 eggs to the quart of liquid is sufficient.
Gems may be made without eggs with all whole wheat, or graham flour of spring wheat. They require a little more beating, the longer rest is imperative, and the oven should be a little warmer at first.
Cold boiled rice may be added to thin gem batter sometimes, also grated cocoanut.
Make the same as whole wheat gems, using white bread flour, and 1 egg to each cup of milk, add 2 tablespns. of sugar for Sally Lunns.
Add a few English currants, seeded raisins in quarters, with or without fine cut dates, or dried or fresh blueberries to any gem batter. Use chopped nuts alone or with fruit. Ground citron goes nicely with nuts.
No oil is required with whole milk.
Plain rye or corn gems may be served with maple syrup.
Or, 1½ cup crumbs, ½ cup white flour, 2 eggs, 1 teaspn. sugar, with the milk, salt and oil.
Scald meal with boiling water, add oil, salt, cold water and yolk of egg; beat, add white flour, beating, and lastly stiffly-beaten white of egg; rest. Bake in moderate oven.
Stir enough corn meal into not too thick cream to make a stiff batter; about 1½ cup meal to 1 of cream; add salt, beat a little, rest, bake in gem irons or on griddle.
Beat egg with salt; add half the milk, beat in the flour and add the remainder of the milk, and without beating strain into a pitcher; rest. Pour into rather hot irons and bake in moderate oven.
Sometimes the mixed egg and milk are poured gradually into the flour, stirring, and sometimes the beaten white of egg only is used, being added after straining batter. And again, a teaspoonful of oil or melted butter is put in after the flour is beaten into half the milk.
German puffs call for 4 eggs and Vanity puffs for 6 eggs, with the other ingredients the same.
Mix flours and salt, stir into milk, add beaten egg, rest. Put into rather hot oiled gem pans, bake.
Bake potatoes, peel and rub through colander, add salt, oil, meal, milk and beaten egg; beat well. Bake in moderate oven 30–40 m. Serve hot.
Add stiffly-beaten whites of eggs last, rest, bake in shallow pans or patty pans. Serve hot. The flour is sometimes omitted.
Take 1 cup each of rice and hominy for Rice and Hominy cake.
Pour boiling water over meal, add salt, oil and yolk of egg; cool, add beaten white and bake in oiled pan. Use a little less water for Rhode Island meal.
Pour boiling milk over corn meal, stir well, add oil, salt and crumbs; cool, add beaten yolks of eggs, then stiffly-beaten whites. Bake in oiled pie pans. Or, soak meal and crumbs in cold milk for several hours and add salt, oil and eggs as before.
Mix water, salt, molasses, oil and yolks of eggs and add mixed meals; then stiffly-beaten whites of eggs. Steam 3 hrs., bake in slow oven ½ hr. 1 qt. of thin cream may be used in place of oil and water.
Halved, seeded raisins may be added occasionally or fine cut steamed prunes or broken pieces of nuts.
Mix and steam 3 hrs.
2 cups of granella in place of the crumbs is better still.
½ cup sugar with ½ cup more of water may be used in place of the molasses. Cereal coffee may be used for the liquid, or a little browned flour may be mixed with the meal.
Mix; rest 1 hr. or longer in cold place, bake in iron skillet in quick oven.
½ cup each fine hominy, rice and rice flour, salt, water, milk. Cook rice and hominy in 2 cups of water, each. Add ½–1 cup milk, salt and rice flour; drop by spoonfuls on hot, oiled griddle, flatten with fingers dipped in cold water, bake in oven or on top of stove.
Cook meal in water for 10 m., add oil, cool a little, add yolks of eggs, beat well, fold in stiffly-beaten whites of eggs, bake in oiled pudding dish or pie plates, in moderate oven. Serve at once.
1½ cup granular corn meal, salt, 1 cup cold water. Rest 1–2 hrs., spread thin on hot griddle or frying pan, bake in hot oven, serve hot.
1 cup granular meal, salt, ¾ cup boiling water. Spread at once, thin, on hot griddle or frying pan and bake in hot oven. Serve hot.
1 cup fine oatmeal, ½ teaspn. salt, boiling water, 1–1½ cup perhaps. Grind rolled oats (not too fine) if very fine meal is not obtainable. Pour over enough boiling water to moisten, spread very thin on hot oiled frying pan or griddle (or spread spoonfuls in cakes), bake on top of stove or in hot oven.
Pour boiling water over meal, sugar and salt; beat well; add butter, spread very thin on well oiled pans, bake. Pull apart while hot.
1 cup white corn meal, 2 cups boiling milk, 1 teaspn. salt; stir smooth and pour ⅓–½ in. deep in oiled pan. Bake in moderate oven. Split for eating.
Those who have not made the acquaintance of Rhode Island Johnny cakes have missed much. To make them in their perfection Rhode Island meal is required, though white meal will do. Do not try them with yellow granular meal. Rhode Island meal has a creamy tint and is lighter in texture than granular meal.
Mix the meal with salt in a cake bowl and pour perfectly boiling water over it to more than moisten. (A rule for the quantity is out of the question). Stir, and if necessary add more water. The batter should be soft, but the meal must be well wet with the boiling water. Beat and drop in spoonfuls on to a hot, well oiled griddle. Dip the hand in water and flatten the cakes to about ¾ in. thick. Keep the griddle hot until cakes are nicely browned on one side, turn, adding more oil if necessary and brown on the other side; after which set back where cakes will bake slowly for 20 m. to ½ hr. Serve with cream,nut cream or butter, or with some meaty flavored gravy; sometimes honey or maple syrup.
In many families these cakes form the bread for three times a day six days in the week, and one soon comes to feel lost without them.
As Toast—Split cold cakes, lay in deep dish with salt and bits of butter and pour hot milk over.
1 qt. white corn meal, 1 teaspn. salt, cold water for soft dough. With hands moistened with cold water mold into oblong mounds, a little thicker in the center than at the ends. Lay on hot oiled or floured pan, press a little with the fingers and bake in hot oven. Break (not cut). Eat hot.
A little oil may be added to the meal for pone, but then it will not be “straight.”
Brush a place clean before the fire and lay the pones upon it. Let the tops dry a little and cover with hot ashes. Bake until dry and firm, 15–30 m. Draw from the fire, brush off the ashes, wash and wipe, serve. Buttermilk is the ideal accompaniment to ash cake or pone.
A cabbage leaf may be laid above and below the cake in the ashes; then it will not require washing, but will need to be baked a little longer.
One hoe cake is the pone mixture baked on a hoe or griddle in one large cake or in several small ones ¼–¾ in. thick.
Another—1 cup white Southern corn meal or Rhode Island meal, mix with ½ teaspn. salt and pour boiling milk or water over to make a batter thick enough not to spread. Drop by spoonfuls on well oiled griddle and press ½ in. thick. When nicely browned on one side, put a small piece of butter or a little oil on top of each cake and turn. Bake thoroughly. Serve hot. A teaspn. of sugar is sometimes added to the meal,but “no Southern cook would risk the spoiling of her corn breads by sweetening them.”
For campers, the batter may be spread on a floured oak board, the board slanted in front of the fire and the hoe cake baked “in its original way and with its original flavor;” or it may be baked on a smooth flat stone which has been heated and floured. Sometimes the scalded meal is allowed to stand for an hour or longer, then formed into cakes ½–¾ in. thick before baking.
Mix corn meal and flour and heat in oven, add sugar and salt and pour boiling liquid over, stir rapidly until smooth, add oil and yolk of egg, then stiffly-beaten white; drop in spoonfuls on hot oiled pan; bake in quite hot oven.
Mix and bake as with common meal. If the liquid is not rich milk, use 1 tablespn. oil or melted butter.
Use ¾–1 cup of nut meal or butter and all water for Nut Corn Dodgers.
Pour boiling water over corn meal and salt in inner cup of double boiler; stir smooth, cook 1 hr., add oil, drop by spoonfuls on oiled griddle, dip fingers in cold water and pat down flat; when browned put a dot of butter or a little oil on top of each and turn. Serve with poached eggs if desired.
Batter for griddle cakes should stand 2 hrs. or longer in the ice box, or in winter in some cold place, to lighten it by allowing the starch grains and glutenous portion of the flour to swell.
An iron or steel griddle is best for baking cakes. Soapstone, so highly recommended, is objectionable because little particles of the stone adhere to the cakes.
The griddle should stand on a not too hot part of the stove and heat slowly for a long time before the cakes are to be baked. Professional pancake bakers have their griddle over a slow fire all night.
When oil is used in the batter, less or none is required on the griddle.
Have the griddle hot before putting the cakes on, brown them delicately, then turn once only. A second turning makes them heavy. Cakes ought to be eaten as soon as baked, but should not be covered when required to stand for a short time.
Rest 2 hrs. or longer. May spread with jelly, or with butter and sugar and roll.
Add 1–2 cups cold boiled rice to plain cakes.
Use only 1 cup of flour in plain cakes and add stale or dry bread crumbs to make quite a thick batter.
Use ⅔ buckwheat in place of all white flour in plain cakes.
Add crumbled trumese, fine chopped onion and powdered sage to rice or crumb cakes.
Lay a spoonful or two of chopped mushroom stems, simmeredin oil with or without a little tomato, browned flour and onion, on each small thin cake, roll lightly and serve with or without Italian or Boundary Castle sauce.
Heat oil, add the 2 tablespns. flour, hot water and milk, boil well; when cool, add salt, yolks of eggs and ½ cup of flour, beating; then the stiffly-beaten whites of eggs; rest.
(a) 2 cups dry bread crumbs in place of the half cup of flour and less or no salt.
(b) Add 2–4 cups of cold boiled hominy to plain batter and another ¼ cup of flour if necessary.
(c) Add 1½–2 cups cold boiled rice to plain cakes and a little more flour if necessary.
(d) Add 1–1½ cup drained canned corn to plain cakes, more flour if necessary.
(e) Add 4 tablespns. granular corn meal scalded with about ⅔ cup of boiling water, to plain cakes.
Cool. If necessary, add ¼ cup more of milk.
Boil rice in 2 cups water, partly cool, beat smooth with milk, add salt and beaten eggs. Another yolk of egg may be used. If rice is thin, use less milk.
Cook hominy in 2 cups water and proceed as in Rice Cakes.
Scald meal with boiling water, add butter, salt, sugar and cold milk, then yolks of eggs; beat batter and fold in stiffly-beaten whites. Or, beat eggs all together.
For Rhode Island meal, 1½ pt. boiling water will be required.
Heat oil, add flour, then boiling water; remove from fire, add salt and crumbs, cool, add corn and beaten egg. Bake on well oiled griddle.
2 tablespns. almond, Brazil or other nut butter, 1 cup water, salt, 2 eggs, whites beaten separate, 1 cup bread flour.
For those who cannot take starchy foods.
Rub 2 tablespns. nut butter smooth with 2 full tablespns. of water; add a beaten egg with salt. Bake on moderate griddle to delicate brown.
Grind dough breads 5–8 times through a food cutter with the finest plate instead of kneading; it saves time and strength and the breads are better.
A good spring wheat graham flour makes better rolls than whole wheat flour, but poor graham flour does not make good “anything.” The simplest rolls are made with flour and water,with or without salt, and require more thorough working than those made with shortening. Rolls may be reheated whole, or be split and toasted.
Sticks and rolls may be mixed with milk instead of water.
All crackers and wafers (except fruit) should be crisped thoroughly in the oven before serving.
Put a cupful of ice water into a cold bowl. Add ¼ teaspn. of salt if desired, but the rolls will have more of the sweet, nutty flavor of the flour without it. Agitate the water until full of bubbles and sprinkle in the cold flour as for gems. When the batter is too stiff to beat, take it out on to a cold floured board and knead, using as little flour as possible, until smooth and elastic. About 3 cupfuls of flour will be taken up. Divide the dough, roll it quickly and evenly to about ¾ in. in diameter, cut into 3 in. lengths and set in ice box to rest. Bake in a moderate oven with steady heat until the rolls will not yield to pressure between the thumb and finger and are of a delicate brown.
If preferred, the water may be poured over the flour and the dough kneaded the same. The dough may rest before being rolled out.
The yolk of a hard boiled egg rubbed into each pint of flour makes more tender rolls; or one beaten raw yolk may be added to each ¾ cup of water.
Add ¾–1 cup of nut meal to water in plain rolls recipe.
Mix rich cold cream and graham flour together quickly. Press together without kneading, rest for 2 hrs. or more, shape into rolls and bake, or put on ice again until ready to bake.
Rolls may be kneaded, and if kneaded at all should be kneaded thoroughly. Cocoanut cream may be substituted for dairy.
The quantity of oil required will depend entirely upon the quality of the flour, but for ordinary graham flour take ⅓ cup of oil to each pint of flour; to a good spring wheat flour not more than ¼ cup. Rub the oil into the salted flour, add ice water for moderately stiff dough, press into a mass and set to rest, unless preferring to knead. Finish the same as cream rolls. ⅓ white flour may be used with the graham.
Roll shortened dough ¼ in. thick. Cut into strips 2½–3 in. wide, put a strip of halves of stoned dates, pieces of nice fresh figs or a roll of seeded and ground raisins along the length of the dough a little one side of the center; slightly moisten the edge of the dough farthest away from the fruit, lap the edge nearest, over the fruit and roll it up in the dough, leaving a long roll with the fruit in the center; roll over and over until the edge of the dough is well fastened down; cut roll into 2 or 3 inch lengths (1 inch for some occasions); bake.
This way of putting the fruit in the roll has the advantage of leaving no pieces of fruit sticking through the dough to be burned in baking, and also of not having any “sad” portion of dough in the center of the roll.
Fruit and Nut Rolls—may be made by adding pieces of nuts to the fruit in the roll.
Roll any of the roll doughs or the graham cracker dough to about the size of a lead pencil or not over ⅓ of an inch in diameter; cut in 5–7 in. lengths, rest and bake the same as rolls. Sticks are more crisp and delightful than rolls. They should be on the table for every meal.
Take 1–1½ tablespn. of oil to each cup of white bread flour, with a trifle of salt, and water for stiff dough.
Dainty white sticks are nice to serve with soups, salads and some desserts.
Mix and knead thoroughly. Dough must be very stiff.
Rub salt and oil with flour, add water, knead until smooth (the dough should be very stiff), then separate dough into several pieces and put it through the food cutter 6 or 8 times. This takes the place of the laborious beating. Shape into small thick biscuit; make a hole through the center of each one from the top with the thumb or finger, rest; bake thoroughly in moderate oven.
If you have time to form the biscuit you will be well repaid for your trouble as they are so beautiful; but if your time is limited, roll the dough ½–1 in. thick, cut with small round cutter and prick with fork. You may even cut the dough into small squares. Rolled very thin, cut with a large cutter and pricked well, the dough makes nice wafers. If a food cutter is not at hand, beat with a mallet or the rolling pin, or pick apart with the thumb and fingers, over and over again, until the dough snaps when pulled apart.
A cup of medium thick cream may be used instead of oil and water.
Proceed as with whole wheat biscuit.
Knead 20 m., or until dough blisters; set aside 1–2 hrs., or over night; knead 5–10 m., roll and cut, or shape by hand. Bake.
Knead until smooth, run through food cutter 6–8 times, or beat or pick as beaten biscuit; rest, roll thin, prick dough all over, cut into any desired shape, bake in moderate oven. ¼ or ½ of pastry flour may be used; also water and a little more shortening.
Make white crackers of milk, roll as thin as paper, prick, cut into biscuit the size of a saucer. Turn the wafers on the tins often while baking. Serve with some desserts, fruit or other salads, and with cottage cheese. Cut a hole in the center of some of the biscuit before baking and serve salads or suitable meat dishes on them in individual servings.
Rub butter into flour, add salt and mix with cocoanut which has been ground through a food cutter. Add ice water for stiff dough, roll out at once or rest before rolling as preferred. Bake carefully so as not to scorch the cocoanut. Dried grated cocoanut of your own preparing is preferable. 2 cups of cocoanut may be used.
If a sweet wafer is desired, add sugar to the dough or sprinkle with sugar before baking.
Roll any desired dough thin, cut into 3–3½ in. strips, spread one half of the width with stoned dates, halved raisins, steamed figs, sweet prunes or any suitable fruit, which has been cut into strips with the shears; moisten the edge next to the fruit, fold the other half of the dough over, pressing the edges well together, and roll lightly to flatten the bar; cut with a sharp knife into 2½–3 in. lengths.
Add nuts to make fruit and nut bars, or make nut bars sometimes. The dough may be slightly sweetened.
Brush baked crackers with beaten white of egg and spread thick with chopped or coarse ground nuts (English walnuts or pecans or both). Put into warm oven to dry.
These crackers are nice to serve with fruit or vegetable salads, or with cereal coffee or tea-hygiene.
Mix well together, run through food cutter (with finest knife) 5 or 6 times, roll about ⅛ in. thick, prick with fork, cut into any desired shape, set in cold place for 2 hrs. or longer, bake in moderate oven.
Omit sugar for unsweetened crackers. Dough may be kneaded, picking it apart into small pieces, if food cutter is not at hand. Or, crackers are very good made up without any kneading, when rested in cold place.
Rest and finish as other crackers. If the cream is not rich, use more oil.
Finish the same as graham crackers. Nice with fruit soups.
Roll any of the cracker doughs thin, place figs, dates, raisins or prunes cut in thin pieces with the shears, on the dough, cover with another thin layer of dough, roll with rolling pin to press all together, prick with fork, cut in squares, rest, bake.
1 part oil, 2 parts water, salt, coarse oat flour to knead. Roll ¼ in. thick of size to fit pie pan, crease in quarters, rest; bake in moderate oven. The dough may be cut into crackers if preferred. Grind rolled oats or oatmeal in food cutter, to make the flour.
Prepare dough as for plain graham rolls, kneading very stiff. After resting, separate into small pieces and roll each piece as thin as paper. When all are rolled, put as many as convenient into a hot oven on perforated pans or on the grate of the oven. Turn them over on the pans often while baking and bake to a delicate brown. Serve whole or in broken pieces.
This is one of the most delicate and digestible of unleavened breads and has a crispness and nutty flavor peculiarly its own. It should be one of the staple articles of food in our homes and is especially adapted to school, picnic and travelling lunches.
Mix with thin cream instead of water and bake in slower oven than water crisps. With cream, whole wheat or white flour may be used, as well as graham.
Use nut roll dough, kneading it very stiff.Beaten biscuit dough may also be used for shortened crisps.
Use equal quantities of desiccated cocoanut and pastry flour, with water or milk for liquid.
Take equal quantities of any nut meal and pastry flour, with a little salt. Add just enough ice water to make the particles hold together, roll out without kneading to ¼ in. thick, then cut into strips ¼ in. wide and 5–8 in. long. Bake in quick oven to delicate cream color. Serve tied with narrow ribbon in bunches of 3–5 with individual plates of salad or on celery dish. ⅔ nut meal and ⅓ flour may be used for richer straws.
Mix salt, flour, and oil together, add enough ice water for stiff dough, press together as for pie crust and set in refrigerator an hour or longer. Roll dough three-sixteenths of an inch thick, prick all over with a fork, mark off in nine-sixteenth-inch squares by a rule, cut into convenient sized pieces for baking. Lay on a pan or perforated sheet, then crease marked squares half through the dough with a spatula or the back of a knife. Bake very carefully in a moderate oven.
1½–2 tablespns. of butter may be used instead of the oil, but olive oil seems more suitable for the purpose.
Bread for sandwiches should be of fine even grain and twenty-four hours old, except for rolled sandwiches, then it must be moist enough to be pliable.
Sometimes it is well to wrap the loaves to be used for sandwiches in damp cloths for three or four hours before preparing.
Dip the knife into hot water for slicing moist bread.
Thin, fresh crisped crackers or wafers are nice for sandwiches when they are to be served right away, so they will not lose their crispness. Wafers of pastry are suitable for some sandwiches.
Small round tins, like baking powder cans, are nice to bake bread in for sandwiches. Be careful not to bake it too hard.
Do not cut the crust from the bread as a rule; it is the sweetest and most wholesome part of the bread and the slices look so “naked” without it.
Unless the loaf is of the regular sandwich style, cut it in two in the middle, spread each cut surface, if butter is to be used, and cut off a thin slice from each half loaf. Cover one slice with the sandwich filling and lay the other on top of that, pressing well together. Cut into triangles, squares or strips. Continue cutting slices from each half loaf, then they will fit.
Cream (not melt) the butter before spreading; it may have chopped parsley, onion or lemon juice or other flavorings worked into it.
For rolled sandwiches, the crust will have to be cut off unless it is very pliable. Cut slices thin, spread with the desired filling and roll as close as possible. If they should not stay together well, fasten with sharp pointed Japanese toothpicks.They may be tied with baby ribbon.
Steam figs, seeded raisins and dates and grind in food cutter for sweet sandwiches.
Scrambled eggs are better in sandwiches than hard boiled. Hard boiled eggs may be rubbed to a paste in a mortar, with butter and salt.
When mayonnaise dressing is used, put sandwiches together just before serving.
Onion sandwiches, when carried, must be packed in a close covered box by themselves.
To keep moist, cover plate with lettuce leaves, lay sandwiches on and cover with dampened lettuce leaves. Or, cover plate of sandwiches with a towel wrung out of cold water and set in cool place. Or, wrap sandwiches in a damp napkin or waxed paper and place in close covered tin box or stone jar and set in cool place. It is better to have everything ready and put the sandwiches together just before serving.
Garnishing—Sandwiches are much more attractive if a few sprays of parsley are placed around the edges before the second slice of bread is laid on. Sprigs of celery or small spinach leaves may be used, or a narrow strip of lettuce may be laid around the edges, so that it will look like a dainty ruffle of green.
Sweet sandwiches may be served with cereal coffee, tea-hygiene, egg drinks or egg creams.
Plates of sandwiches may be garnished with chervil, parsley, lettuce, celery or carrot tops, ferns, leaves or flowers.