Part 64 (1/2)

Three eggs, three tablespoonfuls of melted lard or b.u.t.ter, three tablespoonfuls of sugar; mix very hard with sifted flour, as hard as can be rolled, and to be rolled very thin like pie crust; cut in squares three inches long and two wide, then cut several slits or lines lengthwise to within a quarter of an inch of the edges of the ends; run your two forefingers through every other slit; lay them down on the board edgewise and dent them. These are very dainty when fried.

Fry in hot lard a light brown.

GERMAN DOUGHNUTS.

One pint of milk; four eggs, one small tablespoonful of melted b.u.t.ter, flavoring, salt to taste; first boil the milk and pour it, while hot, over a pint of flour; beat it very smooth and when it is cool have ready the yolks of the eggs well beaten; add them to the milk and flour, beaten well into it, then add the well-beaten whites; then, lastly, add the salt and as much more flour as will make the whole into a soft dough; flour your board, turn your dough upon it, roll it in pieces as thick as your finger and turn them in the form of a ring; cook in plenty of boiling lard. A nice breakfast cake with coffee.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CUTTING PUMPKIN FOR PIES.]

NUT CAKES. (Fried.)

Beat two eggs well, add to them one ounce of sifted sugar, two ounces of warmed b.u.t.ter, two tablespoonfuls of yeast, a teacupful of luke-warm milk and a little salt. Whip all well together, then stir in by degrees one pound of flour, and, if requisite, more milk, making thin dough. Beat it until it falls from the spoon, then set it to rise. When it has risen make b.u.t.ter or lard hot in a frying pan, cut from the light dough little pieces the size of a walnut, and, without molding or kneading, fry them pale brown. As they are done lay them on a napkin to absorb any of the fat.

TRIFLES.

Work one egg and a tablespoonful of sugar to as much flour as will make a stiff paste; roll it as thin as a dollar piece and cut it into small round or square cakes; drop two or three at a time into the boiling lard; when they rise to the surface and turn over they are done; take them out with a skimmer and lay them on an inverted sieve to drain. When served for dessert or supper put a spoonful of jelly on each.

PUFF-BALL DOUGHNUTS.

These doughnuts, eaten fresh and warm, are a delicious breakfast dish and are quickly made. Three eggs, one cupful of sugar, a pint of sweet milk, salt, nutmeg and flour enough to permit the spoon to stand upright in the mixture; add two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder to the flour; beat all until very light. Drop by the dessertspoonful into boiling lard. These will not absorb a bit of fat and are not at all rich and consequently are the least injurious of this kind of cakes.

PASTRY, PIES AND TARTS.

GENERAL REMARKS.

Use the very best materials in making pastry; the shortening should be fresh, sweet and hard; the water cold (ice-water is best), the paste rolled on a cold board and all handled as little as possible. When the crust is made, it makes it much more flaky and puff much more to put it in a dish covered with a cloth and set in a very cold place for half an hour, or even an hour; in summer, it could be placed in the ice box.

A great improvement is made in pie crust by the addition of about a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder to a quart of flour, also brus.h.i.+ng the paste as often as rolled out, and the pieces of b.u.t.ter placed thereon, with the white of an egg, a.s.sists it to rise in _leaves_ or _flakes_. As this is the great beauty of puff paste, it is as well to try this method.

If currants are to be used in pies, they should be carefully picked over and washed in several waters, dried in a towel and dredged with flour before they are suitable for use.

Raisins, and all dried fruits for pies and cakes, should be seeded stoned and dredged with flour before using.

Almonds should be blanched by pouring boiling water upon them and then slipping the skin off with the fingers. In pounding them, always add a little rose or orange-water, with fine sugar, to prevent their becoming oily.

Great care is requisite in heating an oven for baking pastry. If you can hold your hand in the heated oven while you count twenty, the oven has just the proper temperature and it should be kept at this temperature as long as the pastry is in; this heat will bake to a light brown and will give the pastry a fresh and flaky appearance. If you suffer the heat to abate, the under crust will become heavy and clammy and the upper crust will fall in.

Another good way to ascertain when the oven is heated to the proper degree for puff paste: put a small piece of the paste in previous to baking the whole, and then the heat can thus be judged of.

Pie crust can be kept a week, and the last be better than the if put in a tightly covered dish and set in the ice chest in summer and in a cool place in winter, and thus you can make a fresh pie every day with little trouble.

In baking custard, pumpkin or squash pies, it is well, in order that the mixture may not be absorbed by the paste, to first partly bake the paste before adding it, and when stewed fruit is used the filling should be perfectly cool when put in, or it will make the bottom crust sodden.