Part 4 (1/2)

Baking-powder Biscuit

Margaret's Other Aunt said little girls could never, never make biscuit, but this little girl really did, by this rule:

1 pint sifted flour.

1/2 teaspoonful of salt.

4 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.

3/4 cup of milk.

1 tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter.

Put the salt and baking-powder in the flour and sift well, and then rub the b.u.t.ter in with a spoon. Little by little put in the milk, mixing all the time, and then lift out the dough on a floured board and roll it out lightly, just once, till it is one inch thick.

Flour your hands and mould the little b.a.l.l.s as quickly as you can, and put them close together in a shallow pan that has had a little flour shaken over the bottom, and bake in a hot oven about twenty minutes, or till the biscuits are brown. If you handle the dough much, the biscuits will be tough, so you must work fast.

Grandmother's Corn Bread

1 1/2 cups of milk.

1 cup sifted yellow corn-meal.

1 tablespoonful melted b.u.t.ter.

1 teaspoonful sugar.

1 teaspoonful baking-powder.

2 eggs.

1/2 teaspoonful of salt.

Scald the milk--that is, let it boil up just once--and pour it over the corn-meal. Let this cool while you are separating and beating the eggs; let these wait while you mix the corn-meal, the b.u.t.ter, salt, baking-powder, and sugar, and then the yolks; add the whites last, very lightly. Bake in a b.u.t.tered biscuit-tin in a hot oven for about half an hour.

Because grandmother's corn bread was a little old-fas.h.i.+oned, Margaret's Other Aunt put in another recipe, which made a corn bread quite like cake, and most delicious.

Perfect Corn Bread

1 large cup of yellow corn-meal.

1 small cup of flour.

1/2 cup of sugar.

2 eggs.

2 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.

3 tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter.

1 teaspoonful of salt.

Flour to a thin batter.

Mix the sugar and b.u.t.ter and rub to a cream; add the yolks of the eggs, well beaten, and then half a cup of milk; then put in the baking-powder mixed in the flour and the salt, and then part of the corn-meal, and a little more milk; next fold in the beaten whites of the eggs, and if it still is not like ''a thin batter,'' put in a little more milk. Then bake in a b.u.t.tered biscuit-tin till brown, cut in squares and serve hot. This is particularly good eaten with hot maple syrup.

Popovers

Put the m.u.f.fin-tins or iron gem-pans in the oven to get very hot, while you mix these popovers.

2 eggs.