In making batter-cakes, the ingredients should be put together over night to rise, and the eggs and butter added in the morning; the butter melted and eggs well beaten. If the batter appears sour in the least, dissolve a little soda and stir into it; this should be done early enough to rise some time before baking. Water can be used in place of milk in all raised dough, and the dough should be thoroughly light before making into loaves or biscuits; then when molding them use as little flour as possible; the kneading to be done when first made from the sponge, and should be done well and for some length of time, as this makes the pores fine, the bread cut smooth and tender. Care should be taken not to get the dough too stiff. Where any recipe calls for baking powder, and you do not have it, you can use cream of tartar and soda, in the proportion of one level teaspoonful of soda to two of cream of tartar. When the recipe calls for sweet milk or cream, and you do not have it, you may use in place of it sour milk or cream, and, in that case, baking powder or cream of tartar must not be used, but baking-soda, using a level teaspoonful to a quart of sour milk; the milk is always best when just turned, so that it is solid, and not sour enough to whey or to be watery. When making biscuits or bread with baking powder or soda and cream of tartar, the oven should be prepared first; the dough handled quickly and put into the oven immediately, as soon as it becomes the proper lightness, to ensure good success. If the oven is too slow, the article baked will be heavy and hard. As in beating cake, never stir ingredients into batter, but beat them in, by beating down from the bottom, and up, and over again. This laps the air into the batter which produces little air-cells and causes the dough to puff and swell as it comes in contact with the heat while cooking.
3 Tb. fat 1/4 c. brown sugar 1 Tb. salt 1 cake compressed yeast 3 c. lukewarm liquid 8 c. whole-wheat flour 1 c. white flour for kneading
Place the fat, the sugar, and the salt in the mixing bowl and add the yeast cake dissolved in a little of the liquid. Add the remainder of the liquid, and then stir in half or all of the flour, according to whether the sponge or the straight-dough method is preferred. Then proceed according to the directions previously given for making bread by the quick process.
The long process may also be followed in making whole-wheat bread, and if it is, only one-half the quantity of yeast should be used.
75. Graham Bread.--To lend variety to the family diet, frequent use should be made of graham bread, which contains even more bulk and mineral salts than whole-wheat bread. In bread of this kind, both graham and white flour are used. Since graham flour is very heavy, it prevents the bread from rising quickly, so the bread is started with white flour. The accompanying recipe contains quantities for the short process, although it may be adapted to the long process by merely using one-half the amount of yeast.
Put the roes on in cold water and boil for about half an hour. Take them up and let them get quite cold, then cut into slices. Make some frying batter by recipe given elsewhere. Season it with salt and pepper, dip in the slices, and fry a good colour. Pile high on a dish and garnish with fried parsley. Roes may also be fried in egg and bread crumbs; they are prepared just in the same way, only covered with egg and crumbs instead of batter.
Proceed as in the above recipe in every respect, substituting dried green peas for ordinary yellow split peas. Colour the soup green by adding a large handful of spinach before it is rubbed through the wire sieve, or add a small quantity of spinach extract (vegetable colouring sold by grocers in bottles); dried mint and fried or toasted bread should be served with the soup, as with the other.
Any person who is fond of cheese could not fail to favor this recipe. Take three slices of bread well-buttered, first cutting off the brown outside crust. Grate fine a quarter of a pound of any kind of good cheese; lay the bread in layers in a buttered baking-dish, sprinkle over it the grated cheese, some salt and pepper to taste. Mix four well-beaten eggs with three cups of milk; pour it over the bread and cheese. Bake it in a hot oven as you would cook a bread pudding. This makes an ample dish for four people.
Mince the meat very finely, season with any forcemeat that may be left, or else some grated lemon peel, parsley and sweet herbs, pepper and salt. Make one gill of melted butter by recipe given elsewhere, stir in the meat and let it simmer for a few minutes; cut some slices of bread about an inch and a half thick, stamp them out with a round cutter about two inches across. Remove the centre for about half way through with a smaller cutter, brush them over with a raw egg beaten up, and cover them with fine crumbs. Fry in hot fat till a good colour, drain away the fat from them on kitchen paper. Fill these with the mince, garnish with sprigs of parsley, and serve.
Prepare the dough as for Apple Strudel as directed in the foregoing recipe, drip one quart of thick sour milk on it lightly, with a large spoon, put one cup of grated bread crumbs over the milk, add two cups of granulated sugar, one cup of chopped almonds, one cup of raisins, and one teaspoon of cinnamon, roll and place in well-buttered pan, put small pieces of butter over the top, basting frequently. Serve warm with vanilla sauce. One-half this quantity may be used for a small strudel.
Two cups of sifted meal, half a cup of flour, two cups of sour milk, two well-beaten eggs, half a cup of molasses or sugar, a teaspoonful of salt, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Mix the meal and flour smoothly and gradually with the milk, then the butter, molasses and salt, then the beaten eggs, and lastly dissolve a level teaspoonful of baking soda in a little milk and beat thoroughly altogether. Bake nearly an hour in well-buttered tins, not very shallow. This recipe can be made with sweet milk by using baking powder in place of soda. St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans.
Make it like the above recipe, turn it into bread tins and when cold slice it, dip each piece in flour and fry it in lard and butter mixed in the frying pan, turning to brown well both sides. Must be served hot.
