In the little town of Richmond, England, is a small pastry shop widely known for its cheese cakes. It is said that the original recipe for them was furnished by a maid of Queen Elizabeth, who had a palace at Richmond. In the neighboring city of London the cakes are in great demand, and the popular opinion there is that the only place to get them is the shop mentioned, where they are made somewhat as follows: One cupful of sweet milk, one of sour, one of sugar, a lemon, the yolks of four eggs, a speck of salt. Put all the milk in the double boiler and cook until it curds; then strain. Rub the curd through a sieve. Beat the sugar and yolks of eggs together, and add the rind and juice of the lemon and the curd. Line little patty pans with puff or chopped paste, rolled very thin. Put a large spoonful of the mixture in each one, and bake from fifteen to twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Do not remove from the pans until cold. These are nice for suppers or lunches as well as for dessert.
Home-made bread is not so much used now as it was years back. Most housekeepers have found by experience that it is a waste both of time and money. There are very few houses among the middle classes which possess an oven capable of competing with any chance of success with a baker's oven. There are, however, many vegetarians who believe in what is called whole-meal bread. A good deal of the whole-meal bread sold as such has been found to be adulterated with substances very unwholesome to ordinary stomachs. We may mention saw-dust as one of the ingredients used for the purpose. Again, if you attempt to make whole-meal bread into loaves, you will find great difficulty in baking the loaves. This whole-meal is a very slow conductor of heat, and the result will probably be that the outside of the loaf will be very hard while the inside will be too underdone to be eaten. Consequently, should you wish to have home-made whole-meal bread, it is far best to bake it in the form of a tea-cake or flat-cake. We cannot do better, in conclusion, than quote what Sir Henry Thompson says on this subject:--"The following recipe," he says, "will be found successful, probably, after a trial or two, in producing excellent, light, friable, and most palatable bread: To two pounds of coarsely ground or crushed whole-meal, add half a pound of fine flour and a sufficient quantity of baking powder and salt; when these are well mixed, rub in two ounces of butter, and make into dough with half milk and water, or with all milk if preferred. Make rapidly into flat cakes like 'tea-cakes,' and bake without delay in a quick oven, leaving them afterwards to finish thoroughly at a lower temperature. The butter and milk supply fatty matters, in which the wheat is somewhat deficient; all the saline and mineral matters of the husk are retained; and thus a more nutritive form of bread cannot be made. Moreover, it retains the natural flavour of the wheat, in place of the insipidity which is characteristic of fine flour, although it is indisputable that bread produced from the latter, especially in Paris and Vienna, is unrivalled for delicacy, texture, and colour. Whole meal may be bought; but mills are now cheaply made for home use, and wheat may be ground to any degree of coarseness desired."
Mix ingredients and prepare 2 jam sandwich tins as for Sponge Cake (see recipe). Pour mixture in tins and bake for about 10 minutes in a hot oven. Take out, spread one round with warmed jam, place the other on top, and cut when cold.
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.
Half a pint of buckwheat flour, a quarter of a pint of corn meal, a quarter of a pint of wheat flour, a little salt, two eggs beaten very light, one quart of new milk (made a little warm and mixed with the eggs before the flour is put in), one tablespoonful of butter or sweet lard, two large tablespoonfuls of yeast. Set it to rise at night for the morning. If in the least sour, stir in before baking just enough soda to correct the acidity. A very nice, but more expensive, recipe.
Two scant teacupfuls of butter, three cupfuls of dark brown sugar, six eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately, one pound of raisins, seeded, one of currants, washed and dried, and half a pound of citron cut in thin strips; also half a cupful of cooking molasses and half a cupful of sour milk. Stir the butter and sugar to a cream, add to that half a grated nutmeg, ope tablespoonful of ground cinnamon, one teaspoonful of cloves, one teaspoonful of mace, add the molasses and sour milk. Stir all well; then put in the beaten yolks of eggs, a wine-glass of brandy; stir again all thoroughly, and then add four cupfuls of sifted flour alternately with the beaten whites of eggs. Now dissolve a level teaspoonful of soda and stir in thoroughly. Mix the fruit together and stir into it two heaping tablespoonfuls of flour; then stir it in the cake. Butter two common-sized baking tins carefully, line them with letter paper well buttered, and bake in a moderate oven two hours. After it is baked, let it cool in the pan. Afterward put it into a tight can, or let it remain in the pans and cover tightly. Best recipe of all. Mrs. S. A. Camp, Grand Rapids, Mich.
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 into a shallow pan four tablespoonfuls of scraped chocolate, and place it where it will melt gradually, but not scorch; when melted, stir in three tablespoonfuls of milk or cream and one of water; mix all well together, and add one scant teacupful of sugar; boil about five minutes, and while hot, and when the cakes are nearly cold, spread some evenly over the surface of one of the cakes; put a second one on top, alternating the mixture and cakes; then cover top and sides, and set in a warm oven to harden. All who have tried recipe after recipe, vainly hoping to find one where the chocolate sticks to the cake and not to the fingers, will appreciate the above. In making those most palatable of cakes, "Chocolate Eclairs," the recipe just given will be found very satisfactory.
One pound of arrowroot, quarter of a pound of pounded white sugar, half a pound of butter, the whites of six eggs, flavoring to taste of essence of almonds, or vanilla, or lemon; beat the butter to a cream; stir in the sugar and arrowroot gradually, at the same time beating the mixture; whisk the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth; add them to the other ingredients and beat well for twenty minutes; put in which-ever of the above flavorings may be preferred; pour the cake into a buttered mold or tin and bake it in a moderate oven from one to one and a half hours. This is a genuine Scotch recipe.
Twelve sponge fingers, 4 oz. of ratafia biscuits, 2 oz. blanched almonds, 2 oz. of candied fruit, and 1 pint of custard made with Allinson custard powder. Butter thickly a pint and a half pudding basin, decorate the bottom with a few slices of the bright coloured fruits, split the sponge fingers and arrange them round the sides of the basin, letting each one overlap the other and cut the tops level with the basin; break up the remainder of the cakes and mix with the chopped almonds, the ratafias crushed, and the remainder of the candied fruits chopped finely; carefully fill the basin with this mixture, not disturbing the fingers round the edge; prepare 1 pint of custard according to recipe on page 75, and while still hot pour into the basin over the cakes, &c., cover with a plate and put a weight on the top, let stand all night in a cold place; turn out on to a glass dish to serve.
