Part 12

One-half pound sugar, one-quarter pound of butter creamed together, four well beaten eggs, one-half pound of currants, a spoonful of brandy, grated nutmeg or lemon peel, and flour sufficient for a stiff batter. Beat well. Drop by spoonfuls on buttered tins and bake in a quick oven. They are light and tender.

DIAMOND BACHELORS

Biscuit dough rolled thin, cut into diamonds and boiled in lard. Ladies are very fond of them.

VELVET CAKE

One cup of yeast, three eggs well beaten, one quart of warm milk, one quart of sifted flour, salt, a large spoonful of butter well beaten; let it rise. Pour into greased muffin rings and bake.

DELICATE CAKE

Two eggs, two cups of sugar, half a cup of butter, one cup of sweet milk, three cups of flour, one teaspoonful of cream of tartar, half a teaspoonful of soda. Bake in squares.

LITTLE DROP CAKES

Half a pound of sugar, four eggs, half a pound of flour; quarter of a pound of butter.

CREAM CAKES

Boil a cup of butter with a half pint of water; while it is boiling, stir in two cups of sifted flour; let it cool, and when cool, add five eggs well beaten, and a quarter of a spoonful of soda dry. Drop this mixture with a teaspoon on tins and bake in a quick oven.

FOR THE INSIDE OF THE CAKES

Take a pint of milk, one-half a cup of flour, one cup of sugar and two eggs. Boil the milk and flour together, add the eggs and sugar; flavor the custard with lemon. Now, you must take the first or outside cakes, and split each one gently, so as to place in it the cream or custard, which must be cold before you introduce it. Put into each cake about a teaspoonful of the cream. These are delicious. One-half this quantity makes a large dishful of cakes.

ANOTHER CREAM CAKE WITH CRUST AND CREAM

CRUST.--Three-quarter pint of water, half a pint of butter, three-quarters of a pound of flour, eight eggs, boil the water and butter together, and while boiling stir in the flour, take it off and let it cool, then add your eggs (beaten separately), and a teaspoonful of dry soda. Use about a spoonful of the crust for each puff; bake on tins for about twenty minutes. When done cut the crust open and put in the cream.

CREAM.--Two pints of milk, one cup of flour, two cups of sugar, four eggs; while the milk is boiling add your flour, sugar and eggs (previously well beaten together), let it cook until it begins to thicken, take it off, and flavor with rose water.

TIPSY CAKE

Place a sponge cake weighing about a pound in a glass bowl, pour over it half a pint of sherry and Madeira (mixed). Make a rich custard of six eggs and a quart of milk, sweeten to taste, flavor and let it cool. Blanch half a pound of almonds, stick them in the top of the sponge cake and pour over it the custard.

PLAIN TEA CAKES

Half a cup of butter, or a large spoonful of lard, one and a half cups of sugar, one teacupful of milk, one teaspoonful of soda, seven cupfuls of sifted flour. Roll thin.

EASY CAKE FOR YOUNG COOKS

Take two cups of flour, sift it and to each cup put a teaspoonful of yeast powder. Beat the yolks of three eggs and one cup of fine white sugar, together with half a cup of water mixed with extract or wine; beat this well in the yolks and sugar (only half a cup); froth up the whites of the eggs, add them, and last of all, beat in the flour with the powder in it. Bake quickly in square or jelly cake pans.

YOUNG COOKS’ JELLY ROLL

Make the sponge for your jelly roll by taking a cup of white sugar, one cup of flour, and three eggs. Mix, etc.; add baking powder with the flour. Bake in a stewpan with a quick fire; turn the cake out on a towel when done; spread the jelly while it is still warm and soft, and roll it carefully. Cut it in slices when cold; a spoonful of water beaten with the eggs makes the cake lighter, as it breaks the tissue of the eggs if it is added to them when beaten up.

ALMOND DROPS

Blanch and pound five ounces of sweet, and three ounces of bitter almonds (or peach kernels), with a little white of egg. Put half a pound of sifted flour on your dough board, make a hole in the middle of the flour, in which put the almonds, with a pound of sugar, four yolks of eggs, and a little salt. Make into a paste. Cut in pieces the size of a nut, lay them half an inch apart, on sheets of paper, in a baking-pan, and bake in a moderate oven for fifteen or twenty minutes.

ALMOND MACAROONS

Blanch and pound with a little rose-water half a pound of almonds; add half a pound of sifted sugar, the whites of two eggs (not beaten), form into a paste. Dip your hand in water, and roll the preparation into balls the size of a nutmeg; lay them an inch apart, on buttered paper, in a baking tin. Bake in a slow oven until a light brown.

ALMOND MACAROONS

To a pound of the best white sugar, sifted, add a pound of blanched almonds; put in a few drops of rose-water as you beat them together in a mortar. Add to them the well-beaten whites of six eggs, and form the paste into shapes in the palm of the hand by using a little flour; butter some sheets of white paper, and drop the macaroons on it, leaving a space between them. Strew a little white sugar on them, and put in the oven to bake a light brown. Almonds are blanched by pouring hot water on them, and slipping off the brown coating.

DESSERTS

CHARLOTTE RUSSE IN VARIOUS WAYS

There are many varieties of this Charlotte. They are always similarly made, that is with sponge cake or lady fingers, and whipped cream, custard or blanc-mange. One way is to beat the whites of three eggs to a high froth, with a quarter of a pound of sugar, and half a pint of cream, until it is quite thick and light; flavor this to your taste with lemon or vanilla, and pour it into a cake-lined mould; place some of the sliced cake or lady fingers on top of the mould and over the cream; set it on ice, and when wanted turn it on a dish and serve.

Or, having lined a basin or mould, or small tin cups with any convenient cake, such as lady fingers, sliced savoy cake, or yellow lady cake, fill them with mock cream, blanc-mange or custard, made from the yolks of eggs; let them become cold, then turn them out and serve.

ANOTHER WAY

Break an ounce of isinglass small, and pour on it a teacup of hot milk or water; let it dissolve, then strain it through muslin, on half a pound of fine white sugar. When nearly cold add to it a quart of rich cream, already beaten to a froth; continue to beat it for a few minutes, holding the pan on ice. Line your mould with sponges and pour your cream in. Cover with sponge cake or lady fingers. Turn it out and serve. The isinglass will make this very firm if held on ice long enough to solidify before serving.

PLAIN CHARLOTTE RUSSE

Boil one ounce of isinglass in a pint of water until reduced one-half. While it is boiling, make a custard of one-half pint of milk, yolks of four eggs, and one-fourth of a pound of sugar; flavor this with vanilla or lemon. Take a quart of cream, whip it up to a fine froth, and when the isinglass is nearly cold, so that it will not curdle the cream, stir it and the cream into the custard. Beat all thoroughly and set it on ice. This is a nice, easy way to make this dish, and may be made very ornamental, if wanted so, by lining a glass dish with lady fingers, and then pouring in the cream and laying fine fancy sugar-drops on top. If you have no lady finger sponges, you can slice any light sponge cake, and lay it on the bottom and sides of the glass bowl.

SICILIAN BISCUIT DROPPED ON TINS

Take four eggs, twelve ounces of powdered and sifted sugar, and ten ounces of flour. Beat the eggs and sugar together in a stewpan on the fire, until the batter feels warm to the touch; remove it from the fire, and stir it thoroughly until it becomes cold; now add the flour, and flavor with vanilla. Butter some paper and place it on the baking tins, or pans. Drop the cake mixture in round or ovals on the buttered paper, and bake in a slow oven. When put in the oven sift white sugar over the biscuit.

QUEEN’S DROPS

Beat up a quarter of a pound of butter, and a quarter of a pound of sifted sugar, two eggs, and six ounces of flour. Flavor with almonds, or vanilla, or lemon. Butter some paper, place it on baking-sheet or pans, and drop the mixture in drops about the size of a nutmeg. Bake in a hot oven.

ALMOND MERINGUE

Beat the whites of two eggs with a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar and a quarter of a pound of blanched and cut almonds. Form them into rings on letter paper, put the paper on tin, and place them in the stove oven, to harden and brown lightly.

APPLE COMPOTE

Make a syrup of three-quarters of a pound of sugar and a cup of water; let it boil while you are paring and taking out the cores of six nice sour apples. Throw them into the syrup and let them boil for half an hour, or until transparent. Pour into a glass or china dish, and serve for a lunch or tea. They are nice when served warm.

MAIZENA BLANC MANGE

This can be made with maizena, corn starch, or potato flour, but maizena is preferable. Take a quarter of a pound of maizena and three pints of milk. Put two and a half pints of the milk on to boil, and wet the corn starch or maizena with the remaining half pint. When the milk boils add to it (or better before it boils), a quarter of a pound of white sugar and some lemon rind, sliced or grated. Let this boil a little, and then stir in the mixed maizena or corn starch. When cooked five minutes, pour it into moulds or bowls; wet the bowls first with cold water to prevent the jelly sticking to the sides. When firm and cold, eat it with cream or any kind of stewed fruit you may have.

GELATINE BLANC MANGE

To one quart of milk add an ounce of Nelson’s or Coxe’s gelatine, which has been soaked an hour in a cup of cold water. Add to this half a pound of fine white sugar; let it simmer very gently on the fire in a stewpan until all the gelatine is dissolved. Strain it, and pour it in a mould; when it begins to thicken, put it on ice and serve it with cream.

GELATINE BLANC MANGE

Take a quart of new milk, set it on to boil; stir into the boiling milk, half a box of gelatine, which should have been soaked in cold water ten or fifteen minutes. When the gelatine is dissolved, stir into the milk a cup of sugar; take the jelly from the fire, and last of all while the mixture is very hot, stir in four eggs; season with vanilla or lemon extract, and pour into moulds. Eat with cream. This is very nourishing for invalids.

CHOCOLATE MANGE

Made the same as gelatine blanc mange above described, except seasoning the jelly with six ounces of grated chocolate in the boiling milk. Eat with cream or wine sauce.

ISINGLASS JELLY

Boil in one pint of water, one ounce of isinglass, and when well dissolved, add to it one pound of sugar, and a cup of pale wine. When the water is boiling, add to it the rind of a lemon, and when taken off the fire, add the juice and grated rind of lemon. Strain this mixture and whisk it till it begins to thicken, then pour it into the vessel you wish to mould it in, and set in a cool place, or on ice, to harden.

LEMON CUSTARD

Boil a cup of water, and stir into it a tablespoonful of flour, or corn starch. Beat the yolks of three eggs with a cup of brown sugar. Add the juice of a lemon strained; beat it up with the yolks and sugar. Pour this in a paste, and bake it. While the custard is baking, take the whites of the three eggs and beat them up with a cup of pulverized sugar. Spread this icing on the baked custard, and brown it slightly.

NICE BOILED CUSTARD

To every quart of milk, allow six eggs and a cup of white sugar. Set the milk to boil; beat the whites of the eggs with a half cup of sugar, and drop into the boiling milk for two minutes; then with a skimmer remove the boiled whites, and put on a dish to cool. When the whites are taken off, stir into the milk the yolks and sugar, previously well beaten up together. Add rose, lemon, or peach-leaf flavoring. Run this through a sieve into the bowl you expect to serve it in; then pile up the whites on the custard. The whites can be boiled without beating them with sugar.

APPLE CUSTARD. A NICE DISH

Take a dozen apples, a large cupful of brown sugar, a teacupful of water, the grated rind of a lemon, one pint of milk, four eggs, and two ounces of loaf sugar. Peel, cut and core the apples; put them in a sauce-pan with the water; as they heat, add the brown sugar and lemon-peel. When mashed and well cooked, take it off; put the fruit in the bottom of a deep dish, and pour a custard of the milk, sugar and eggs, over it, and bake in a moderate oven. Grate over it before baking, a little nutmeg.

ALL THE YEAR ROUND PUDDING

Line a pie dish with paste, spread on this three ounces of any kind of jam--strawberry or raspberry is best. Then beat well in a basin three ounces of bread crumbs, three ounces butter, and the same of sugar, and the rind and juice of a large lemon; add this to the pastry and jam, and bake half an hour. If the lemon is not very juicy, add a tablespoonful of water to it.

TO GLAZE PASTRY

Break an egg, separate the yolk from the white, and beat it well; when the pastry is nearly baked take it out of the oven and brush it over with this beaten yolk of egg, then put it back in the oven to set the glaze.

TRANSPARENT PUDDING

Beat eight eggs very light; add them to half a pound of butter, and the same of sugar, which have been beaten to a cream together; grate in half a nutmeg, set it on the fire in a stew-pan, and stir it constantly until it is hot. Do not leave it more than five minutes on the fire, as you only wish to slightly cook the whites of the eggs to prevent their running when put on the paste. Line two pie pans with delicate paste, and pour in the mixture. Bake in a moderate oven, and do not allow the top to burn, as it will, if not covered when first put in the oven. Cover with a pan until the bottom is cooked, and then a few moments colors the top. This pie has no meringue on top. Serve it with a tart pie, as it is a very sweet dessert.

APPLE TRIFLE--A SUPPER DISH

Make a marmalade by stewing tart apples in sugar, seasoned with lemon. Lay it when cold in a deep glass dish, pour over it a boiled custard made of two eggs, half a pint of milk, sweetened with half a cup of sugar. Finish it by whipping a pint of rich cream to a froth, and pile it high on the custard. Ornament with strips of citron and apple jelly laid on the whipped cream. This is a charming dish for the country, where cream is abundant.

TRIFLES. DELICIOUS

Cover the bottom of a glass bowl, or dish, with lady fingers; break up, and put also half dozen macaroons; pour over them a cup of wine, or diluted extract, to moisten them; then put in three tablespoonfuls of jelly or jam. Pour over this a boiled custard, made with a pint of milk, three eggs and a cup of white sugar. Whip up the whites of two eggs with a cup of white sugar and lemon juice to taste, and when it will stand alone, put it on the custard, and serve.

GELATINE SNOW PUDDING

Take two tablespoonfuls of good gelatine, throw over it two spoonfuls of water, let it soak ten minutes, then pour over it half a pint of boiling water, three-quarters of a pound of white sugar, and the juice of two lemons with the rind thrown in. Let it come to a boil, take it off immediately, strain it, let it cool a little, and when it begins to thicken add the beaten whites of two eggs. Beat all thoroughly, and pour it in a mould on ice to get firm. When cold and firm, send it to table in the middle of a glass basin or dish, and pour around it a custard made from the yolks of the eggs, and a pint of milk sweetened and flavored to taste. Sponge cake should be served with this pudding.

A PRETTY DISH OF ORANGES CROQUANTE

Take ten or a dozen oranges, remove the peel, all the white part and the seeds. Do this carefully by quartering them, retaining the transparent pulp and juice. Do not break the skins of the sections. Boil a pound of loaf sugar in half a glass of water until the syrup strings when lifted on a fork, then take it from the fire and dip each section of orange in this candy while it is hot; you can do this by placing each one on a little stick cut for the purpose. As the pieces are dipped, arrange them in some pretty form on a dish or bowl, and fill up the hollow with whipped cream, sweetened and seasoned with a glass of maraschino.

FRANCATELLI’S LEMON PUDDING

The juice and grated rind of six lemons, a pint of milk or cream, six ounces of sponge cake or macaroons, eight yolks, and the whites of four eggs (whipped to a froth), one pound of sugar, and a little salt. Mix in a basin, and work all these materials together for at least ten minutes. Put a border of puff paste around a pie-dish, then pour in the batter; strew cut-up almonds over it, and bake. Sift powdered sugar over it, and serve.

WHIPPED CREAM WITH WINE

To the whites of three eggs, beaten to a froth, add a pint of cream, four tablespoonfuls of sweet wine, and four spoonfuls of sugar. Put bright jelly, or light-colored marmalade in spots among the cream, and serve sponge cake with it.

BATTER PUDDING

One quart of milk, six eggs beaten separately, and seven tablespoonfuls of flour. Boil the milk, stir in the eggs and flour, while the milk is nearly hot enough to boil; do not let it boil when you stir in the flour, but take it off the fire, or you will curdle the eggs. Bake this batter half an hour, and eat it with wine or lemon sauce. You should salt the milk slightly before boiling. When well and quickly made, this is a delightful pudding, but it should be eaten hot.

A SUPERIOR LEMON TART

Squeeze the juice from six lemons, wash the rinds and boil them; if too strong of the lemon oil, it is better to change the water. You must grate or pound the rinds, and when tender and cold, add to them one pound of sugar, one-fourth of a pound of butter, and the yolks and whites of five eggs. Stir in the juice of the lemons, and cook the batter gently until it is thick as honey; then bake it in puff paste without tops. Ornament with fancy strips of paste.

SUET PUDDING

Take a cupful of chopped suet, half a cup of molasses, one cup of raisins chopped, a teaspoonful of powdered cloves and cinnamon, one-half cup of sugar, two eggs well beaten, half a cup of sweet milk, a little salt, and two teaspoonfuls of yeastpowder. Stir in flour until it is a thick batter; flour a cloth, and pour in the mixture, leaving room to swell. Boil two hours.

ROLL PUDDING OF ANY KIND OF FRUIT

Make a light paste, roll out lengthwise, spread any kind of fruit over the paste, and roll it up in the dough; wrap it up in a cloth, tie it carefully, and boil it one hour. You will find this delicious if made of either blackberries, strawberries, peaches, or any kind of dried fruit stewed and sugared; if fresh fruit is used, it needs no stewing.

A DESSERT FOR A DELICATE PERSON

Boil one cup of rice until perfectly soft, then add a teacup of rich sweet cream, and half a teacup of any acid jelly--currant is the best but plum, strawberry or lemon will do. Put it over the fire a few minutes, turn it into a mould. Eat with sweetened cream.

MACAROON PUDDING ICED

Line a mould with macaroons, as described for Iced Cabinet Pudding. Fill the mould with dried cherries, seedless raisins and macaroons, in layers; then pour a little Madeira or sherry wine over them, and finish by pouring over all a custard of a pint of milk, two eggs and flavoring to suit; sweeten it with half a pound of white sugar, and in summer cover the mould up in ice and salt until wanted. In winter steam it and serve with butter and sugar sauce.

STEAMED CABINET PUDDING, VERY FINE

Butter a pudding mould, and line it with brioche, or any kind of cold sweet roll, or Sally Lunn, that has been left over. Fill the mould with layers of sponge cake, or macaroons, alternately with currants, or seedless raisins, chopped citron, or other dried fruit; then make a boiled custard of six yolks of eggs (for a moderate size mould), a pint of milk or cream, six ounces of sugar, a glass of brandy, and the grated rind of a lemon. Moisten the macaroons with extract of lemon, and then pour over the custard, which need not be previously boiled, as the pudding is to be _steamed_, and boiling the custard is unnecessary, except when it is to be iced. Serve with wine or hard butter sauce beaten up with a little wine.

MERINGUE PUDDING. VERY NICE