Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit Part 56

3 eggs (not separated, but added one at a time to the sugar and shortening which had been creamed together).

1 scant cup b.u.t.ter and lard, mixed.

2 teaspoonfuls baking powder.

Pinch of salt 1 tablespoonful sweet milk.

Grated rind of 2 lemons and juice of one.

Stiffen the dough with about 3-1/2 cups flour and use about 1 extra cup of flour to dredge the bake-board when rolling out dough and for sifting over the greased baking sheets so the cakes will come off readily. Roll dough very thin and cut in any desired shape. From this recipe may be made 100 small cakes. The baking sheet (for which I gave measurements in bread recipe) holds 20 of these small round cakes. Do all young housewives know that if dough for small cakes be mixed the day before baking and stood in a cool place, the cakes can be cut out more easily and the dough may be rolled thinner, and as less flour may then be used, the cakes will be richer?

Aunt Sarah always cut these cakes with a small round or heart-shaped cutter and when all were on the baking sheet she either placed a half of an English walnut meat in the centre of each cake or cut out the centre of each small cake with the top of a pepper box lid before baking them.

OATMEAL CRISPS

2-1/2 cups rolled oats (oatmeal).

1 tablespoonful melted b.u.t.ter.

3/4 cup sugar.

1 teaspoonful baking powder.

2 large eggs.

Pinch of salt.

Beat eggs, add salt and sugar, mix baking powder with oats and stir all together. Drop from a teaspoon on to flat pan or sheet iron, not too close together, as they spread. Flatten very thin with a knife dipped in cold water and bake in a moderate oven a light brown. These cakes are fine and easily made. Did you not know differently, you would imagine these cakes to be macaroons made from nuts, which they greatly resemble.

AUNT SARAH'S GINGER SNAPS

1 cup mola.s.ses, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup of a mixture of lard and b.u.t.ter, 1 egg, 1 teaspoonful of ginger, 1 teaspoonful of cinnamon, 1/2 a grated nutmeg, 1 teaspoonful of soda dissolved in 1 teaspoonful of vinegar.

About 3 cups of flour should be added.

Dough should be stiff enough to roll out very thin, and the cakes may be rolled thinner than would be possible otherwise, should the cake-dough stand aside over night, or on ice for several hours, until thoroughly chilled. Cut cakes small with an ordinary cake cutter and bake in a quick oven. These are excellent and will remain crisp some time if kept in a warm, dry place.

GERMAN "LEBKUCHEN"

This is a recipe for good, old-fas.h.i.+oned "German Christmas cakes,"

from which Aunt Sarah's mother always baked. She used:

1 pound dark brown sugar.

3 whole eggs and yolks of 3 more.

1/4 pound citron finely shaved on a "slaw-cutter."

1/2 pound English walnut meats (chopped fine).

1 quart flour sifted with 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder.

Mix well together. Do not roll thin like ginger snaps, but about a half inch thick. Cut out about size of a large coffee cup. Bake in a moderate oven and when cold ice the cakes with the following icing:

ICING FOR GERMAN LEBKUCHEN.

Boil 2 cups of sugar and 1/2 cup of water seven minutes. Pour over the stiffly beaten whites of three eggs; ice the cakes. Place cakes in a tin box when icing has become cold and these will keep quite a long time. I have eaten high-priced, imported Lebkuchen no better than those made from this recipe.

GRANDMOTHER'S MOLa.s.sES CAKES

One quart of New Orleans mola.s.ses, 3 eggs, b.u.t.ter size of an egg.

Place all together in a stew-pan on range, allow it to come to boil, stirring constantly, and when cool stir in one tablespoonful of saleratus dissolved in a very little vinegar, and about 3 pounds of flour. Do not have cake dough too stiff. Dough should stand until the following day. Roll out at least 1/2 inch thick. Cut cakes as large around as an ordinary coffee cup or cut with a knife into small, oblong pieces, a little larger than half a common soda cracker. Bake in a moderate oven. Should too much flour be used, cakes will be hard and dry instead of soft and spongy. This very old and excellent recipe had belonged to the grandmother of Sarah Landis. Cakes similar to the ones baked from this recipe, also those baked from recipe for "honey cakes," were sold in large sheets marked off in oblong sections, seventy years ago, and at that time no "vendue," or public sale, in certain localities throughout Bucks County, was thought complete unless in sound of the auctioneer's voice, on a temporary stand, these cakes were displayed on the day of "the sale," and were eagerly bought by the crowd which attended such gatherings.

ANGEL CAKES (BAKED IN GEM PANS)

The whites of four eggs should be beaten very stiff and when partly beaten sprinkle over 1/2 teaspoonful of cream of tartan Finish beating egg whites and sift in slowly 1/2 cup of fine granulated sugar, then sift 1/2 cup of flour (good measure). Flavor with a few drops of almond flavoring. Bake in small Gem pans, placing a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter in each. Sift pulverized sugar over tops of cakes. Bake 20 minutes in a _very_ moderate oven. The recipe for these dainty little cakes was given Mary by a friend who, knowing her liking for angel cake, said these were similar in taste.

"ALMOND BROD"

Three-fourths cup sugar, 3 eggs, 2-1/2 tablespoonfuls olive oil 2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoonfuls baking powder, 1/2 cup sweet almonds, pinch of salt. A couple of drops of almond extract.

In a bowl place 3/4 cup of granulated sugar. Add 3 well-beaten eggs, 2 cups of flour sifted with 1-1/2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix all well together. Add 1 cup whole (blanched) almonds and 2-1/2 tablespoonfuls of good olive oil.

Knead the dough thoroughly. Do not have dough too stiff. Divide the dough into four equal parts, roll each portion of dough on a _well-floured_ bake board into long, narrow rolls. Place the four rolls on a baking sheet over which flour had been previously sifted.

Place the rolls a short distance apart and bake in a quick oven about twenty minutes or until light brown on top. On removing the baking sheet from the oven cut rolls at once, while the almonds are still warm, into two-inch pieces. From this recipe was made thirty pieces of almond bread. The olive oil, used as shortening, is not tasted when baked. These are a very good little cake, and not bread, as their name would lead one to suppose.

"GROSs.m.u.tTER'S" HONEY CAKES

One quart of boiled honey (if possible procure the honey used by bakers, as it is much cheaper and superior for this purpose than the clear, strained honey sold for table use). Add to the warm honey two generous tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter, yolks of four eggs, two ounces of salaratus (baking soda), dissolved in a very small quant.i.ty of vinegar, just enough to moisten the salaratus. Add just enough flour to enable one to stir well with a spoon. Work the dough a half hour and allow it to stand until the following day, when cut cakes from the dough which had been rolled out on the bake-board one-half inch thick.

The dough should be only just stiff enough to roll out, as should the dough be _too soft_ the cakes will become hard and crisp, instead of light and spongy, and if too great a quant.i.ty of flour is added the cakes will not be good. As the thickening qualities of flour differ, the exact amount required cannot be given. When about to cut out cakes, the bake-board should be well-floured. Cut the cakes the size of the top of a large coffee-cup, or roll out in one-half inch thick on a well-floured baking sheet and mark in small, oblong sections with a knife, they may then be easily broken apart when baked. These cakes should he baked in a moderately hot oven and not a _hot oven_.

These are the real, old-time honey cakes as made by Aunt Sarah's grandmother on a "Bucks County" farm, and Mary's Aunt informed her she still remembered in her earlier days having bought these cakes at "Bucks County" sales or "vendues," as they were then designated.

LEMON WAFERS OR DROP CAKES

2 eggs.

1/2 pound b.u.t.ter.

1/2 pound sugar.

1/2 pound flour.

Pinch of salt.

Flavor with lemon essence.

Mix the same as other small cakes. Drop spoonfuls quite a distance apart on the cold pan or tin on which they are to be baked as the dough spreads. These are very thin, delicious wafers when baked.

FRAU SCHMIDT'S SUGAR COOKIES

1 cup lard and b.u.t.ter, mixed.

2 cups granulated sugar, and 2 eggs, all creamed together; then add 1 teaspoon soda (mix with a little sour milk).

Flavor with vanilla.

Beat all well together. Add flour enough that they may be rolled out, no more. Flour bake-board well; cut dough with cake cutter into small round cakes and bake in a rather quick oven. This recipe will make a large number of cakes if dough be rolled thin as a wafer. Frau Schmidt was able to keep these cakes some time--under lock and key. If cake dough be mixed one day and allowed to stand over night, cakes may be rolled out much more easily and cut thinner.

ALMOND MACAROONS (AS PREPARED BY MARY)