Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit Part 59

3 eggs.

Flour.

Work together and form into small b.a.l.l.s. Place in hot b.u.t.tered wafer irons, hold over fire and bake. This is an old German recipe which Frau Schmidt's grandmother used.

"BRAUNE LEBKUCHEN"

2 pounds sugar syrup.

1/4 pound granulated sugar.

1/4 pound b.u.t.ter.

1/4 pound coa.r.s.ely chopped almonds.

Grate yellow part of one lemon rind.

1/4 ounce cinnamon.

1/4 ounce cloves.

1 drachm of powdered cardamom.

1 ounce of hartshorn, dissolved in a little milk.

Place syrup in stew-pan on range to heat, add b.u.t.ter, almonds, spices, etc.

Remove from range, stir in flour gradually. Use about 10 cups of flour. When cool add the dissolved hartshorn. Allow the cake dough to stand in a warm place eight to ten days before baking.

Then place a portion of the cake dough on a greased baking sheet which has been sprinkled lightly with flour, roll cake dough out on the sheet about 1/3 inch in thickness; place in a _very moderate_ oven.

When well dried out and nicely browned on top cut the sheets into small squares, the size of ordinary soda crackers.

This is a very old recipe given Mary by Frau Schmidt.

PEANUT COOKIES

One pint of roasted peanuts, measured, after being sh.e.l.led. Rub off the brown skin, run through a food-chopper. Cream together 2 tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter, 1 cup of sugar. Add 3 eggs, 2 tablespoonfuls of milk, 1/4 teaspoonful of salt and the chopped peanuts. Add flour to make a soft dough. Roll out on a floured board, cut with a small cake cutter and bake in a moderate oven. This recipe was given Mary by a friend living in Allentown.

PIES--FLAKY PIE CRUST

Have all the materials cold when making pastry. Handle as little as possible. Place in a bowl 3-1/2 cups flour, 3/4 teaspoonful salt and 1 cup good, sweet lard. Cut through with a knife into quite small pieces and mix into a dough with a little less than a half cup of cold water.

Use only enough water to make dough hold together. This should be done with a knife or tips of the fingers. The water should be poured on the flour and lard carefully, a small quant.i.ty at a time, and never twice at the same place. Be careful that the dough is not too moist. Press the dough with the hands into a lump, but do not knead. Take enough of the dough for one pie on the bake board, roll lightly, always in one direction, line greased pie tins and fill crust. If fruit pies, moisten the edge of the lower crust, cover with top crust, which has been rolled quite thin. A knife sc.r.a.ped across the top crust several times before placing over pie causes the crust to have a rough, flaky, rich-looking surface when baked. Cut small vents in top crust to allow steam to escape. Pinch the edges of fruit pies well together to prevent syrup oozing out. If you wish light, flaky pie crust, bake in a hot oven. If a sheet of paper placed in oven turns a delicate brown, then the oven is right for pies. The best of pastry will be a failure if dried slowly in a cool oven.

When baking a crust for a tart to be filled after crust has been baked, always p.r.i.c.k the crust with a fork before putting in oven to bake. This prevents the crust forming little blisters.

Aunt Sarah always used for her pies four even cups of flour, 1/4 teaspoonful baking powder and one even cup of sweet, _rich, home-made lard_, a pinch of salt with just enough cold water to form a dough, and said her pies were rich enough for any one. They certainly were rich and flaky, without being greasy, and she said, less shortening was necessary when baking powder was used. To cause her pies to have a golden brown color she brushed tops of pies with a mixture of egg and milk or milk and placed immediately in a hot oven.

Mary noticed her Aunt frequently put small dabs of lard or b.u.t.ter on the dough used for top crust of pies before rolling crust the desired size when she wished them particularly rich.

Aunt Sarah always used pastry flour for cake and pie. A smooth flour which showed the impression of the fingers when held tightly in the hand (the more expensive "bread flour") feels like fine sand or granulated sugar, and is a stronger flour and considered better for bread or raised cakes in which yeast is used, better results being obtained by its use alone or combined with a cheaper flour when baking bread.

AUNT SARAH'S LEMON PIE

This is a good, old-fas.h.i.+oned recipe for lemon pie, baked with two crusts, and not expensive. Grate the yellow outside rind from one lemon, use juice and pulp, but not the white part of rind; mix with 2 small cups of sugar, then add 1 cup of water and 1 cup of milk, and 1 large tablespoonful of corn starch, moistened with a little of the one cup of water. The yolks of 2 eggs were added. Mix all ingredients and add the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. This quant.i.ty will fill three small pastry crusts. The mixture will measure nearly one quart. Pour into the three crusts, moisten edges of pies, place top crusts on each pie. Pinch edges of crust together and bake in hot oven.

THE PROFESSOR'S WIFE'S SUPERIOR PASTRY

For superior pastry use 1-1/2 cups flour, 1 cup lard, 1/2 teaspoonful salt and about 1/4 cup of cold water, or three scant tablespoonfuls.

Put 1 cup of flour on the bake board, sprinkle salt over, chop 1/4 cup of sweet lard through the flour with a knife, until the pieces are about the size of a cherry. Moisten with about 1/4 cup of ice cold water. Cut through the flour and lard with a knife, moistening a little of the mixture at a time, until you have a soft dough, easily handled. Roll out lightly the size of a tea plate. Take 1/3 of the lard remaining, put small dabs at different places on the dough (do not spread the lard over), then sprinkle over 1/3 of the remaining half cup of flour and roll the dough into a long, narrow roll, folding the opposite ends in the centre of the roll. Roll out lightly (one way), then add lard and flour; roll and repeat the process until flour and lard have all been used. The pastry may be set aside in a cold place a short time before using. If particularly fine pastry is required, the dough might be rolled out once more, using small dabs of b.u.t.ter instead of lard, same quant.i.ty as was used of lard for one layer, then dredged thickly with flour and rolled over and over, and then ends folded together, when it should be ready to use. When wanted to line pie-tins, cut pieces off one end of the roll of dough and roll out lightly. The layers should show plainly when cut, and the pastry should puff nicely in baking, and be very rich, crisp and flaky. When preparing crusts for custards, lemon meringues and pies having only one crust, cut narrow strips of pastry about half an inch wide, place around the upper edge or rim of crust and press the lower edge of the strip against the crust; make small cuts with a knife about 1/3 inch apart, all around the edge of this extra crust, to cause it to look flaky when baked. This makes a rich pie crust.

A very good crust may be made by taking the same proportions as used for superior pastry, placing 1-1/2 to 2 cups flour on the bake board, add salt, cut 1/2 cup lard through the flour, moistening with water.

Roll out crust and line pie-tins or small patty pans for tarts. This pastry is not quite as fine and smooth as the other, but requires less time and trouble to make.

The Professor's wife taught Mary to make this pastry, but Mary never could learn from her the knack of making a dainty, crimped, rolled-over edge to her pies, which she made easily with a deft twist of her thumb and forefinger.

MARY'S LEMON MERINGUE (MADE WITH MILK)

Line two large pie-tins with pie crust, p.r.i.c.k with a fork before placing crusts in oven to bake. When baked stand aside to cool while you prepare the following filling: The juice and grated rind of 1 lemon, 1 pint sweet milk, 1 cup sugar, yolks of three eggs, 3 tablespoonfuls flour, b.u.t.ter size of a walnut. Cream together sugar, flour, yolks of eggs, then add lemon, mix well then add to the scalded milk on the range and cook until thick. Let cool, but do not allow to become quite cold, spread on the two crusts, which have been baked.

When quite cold add 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar to the stiffly beaten whites of the three eggs, spread on top of pies, sift 1 tablespoonful pulverized sugar on top of meringue and set in a quick oven until fawn color. Serve cold.

When mixing pie dough, should you have mixed more than needed at one time, line _agate_ pie-tins with crust (never stand away in tin). They may be kept several days in a cool place and used later for crumb cakes or custards. Or a crust might be baked and used later for lemon meringues, etc.

APPLE TART

Line pie-tins with rich pie crust, sift over each 1 tablespoonful flour and 2 tablespoonfuls sugar. Place on the crust enough good, tart baking apples, which have been pared, cored, halved and placed (flat surface down) on the crust. Put bits of b.u.t.ter over the top and between the apples, about 1 large tablespoonful altogether, and sprinkle about 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar over, add about 1 tablespoonful of cold water when pies are ready to place in oven.

These pies should be baked in a very hot oven. When apples are soft take pies from oven and serve one pie, hot; stand the other one aside until quite cold.

To the stiffly beaten white of one egg add one tablespoonful sugar.

Stir together and place a spoonful on the top of each half of apple and place in oven until meringue has browned and serve pie cold. Peach tarts may be made in a similar manner, omitting the meringue and subst.i.tuting peaches for apples.

RAISIN OR "ROSINA" PIE

"Rosina" pie, as Aunt Sarah called it, was composed of 1 lemon, 1 egg, 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoonful flour, 1 cup large, blue, seeded raisins. Cover the raisins with one cup of cold water; let soak two hours. Cream egg and sugar together, add juice and grated rind of one quite small lemon, or half a large one. Mix the tablespoonful of flour smooth with a little cold water, add to the mixture, then add raisins and to the water in which they were soaked add enough water to fill the cup and cook until the mixture thickens. When cool fill pie-tins with the mixture, bake with upper and under crust about 20 minutes in hot oven. Aunt Sarah used a _generous_ tablespoonful of flour for this pie.

"SNITZ" PIE

Cover a bowlful of well-washed dried apples with cold water and allow to soak over night. The following morning cook until tender and mash through a colander. If quite thick a small quant.i.ty of water should be added. Season with sugar to taste. Some apples require more sugar than others. Add cinnamon, if liked. Aunt Sarah never used any spices in these pies. Bake with two crusts or place strips cross-wise over the pie of thinly rolled dough, like lattice work. These are typical "Bucks County" pies.

MARY'S RECIPE FOR PLAIN PUMPKIN PIE

Line a pie-tin, one holding 3 cups of liquid, with rich pastry. For the filling for pie mix together the following: 1 cup of steamed pumpkin, which had been mashed through a colander, 1 egg, beaten separately, 1 tablespoonful of flour, 2-1/2 tablespoonfuls of sugar, 1/8 teaspoonful of salt, 1/2 teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, same of ginger, 1-1/2 cups of milk (scant measure). The mixture should measure exactly 3 cups, after adding milk. Pour this mixture into the pastry-lined pie-tin and bake in a moderate oven until top of pie is a rich brown.

CHOCOLATE PIE

Melt one square of Baker's unsweetened chocolate, or 1/4 cup of powdered cocoa, mix with this 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of corn starch. When well mixed add yolks of 3 eggs, a pinch of salt, 2 cups of milk; cook all together in a double boiler until thickened.

When cool flavor with vanilla. Fill pastry-lined pie crust with the mixture. Beat the 3 whites of eggs to a froth, mix with a couple tablespoonfuls of pulverized sugar, spread on top of pie, stand in oven until light brown.