Chapter V. BISCUITS, BREAKFAST CAKES, AND SHORTCAKES.
Batters, Sponges, and Doughs
BATTER is a mixture of flour and some liquid (usually combined with other ingredients, as sugar, salt, eggs, etc.), of consistency to pour easily, or to drop from a spoon.
Mix and sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Rub in butter with tips of fingers; add eggs well beaten (reserving a small amount of unbeaten white) and cream. Toss on a floured board, pat, and roll to three fourths inch in thickness. Cut in squares, brush with reserved white, sprinkle with sugar, and bake in a hot oven fifteen minutes.
Work in butter and lard with tips of fingers; add gradually the liquid, mixing with knife to a soft dough. It is impossible to determine the exact amount of liquid, owing to differences in flour. Toss on a floured board, pat and roll lightly to one-half inch in thickness. Shape with a biscuit-cutter. Place on buttered pan, and bake in hot oven twelve to fifteen minutes. If baked in too slow an oven, the gas will escape before it has done its work.
Use recipe for Baking Powder Biscuit I or II, with the addition of more milk, that mixture may be dropped from spoon without spreading. Drop by spoonfuls on a buttered pan, one-half inch apart. Brush over with milk, and bake in hot oven eight minutes.
Mix as Baking Powder Biscuit II. Roll to one-fourth inch thickness, brush over with melted butter, and sprinkle with fruit, sugar, and cinnamon. Roll like a jelly roll; cut off pieces three-fourths inch in thickness. Place on buttered tin, and bake in hot oven fifteen minutes. Currants may be used in place of raisins and citron.
Cream the butter; add sugar and egg well beaten; sift baking powder with flour, and add to the first mixture, alternating with milk. Bake in buttered tin gem pans twenty-five minutes.
Mix and sift dry ingredients; add gradually milk, egg well beaten, and melted butter. Bake in buttered gem pans twenty-five minutes. If iron pans are used they must be previously heated. This recipe makes thirty muffins. Use half the proportions given and a small egg, if half the number is required.
Cream the butter; add gradually sugar and egg well beaten; mix and sift flour, baking powder, and salt, reserving one-fourth cup flour to be mixed with berries and added last; the remainder alternately with milk.
Mix and sift flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder; add one-half milk, egg well beaten, the remainder of the milk mixed with rice, and beat thoroughly; then add butter. Bake in buttered muffin rings placed in buttered pan or buttered gem pans.
Add hominy mixed with salt to boiling water and let stand until hominy absorbs water. Add scalded milk to corn meal, then add sugar and butter. Combine mixtures, cool slightly, add yolks of eggs beaten until thick, and whites of eggs beaten until stiff. Sift in baking powder and beat thoroughly. Bake in hot buttered gem pans.
Turn scalded milk on meal, let stand five minutes; add rice, and flour mixed and sifted with remaining dry ingredients. Add yolk of egg well beaten, butter, and white of egg beaten stiff and dry.
Cream the butter; add sugar gradually; add milk, alternating with dry ingredients, mixed and sifted. Beat thoroughly; add whites of eggs beaten stiff. Bake in buttered cake pan thirty minutes.
Mix soda, salt, and corn meal; gradually add eggs well beaten and milk. Heat frying-pan, grease sides and bottom of pan with butter, turn in the mixture, place on middle grate in hot oven, and cook twenty minutes.
Add salt to corn meal, and pour on gradually milk. Turn into a buttered shallow pan to the depth of one-fourth inch. Bake in a moderate oven until crisp. Split and spread with butter.
Mix salt and flour; add milk gradually, in order to obtain a smooth batter. Add egg, beaten until light, and butter; beat two minutes,—using egg-beater,—turn into hissing hot buttered iron gem pans, and bake thirty to thirty-five minutes in hot oven. They may be baked in buttered earthen cups, when the bottom will have a glazed appearance. Small round iron gem pans are best for Pop-overs.
Cream the butter; add sugar, gradually, eggs well beaten, and milk; then add dry ingredients mixed and sifted, and currants. Bake in buttered individual tins.
Mix and sift flour and salt; work in lard with tips of fingers, and moisten to a stiff dough. Toss on slightly floured board, and beat with rolling-pin thirty minutes, continually folding over the dough. Roll one-third inch in thickness, shape with round cutter two inches in diameter, prick with fork, and place on a buttered tin. Bake twenty minutes in hot oven.
Mix and sift flour, salt, and soda; add sour milk, and egg well beaten. Drop by spoonfuls on a greased hot griddle; cook on one side. When puffed, full of bubbles, and cooked on edges, turn, and cook other side. Serve with butter and maple syrup.
Mix and sift dry ingredients; beat egg, add milk, and pour slowly on first mixture. Beat thoroughly, and add butter. Cook same as Sour Milk Griddle-cakes. Begin cooking cakes at once or more baking powder will be required.
Add meal to boiling water, and boil five minutes; turn into bowl, add milk, and remaining dry ingredients mixed and sifted, then the egg well beaten, and butter. Cook same as other griddle-cakes.
Pour milk over rice and salt, add yolks of eggs beaten until thick and lemon color, butter, flour, and fold in whites of eggs beaten until stiff and dry.
Add milk and butter to crumbs, and soak until crumbs are soft; add eggs well beaten, then flour, salt, and baking powder mixed and sifted. Cook same as other griddle-cakes.
Pour milk over crumbs, and soak thirty minutes; add salt, yeast cake dissolved in lukewarm water, and buckwheat to make a batter thin enough to pour. Let rise over night; in the morning, stir well, add molasses, one-fourth teaspoon soda dissolved in one-fourth cup lukewarm water, and cook same as griddle-cakes. Save enough batter to raise another mixing, instead of using yeast cake; it will require one-half cup.
Mix and sift dry ingredients; add milk gradually, yolks of eggs well beaten, butter, and whites of eggs beaten stiff; cook on a greased hot waffle-iron. Serve with maple syrup.
A waffle-iron should fit closely on range, be well heated on one side, turned, heated on other side, and thoroughly greased before iron is filled. In filling, put a tablespoonful of mixture in each compartment near centre of iron, cover, and mixture will spread to just fill iron. If sufficiently heated, it should be turned almost as soon as filled and covered. In using a new iron, special care must be taken in greasing, or waffles will stick.
Mix and sift dry ingredients; work in rice with tips of fingers; add milk, yolk of egg well beaten, butter, and white of egg beaten stiff. Cook same as Waffles.
Cook meal in boiling water twenty minutes; add milk, dry ingredients mixed and sifted, yolks of eggs well beaten, butter, and whites of eggs beaten stiff. Cook same as Waffles.
Scald milk; add salt and butter, and when lukewarm, add yeast cake dissolved in water, and flour. Beat well; let rise over night; add yolks of eggs well beaten, and whites of eggs beaten stiff. Cook same as Waffles. By using a whole yeast cake, the mixture will rise in one and one-half hours.
Beat egg until light; add milk, dry ingredients mixed and sifted, and melted butter. Drop by spoonfuls in hot, new, deep fat; fry until light brown and cooked through, which must at first be determined by piercing with a skewer, or breaking apart. Remove with a skimmer, and drain on brown paper.
Scald and cool milk; when lukewarm, add the yeast cake dissolved in water, salt, and flour enough to make a stiff batter; let rise over night. In morning add shortening melted, sugar, eggs well beaten, nutmeg, and enough flour to make a stiff dough; let rise again, and if too soft to handle, add more flour. Toss on floured board, pat, and roll to three-fourths inch thickness. Shape with cutter, and work between hands until round. Place on floured board, let rise one hour, turn, and let rise again; fry in deep fat, and drain on brown paper. Cool, and roll in powdered sugar.
Cream the butter, and add one-half sugar. Beat egg until light, add remaining sugar, and combine mixtures. Add three and one-half cups flour, mixed and sifted with baking powder, salt, and spices; then enough more flour to make dough stiff enough to roll. Toss one-third of mixture on floured board, knead slightly, pat, and roll out to one-fourth inch thickness. Shape with a doughnut cutter, fry in deep fat, take up on a skewer, and drain on brown paper. Add trimmings to one-half remaining mixture, roll, shape, and fry as before; repeat. Doughnuts should come quickly to top of fat, brown on one side, then be turned to brown on the other; avoid turning more than once. The fat must be kept at a uniform temperature. If too cold, doughnuts will absorb fat; if too hot, doughnuts will brown before sufficiently risen. See rule for testing fat.
Put flour in shallow pan; add salt, soda, cream of tartar, and spices. Work in butter with tips of fingers; add sugar, egg well beaten, and sour milk. Stir thoroughly, and toss on board thickly dredged with flour; knead slightly, using more flour if necessary. Pat and roll out to one-fourth inch thickness; shape, fry, and drain. Sour-milk doughnuts may be turned as soon as they come to top of fat, and frequently afterwards.
Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, yolks of eggs well beaten, and whites of eggs beaten stiff. Mix flour, nutmeg, and baking powder; add alternately with milk to first mixture; toss on floured board, roll thin, and cut in pieces three inches long by two inches wide; make four one-inch parallel gashes crosswise at equal intervals. Take up by running finger in and out of gashes, and lower into deep fat. Fry same as Doughnuts I.
Mix dry ingredients, sift twice, work in butter with tips of fingers, and add milk gradually. Toss on floured board, divide in two parts. Pat, roll out, and bake twelve minutes in a hot oven in buttered Washington pie or round layer cake tins. Split, and spread with butter. Sweeten strawberries to taste, place on back of range until warmed, crush slightly, and put between and on top of Short Cakes; cover top with Cream Sauce I.
Mix dry ingredients and sift twice, work in shortening with tips of fingers, add egg well beaten, and milk. Bake same as Strawberry Short Cake II. Split cake and spread under layer with Cream Sauce II. Cover with strawberries which have been sprinkled with powdered sugar; again spread with sauce, and cover with upper layer.
Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, and egg well beaten. Mix and sift flour, baking powder, and salt, adding alternately with milk to first mixture. Beat thoroughly, and bake in a buttered round tin. Cool, spread thickly with sweetened fruit, and cover with Cream Sauce I or II. Fresh strawberries, peaches, apricots, raspberries, or canned quince or pineapple may be used. When canned goods are used, drain fruit from syrup and cut in pieces. Dilute cream for Cream Sauce with fruit syrup in place of milk.
Any shortcake mixture may be made for individual service by shaping with a large biscuit cutter; or mixture may be baked in a shallow cake pan, centre removed and filled with fruit, and pieces baked separately to introduce to represent handles.
