Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper. Catharine Esther Beecher
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without Fats.—Good crusts for plain pies are made by wetting up the crust with rich milk turned sour, and sweetened with saleratus. Still better crusts are made of sour cream, sweetened with saleratus.
Mealy potatoes boiled in salt water and mixed with the same quantity of flour, and wet with sour milk sweetened with saleratus, make a good crust.
Good light bread rolled thin makes a good crust for Pan-Dowdy, or pan-pie, and also for the upper crust of fruit-pies, to be made without bottom crusts.
Pie-Crust made with Butter.—Very plain paste is made by taking a quarter of a pound of butter for every pound of flour. Still richer, allow three quarters of a pound of butter to a pound of flour.
Directions for making rich Pie-Crust.—Take a quarter of the butter to be used, rub it thoroughly into the flour, and wet it with cold water to a stiff paste.
Next dredge the board thick with flour, cut up the remainder of the butter into thin slices, lay them upon the flour, dredge flour over thick, and then roll out the butter into thin sheets, and lay it aside.
Then roll out the paste thin, cover it with a sheet of this rolled butter; dredge on more flour, fold it up and roll it out, and repeat the process till all the butter is used up.
Paste should be made as quick and as cold as possible. Some use a marble table in order to keep it cold. Roll from you every time.
CHAPTER XVI.
CAKE.
The multiplication of recipes for cakes, pies, puddings, and desserts is troublesome and needless, inasmuch as a little generalization will reduce them to a comparatively small compass, and yet afford a large variety.
Cake is of three classes, as raised either by eggs, or by yeast, or by powders; and different proportions of flour, sugar, shortening, and wetting make the variety, as it appears in what follows.
General Directions.
Sift flour, roll sugar, sift spices, and prepare fruit beforehand. Break eggs that are to be whipped, one at a time, in a cup, and let none of the yelk go in. Have them cold, and you will get on faster.
Excepting dough-cake, never use the hand in making cake, but a wooden spoon, and in an earthen vessel.
The goodness of cake depends greatly on baking. If too hot at bottom, set the pan on a brick; if too hot at top, cover with paper. If top-crust is formed suddenly, it prevents what is below from rising properly; and so, when the oven is very hot, cover with paper.
When fruit is used, sprinkle the fruit with a little flour to keep it from sinking when baking. Some put fruit in in layers, one in the middle and another near the top, as this spreads it evenly. Put in the flour just before baking.
When using whites beaten to a froth separately, put in the last thing, so that the bubbles of air which make the lightness may be retained more perfectly. Bake as soon as the cake is ready.
Water is as good as milk for most cakes as well as for bread; a mixture of new and stale milk injures the cake.
Streaks in cake are made either by imperfect mixing, or unequal baking, or by sudden decrease of heat before the cake is done. Try when cake is done, by inserting a splinter or straw; if it comes out clean, the cake is done.
The best way to keep cake is in a tin box or stone jar.
Do not wrap cake or bread in a cloth.
In baking, move cake gently if you change its place, or it will fall in streaks. Cake is more nicely baked when the pan is lined with oiled paper, especially in old pans, which often give a bad taste to the bottom and sides of the cake.
CAKE RAISED WITH POWDERS.
Although it is unhealthful to use powders in bread for daily food, the small quantity used for cake will do no harm.
The cake most easily made is raised with soda and cream tartar or other baking powders, and many varieties can be made by the following recipes:
One, Two, Three, Four Cake.—Take one cup of butter, (half a cup is better,) two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs. Mix butter, sugar, and yelks. Then add the flour very thoroughly, and lastly the whites in a stiff froth. Bake immediately, and the cake will be light, with nothing added. But it is equally light to omit the eggs and work two tea-spoonfuls of cream tartar into the flour, and then mix well first the butter and sugar, and then the flour. When ready to bake, mix very thoroughly and quickly a tea-spoonful of soda, or a bit of sal volatile dissolved in a cup of warm (not hot) water. This makes two loaves. The following are varieties made by this recipe, using raising either with eggs or powders:
Chocolate-Cake.—Bake the above in thin layers, only a little thicker than carpeting. When nearly cool, spread over the cake a paste made of equal parts of scraped chocolate and sugar wet with water. Place the cake in layers one over another, frost the top, and then cut in oblong pieces for the cake-basket.
Jelly-Cake.—Proceed as above, only using jelly instead of chocolate.
Orange-Cake.—Proceed as for jelly-cake, having flavored the cake when making with a little grated orange-peel. The oranges must be peeled, chopped fine, and sweetened.
Almond and Cocoa-nut Cake.—Blanch three ounces of almonds, (that is, pour on boiling water and take off the skins.) Chop or pound them with an equal quantity of sugar, make a thin paste with water, and use this instead of the jelly. Cocoa-nut, chopped fine, can be used instead of almonds. Strawberries, Peaches, Cranberries, and Quinces, and any other fruit, mashed or cooked, can be used in place of the jelly, being first sweetened.
This cake can be made richer by adding spices and fruit before baking. Cream can be used in place of butter. Chopped almonds, citron, or cocoa-nut may be put in the cake for baking, making still another variety.
CAKES RAISED WITH EGGS.
Pound-Cake, (very rich.)—One pound of flour, one pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, nine eggs, a glass of brandy, one nutmeg, one tea-spoonful of pounded cinnamon. Mix half the flour with the butter, brandy, and spice; add the yelks of eggs beaten well into the sugar. Beat the whites to a stiff froth, and add them in alternate spoonfuls with the rest of the flour: then beat a long time, and bake as soon as done.
Plain Cake raised with Eggs.—Take a pound or quart of flour, half as much sugar, half as much butter as sugar, four or five eggs, one nutmeg, and a tea-spoonful of cinnamon. Mix well the sugar, butter, yelks, and spice; then the flour, and last the whites as stiff froth.
These two cakes are varied by adding citron, fruit, or other spices, making them more or less rich.
Fruit-Cake.—This to be made either like pound-cake, with fruit added; or like plain cake, raised with eggs or yeast, adding fruit.
Walnut-meats or Almonds may be chopped and put in the cake instead of fruit, making another variety.
Huckleberry-Cake.—One quart of huckleberries, three cups of sugar, three cups of flour, six eggs, one cup of sweet milk, and one tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in a little hot water. Cream the butter and sugar, and add the beaten yelks. Then add the milk, flour, and two grated nutmegs. Then add the whites, whipped to a stiff froth, and the berries, gently, so as not to mash them. An excellent cake.
Currants and other berries may be used in the same way. If very sour, add more sugar. If doubtful of raising it enough, add a tea-spoonful of soda; or, more surely, a bit of sal volatile the size of a hickory-nut.
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