Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/61

tumbler, prick them, and bake on tins in a quick oven.

Short Biscuits.—Rub half a pound of butter into one pound of flour; a quarter of a pound of sugar. Mix into a stiff paste with one egg and a little milk. Roll out thin, and cut with the top of a wine glass. Bake on tins for ten minutes.

Sweet Biscuits.—Take one pound of flour, rub into it a quarter of a pound of butter, and half a pound of sugar. Dissolve a small lump of ammonia in a cup of warm milk. Mix into a stiff paste, roll out, and cut with the top of a wine glass. Place a comfit on top of each, and bake in a quick oven.

Vanilla Drops.—Beat the yolks of three eggs with one cup of white sugar. Add the whites well whisked. Stir into this a cupful of sifted flour, in which a small teaspoonful of cream of tartar has been mixed. Dissolve half a teaspoonful of soda in a little warm milk, and add it. After well beating the mixture, flavour with vanilla essence. Butter a baking tin, and drop the mixture in tablespoonsful upon it, about three inches apart. Bake in a very quick oven.

Ginger Bread Nuts.

Ingredients: One pound flour, half pound butter, half pound sugar, two good tablespoonsful ginger, one teaspoonful of mixed spice, a little lump of ammonia in one cup of milk, three parts of a cup of treacle.

Mode: Mix the flour and butter well together, the sugar, ginger, spice, pour in the treacle, and having first

dissolved the ammonia in the warm milk, mix with it into a dough, roll out, make into nuts, and bake in a moderate oven. Cost, 1s. 5d.

Time: Twenty minutes.

Rusks.

Ingredients: Two pounds flour, two tablespoonsful sugar, one teaspoonful brewer’s yeast, milk, four eggs, quarter pound butter, a little salt.

Mode: Put the flour in a deep basin, mix the sugar with it; make a hole in the centre as in making bread, and stir in the yeast mixed with some warm milk, cover, and leave to rise for an hour, or till the sponge is sufficiently light. Then work up the rest of the flour, adding more milk, the eggs well beaten, and a little salt, and the butter. Beat the whole together and set it to rise for another hour, then make up into rusks and bake in a quick oven.

Crisps.

Ingredients: Quarter of a pound of fresh butter, quarter of a pound of sugar, four eggs, flour, salt, half a teaspoonful baking powder.

Mode: Beat the butter to a cream, with the sugar, add the eggs well whisked, and sufficient flour to roll out, to which has been added the salt and baking powder. Roll out pretty thin, and cut into oblong pieces, divide the middle into strips, wet the edges, and twist or plait one over the other and form into circles. Have your pan well filled with boiling lard or good dripping, throw in the crullers gently, and when cooked a light brown, which they will be in a minute or two, take them out and drain before the fire.

CAKES.

The chief reason that so many people fail in making cakes is simply because they imagine they can mix them any way; this thing, that thing, all one on top of the other, without regard to any stated or fixed method. Unless one has a very correct eye or hand for weight or quantity it is safer to weigh or measure all ingredients. Of course it is not always possible to do the former, as one may not have scales and weights, but it is