School and Home Cooking Part 80

Follow the recipe for Sugar Cookies, using 1/2 cupful of thick sour milk or cream in the place of sweet milk and adding 1/4 teaspoonful of baking soda. If sour cream is used, only 1/3 cupful (instead of 1/2 cupful) of fat is needed. Nutmeg--1/2 teaspoonful--is a pleasing flavoring material for these cookies.

For _Ginger Cookies_, vary the recipe for Sour Cream Cookies as follows:

Use 1/2 cupful sugar and 1/2 cupful mola.s.ses instead of 1 cupful of sugar.

Increase the baking soda to 1/2 teaspoonful.

For flavoring use 1 teaspoonful ginger and 1 teaspoonful allspice.

Since the mola.s.ses furnishes some moisture, it is usually necessary to add more flour or decrease the sour milk or cream.

COOKIES WITH RAISIN FILLING

Prepare Sour Cream Cooky dough. Roll the dough into a thin sheet and cut it into rounds. Spread half of the rounds with a thin layer of Raisin Filling (see below). Then cover each round with another piece of dough.

Press the edges together. Place on an oiled baking sheet and bake in a moderate oven.

RAISIN FILLING

1/2 cupful corn sirup 1 cupful seeded raisins 1/4 teaspoonful salt

Cook these ingredients until the mixture is thick enough to use as cake filling.

One fourth cupful of chopped nuts may be added. One egg may also be added to the mixture just before removing from the fire.

PEANUT b.u.t.tER COOKIES

2 1/2 cupfuls flour 3 teaspoonfuls baking powder 1/2 teaspoonful baking soda 1/2 teaspoonful salt 1 egg 1 cupful sugar 3/4 cupful peanut b.u.t.ter 1 cupful sour milk

Mix and bake as Sugar Cookies. It is especially necessary to make the dough for these cookies very soft. It requires skilful handling.

CORN-MEAL COOKIES

1/2 cupful melted fat 1/2 cupful mola.s.ses 1/2 cupful corn sirup 1 egg 6 tablespoonfuls sour milk 1/2 teaspoonful baking soda 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder 2 cupfuls corn-meal 1 cupful wheat flour 1/2 teaspoonful salt

Combine the melted fat, mola.s.ses, sirup, beaten egg, and milk. Sift the dry ingredients and combine with the liquid. Drop from a teaspoon on to a greased pan and bake in a moderate oven (375 degrees F.) for 15 minutes.

This makes 55 to 60 cookies about 2 inches in diameter.

(Adapted from _United States Food Administration Bulletin_.)

QUESTIONS

How does the method of preparing cooky mixture differ from that of preparing cake mixture?

Why should cooky dough be chilled before rolling out?

What can be done to the cooky cutter to prevent it from sticking?

Why is less fat required for Sour Cream than for Sour Milk Cookies (see Figure 64)?

From the _United States Department of Agriculture_, Bulletin No. 28, find the per cent of fat in peanut b.u.t.ter. What is the per cent of fat in b.u.t.ter (see Figure 63)? If b.u.t.ter were subst.i.tuted for peanut b.u.t.ter in Peanut b.u.t.ter Cookies, how much would be needed to furnish the same quant.i.ty of fat?

LESSON CXLVIII

CAKES WITHOUT EGGS

OMITTING EGGS IN CAKE.--It was previously stated that 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder are required to leaven 1 cupful of flour when no eggs are used. The statement was also made that the quant.i.ty of baking powder is reduced when eggs are used. Hence cakes made with eggs require less than the proportionate quant.i.ty of leavening given above.

When eggs are omitted in a cake, it is necessary to use 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder (or its equivalent) for each cupful of flour.

The flavor of cakes is usually improved when eggs are used. In eggless cakes, it is advisable to use spices or other materials of p.r.o.nounced flavor.

Since eggs are highly nutritious, their omission in cake decreases considerably the food value of the cake. Leavens and flavoring materials (except chocolate) used in eggless cakes have practically no food value.

APPLE SAUCE CAKE

2 cupfuls flour 1/8 teaspoonful cloves 1 1/2 teaspoonfuls cinnamon 1 teaspoonful nutmeg 1 teaspoonful baking soda 1/4 teaspoonful salt 1 cupful sugar 1 cupful apple sauce (unsweetened) 1/3 cupful fat 1 cupful raisins, cut in halves

Mix the sugar and apple sauce; add the fat. Mix the dry ingredients.

Through a sifter, add them to the apple sauce mixture. Flour the raisins and stir them into the batter. Turn into a greased loaf-cake pan or into two layer-cake pans. Bake in a moderate oven (375 degrees F.). If the cake is baked in layers, put Raisin Filling between them, but omit the raisins in the cake batter.

CHOCOLATE CAKE

2 cupfuls flour 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder 1 teaspoonful salt 1/3 cupful cocoa 1/3 cupful water 1/4 cupful fat 1/2 teaspoonful baking soda 1 cupful sugar 3/4 cupful sour milk 1 teaspoonful vanilla

Mix the cocoa and water. Stir and cook until a thick smooth paste is formed. Add the fat. If solid fat is used stir until it is melted. Set aside to cool.

Add the baking soda and mix well. Then add the sugar and sour milk.

Through a sifter, add the dry ingredients. Then add the vanilla. Beat well. Bake in two layers (375 degrees F.) or in one sheet (350 degrees F.). Use frosting or Chocolate Filling made without eggs between the layers and frosting on the top layer.

If it is desired to save sugar, a thin layer of Chocolate Filling may be used between the layers and on the top layer.

SPICE CAKE

1 cupful brown sugar 1/4 cupful mola.s.ses 1 cupful seeded raisins 3/4 cupful water 1/2 cupful fat 1/2 teaspoonful salt 1 teaspoonful nutmeg 2 teaspoonfuls cinnamon 1/8 teaspoonful cloves 2 1/2 cupfuls flour 1/4 teaspoonful baking soda 3 1/2 teaspoonfuls baking powder

In a saucepan mix all the ingredients except flour and leavening materials. Stir and cook the mixture at boiling temperature for 3 minutes.

Set aside to cool.

Through a sifter, add the leavening materials and flour. Beat well. Turn into an oiled loaf-cake pan and bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.) from 45 to 60 minutes.

Chopped nuts--1/2 cupful--may be added to this cake. This addition, however, increases the cost. For economy the raisins may be omitted.

NOTE.--Various changes occur when certain of the ingredients of this cake are cooked, viz.,

(_a_) The sugar is dissolved (_b_) The raisins are softened (_c_) The fat is melted (_d_) The spices are improved in flavor.