The Healthy Life Cook Book Part 11

1 lb. wholemeal flour, 3/4 lb. raisins, 4 tablespoons walnut oil, 1/4 pint water.

This recipe was especially concocted for non-users of milk and eggs. Stir the oil well into the flour. Add the washed and stoned raisins (or seedless raisins, or sultanas). Mix to a dough with the water. Divide dough into two portions. Roll out, form into rounds, and cut each round into 6 small scones. Bake in a hot oven for half an hour.

5. CURRANT SANDWICH.

8 ozs. b.u.t.ter, 1 lb. flour, 1/4 lb. cane sugar, currants.

Mix flour and sugar, and rub in the b.u.t.ter. Mix with water to plastic dough. Divide dough into two cakes, 1 inch in thickness. Cover one evenly with currants, lay the other on top, and roll out to the thickness of one-third of an inch. Cut into sections, and bake in a hot oven for about 30 minutes.

6. APPLE SANDWICH.

Make a short crust (see recipe). Well grease some shallow jam sandwich tins. Roll out the paste very thin and line with it the tins. Peel, core, and finely chop some good, juicy apples. Spread well all over the paste.

Sprinkle with castor sugar and grated lemon rind. Cover with another layer of thin paste. Bake for about 20 minutes in a hot oven. When done, take carefully out of the tin to cool. Cut into wedges, sprinkle with castor sugar, and pile on a plate.

7. FANCY BISCUITS.

8 ozs. flour, 4 ozs. b.u.t.ter, or 3 ozs. b.u.t.ter and 1 egg, 4 ozs. cane sugar, flavouring.

Flavouring may consist of lemon rind, desiccated cocoanut, cooked currants, carraway seed, mace, ginger, etc. Beat the b.u.t.ter and sugar to a cream, add flavouring and flour. Mix with the beaten egg, if used; it not, treat like the Lemon Short Cake. Roll out, cut into shapes, and bake about 10 minutes.

8. GINGER NUTS.

1/2 lb. nutter, 1/2 lb. sugar, 1 pint mola.s.ses or golden syrup, 1/2 oz.

ground cloves and all-spice mixed, 2 tablespoons cinnamon, flour to form dough.

Beat the nutter and sugar together; add the mola.s.ses, spice, etc., and just enough flour to form a plastic dough. Knead well, roll out, cut into small biscuits, and bake on oiled or floured tins in a very moderate oven.

9. JAM SANDWICH.

Mix ingredients and prepare 2 jam sandwich tins as for Sponge Cake (see recipe). Pour mixture in tins and bake for about 10 minutes in a hot oven.

Take out, spread one round with warmed jam, place the other on top, and cut when cold.

10. LEMON SHORT CAKE.

1 lb. flour, 7 ozs. nutter, 1/4 lb. sugar, rind of 1 lemon.

Mix together nutter and sugar, add grated lemon rind, work in flour, and knead well. Press into sheets about 1/2 in. thick. p.r.i.c.k all over. Bake in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes.

An easy way of baking for the inexpert cook who may find it difficult to avoid breaking the sheets, is to well grease a shallow jam-sandwich tin, sprinkle it well with castor sugar, as for sponge cakes, and press the short cake into it, well smoothing the top with a knife, and, lastly, p.r.i.c.king it.

II. MACAROONS. 5 ozs. sweet almonds, 5 ozs. castor sugar, 2 eggs.

Blanch the almonds and flake them in a nut mill. Whisk the eggs to a stiff froth adding the sugar a teaspoonful at a time. Add the almonds, and stir lightly. Drop the mixture, a dessertspoon at a time, on to well-oiled paper, or, better still, rice-paper. Shape with a knife into small cakes and put the half of a blanched almond into the centre of each. Bake in a moderate oven.

12. SPONGE CAKE.

Take the weight of two eggs in castor sugar and flour.

For a richer cake take the weight of two eggs in sugar and the weight of one only in flour.

Well grease the cake-tin, and sprinkle with castor sugar until thoroughly covered, and shake out any that remains loose.

Well whisk the eggs with a coiled wire beater. They must be quite stiff when done. Add the sugar, a teaspoon at a time, while whisking. Or separate the yolks and whites, beating the yolks and sugar together and whisking the whites on a plate with a knife before adding to the yolks.

Lastly, dredge in the flour. Stir lightly, but do not beat, or the eggs will go down. Pour mixture into tin, and bake about one hour in a moderate oven.

13. SULTANA SCONES.

1 oz. cane sugar, 3 ozs. nutter, 1 lb. flour, 1/4 lb. sultanas, a short 1/2 pint water.

Mix the flour and sugar; rub in the nutter; add sultanas; make it into a dough with the water; roll out about 1/2 in. thick; form into scones; bake in a moderate oven.

14. SUSs.e.x CAKE.

1 lb. flour, 6 ozs. nutter, 1/4 lb. sultanas, 1/4 lb. castor sugar, grated lemon rind.

This cake is included especially for the non-users of milk and eggs. Of course it does not turn out quite like the orthodox cake; some people might even call it "puddeny," but it is not by any means unlike the substantial household cake if the directions are minutely followed and the baking well done. But if any attempt is made to make it rich, disaster follows, and it becomes as heavy as the proverbial lead. Made as follows, however, I am told it is quite common in some country places:--Beat the nutter and sugar to a cream. Upon the amount of air incorporated during this beating depends the lightness of the cake. Beat the flour into the creamed nutter. Now add enough water to make cake of a consistency to not quite drop off the spoon. Put the mixture into a greased hot qr. qtn. tin.

Put in a very hot oven until nicely brown. This will take from 20 minutes to half an hour. Cover top with greased paper, and allow oven to get slightly cooler. The baking will take from 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

XI.--JAM, MARMALADE, &c.

Jam simply consists of fresh fruit boiled with a half to two-thirds its weight of white cane sugar until the mixture jellies.

Nearly every housekeeper has her own recipe for jam. One that I know of uses a whole pound of sugar to a pound of fruit and boils it for nearly two hours. The result is a very stiff, sweet jam, much more like shop jam than home-made jam. Its only recommendation is that it will keep for an unlimited time. Some recipes include water. But unless distilled water can be procured, it is better not to dilute the fruit. The only advantage gained is an increase of bulk. The jam may be made just as liquid by using rather less sugar in proportion to the fruit. A delicious jam is made by allowing 1/2 lb. sugar to every pound of fruit and cooking for half an hour from the time it first begins to boil. But unless this is poured immediately into clean, hot, dry jars, and tied down very tightly with parchment covers, it will not keep. Nevertheless, too much sugar spoils the flavour of the fruit, and too long boiling spoils the quality of the sugar. A copper or thick enamelled iron pan is needed.

The best recipe for ordinary use allows 3/4 lb. sugar to each pound fruit.

Put the fruit in the pan with a little of the sugar, and when this boils, add the rest. Boil rather quickly for an hour. Keep well skimmed. Pour into hot, dry jars, and cover.

1. FRUIT NUT FILLING.

For small, open tarts, the following mixture is a good subst.i.tute for the lemon curd that goes to make cheese cakes. Peel, core and quarter some juicy apples. Put in a double saucepan (or covered jar) with some strips of lemon peel (yellow part only) and cane sugar to taste. Cook slowly to a pulp and, when cold, remove the lemon rind. Grate finely, or mill some Brazil nuts. Mix apple pulp and ground nut together in such proportions as to make a mixture of the consistency of stiff jam. Fill tarts with mixture and sprinkle top with ground nut. It must be used the same day as made.

2. JAM WITHOUT SUGAR.

To every pound of fresh fruit allow 1/2 lb. dates. Wash the fruit, put it in the preserving pan, and heat slowly, stirring well to draw out the juice. Wash and stone the dates. Add to the fruit, and simmer very gently for 45 minutes. Put immediately into clean, hot, dry jars, and tie on parchment covers at once.

3. LEMON CURD.