The Century Cook Book Part 99

_For Biscuit b.a.l.l.s._--Drop the mixture in b.a.l.l.s one half inch in diameter, and bake the same as fingers. Stick two together with a little jam between them.

=MACAROONS=

1/2 pound of almonds.

Whites of 4 eggs.

1-1/4 cupfuls of powdered sugar.

Pound the blanched almonds to a paste, adding a teaspoonful of rose-water to keep them from oiling; add also the sugar, a little at a time, while pounding the almonds; add a few drops of almond essence and the whipped whites of the eggs; beat thoroughly together. Drop the mixture in b.a.l.l.s one half inch in diameter on strips of paper, using a pastry-bag. If not stiff enough to hold their shapes without spreading, add one tablespoonful of flour.

=COCOANUT b.a.l.l.s OR CONES=

Grate a cocoanut; add to it half its weight of sugar; then stir in the whipped white of one egg. Boll the mixture into b.a.l.l.s or cones, and bake in a moderate oven twenty to thirty minutes. If the mixture is too soft to hold its shape, add a very little flour.

=MADELEINES No. 1=

Make two thin layers of Genoese cake (page 467), flavored with brandy; place them together with a thin layer of jelly or jam between them. Cut the cake into fancy shapes, such as diamonds, squares, circles, and crescents, having them not more than one and a quarter to one and a half inches in diameter, and the same in thickness. Ice them with fondant (see page 485), flavored with ram, kirsch, or maraschino, or vary the flavor for the different shapes; or, make the cakes of one layer one and a quarter inches thick, and ice them on top and sides with royal icing or with fondant, making it of different colors, pink, green, chocolate, white, and flavor to correspond. Place in the center of each cake a currant, bit of candied cherry, piece of angelica, or almond.

=MADELEINES No. 2=

Take a sponge-cake No. 1, or a Genoese cake mixture, and make it a little stiffer with flour (enough batter can usually be saved from layer cake to make a few fancy cakes). With a spoon or pastry-bag drop it in b.a.l.l.s one half inch in diameter; bake, and place two together with a little jam or jelly between them. Cover them with soft royal icing; have them all of the same color. If green, use pistachio flavor as directed, page 391, and sprinkle the tops with chopped pistachio nuts; if white, with almonds; if pink, leave them plain, and flavor with rose.

=LITTLE POUND-CAKES=

Use the Genoese mixture with a few currants added, or the plain pound-cake mixture. Bake in small tins one and a half inches in diameter; take care that they rise evenly so they are flat on top. Ice the top only with any kind of icing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 1. SMALL POUND CAKES AND TINS IN WHICH THEY WERE BAKED.

2. ORANGE-QUARTER CAKES AND BAKING TIN. (SEE PAGE 478.) 3. Sh.e.l.l-SHAPED GENOESE CAKES AND BAKING TIN.]

=ORANGE QUARTERS=

Use the Genoese or any b.u.t.ter-cake mixture, making it quite stiff with flour; flavor it with lemon- and orange-juice, and add a little of the grated rind of orange. Drop a small tablespoonful of the cake mixture at intervals into the tin made for this cake (see ill.u.s.tration), and bake in a moderate oven; cover the wedge-shaped sides of the cakes with soft royal icing flavored and colored with orange-juice.

=ALMOND WAFERS=

Take one tablespoonful each of flour and powdered sugar and one half saltspoonful of salt. Sift them well together. Beat the white of one egg just enough to break it, and add as much of it to the flour and sugar as it will take to make a creamy batter; flavor with a few drops of almond essence. Grease the pans lightly and flour them as directed on page 464. Drop a half teaspoonful of the paste on the pan, and with a wet finger spread it into a thin round wafer. Bake it in a very moderate oven until the edges are slightly browned, then, before removing from the oven door, lift each wafer, and turn it around a stick. They stiffen very quickly, and the rolling must be done while they are hot.

=VENETIAN CAKES=

1/2 cupful of b.u.t.ter.

1/2 cupful of powdered sugar.

1-1/2 cupfuls of pastry flour.

1 cupful of almonds.

1 teaspoonful of vanilla.

Yolks of 3 eggs.

Cream the b.u.t.ter and sugar together until very light; add the yolks well beaten; then the almonds blanched and cut in strips; mix; add the vanilla and stir in lightly the flour. The dough should be rather soft.

Take a small piece at a time, drop it in powdered sugar, and roll it between the hands into a ball one inch in diameter. Put a piece of pistachio nut on the top. Place the b.a.l.l.s a little distance apart on floured pans (see page 464), and bake in a moderate oven ten to fifteen minutes, or to a pale color. They will flatten in baking and have the shape of macaroons.

=GAUFFRES=

This receipt was obtained in Paris, and makes the little cakes one sees for sale at all the French fetes, and also on the sea-beaches, where the vender calls so cheerily, "Voici les plaisirs." They are baked in a kind of small waffle-iron. The plaisirs are rolled as soon as taken from the iron.

Add a dash of salt to the whites of six eggs, and whip them to a stiff froth. Put a half pound of flour in a bowl, and add enough water to make a thin batter; flavor it with vanilla, then add the whipped whites of the eggs. Bake one gauffre to see if the batter is of the right consistency. It should be very thin, and water can be added until it is right. Have the iron hot, and grease it well with b.u.t.ter or oil. Pour in the batter, and let it run evenly into all the grooves; close the iron, and bake on both sides over hot coals. The iron must be very clean, smooth, and well greased, or the gauffres will stick. Dredge them with powdered sugar as soon as baked.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GAUFFRE IRON. (SEE PAGE 479.)]

JUMBLES, COOKIES, AND PLAIN CAKES

=JUMBLES=

Beat to a cream one cupful of b.u.t.ter with two cupfuls of sugar. Add three eggs, the yolks and whites beaten separately; then the flavoring.

Stir in lightly enough flour to make a paste just firm enough to roll thin. Cut it into circles, and with a smaller cutter stamp out a small circle in the middle, leaving the jumbles in rings. Place them in a floured pan, brush the tops with white of egg, and sprinkle with pounded loaf sugar. The sugar should be in small lumps. Bake in a moderate oven to a light color.

=SAND TARTS=

Make the mixture given for jumbles. Cut it into squares or diamonds, place them in floured pans, brush the top with white of egg. Sprinkle with granulated sugar mixed with ground cinnamon. Place a piece of blanched almond in the center of each one.

=ROLLED JUMBLES=

Make a mixture as directed for jumbles, using only enough flour to make a thin batter. Drop a teaspoonful of batter for each cake on a floured pan. In the oven it runs out into a thin cake, so leave plenty of room for the batter to spread. As soon as the edges begin to brown lift the cakes, and at the oven door roll them around a stick. Leave them in the oven a few moments longer to dry.

=PLAIN COOKIES=

1 cupful of b.u.t.ter.

2 cupfuls of sugar.

1 cupful of milk.

2 eggs.

1/2 teaspoonful of vanilla.

Flour.

2 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.

Mix in the order given. Use enough flour to roll the dough thin. Cut it into circles, and bake in a moderate oven. Brush the tops with white of egg, and sprinkle them with sugar. Caraway seeds may be mixed with the dough, or sprinkled over the tops if liked. For soft cookies do not roll the dough so thin. Stamp them out with a fluted cutter, and remove them from the oven as soon as baked, not leaving them to dry as for crisp cookies.