Category: Desserts

Boiled Pastry

Put three quarters of a breakfast cupful of water into a saucepan, add two ounces of lard, or clarified dripping, and two ounces of butter. Bring them to the boil. As soon as the mixture boils stir in a pound and a quarter of sifted flour. Add a little salt, and stir vigorously until all lumps disappear. Take pieces of the dough about as big as one’s fist. With a… Continue reading

Dinkum Pudding

One large cupful of self-raising flour, 1 cupful of sugar, 1 cupful dry breadcrumbs, 1 cupful beef suet (well chopped), 1 cupful of sultanas or mixed fruits, a little shredded lemon peel, 1 cupful of boiling water, a small teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda.
Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the boiling water with the soda dissolved in it. Put into basin or pudding cloth, and boil well. If… Continue reading

Strawberry Sponge

1 1/3 tablespoonfuls granulated gelatin
1/3 cupful cold water
1/3 cupfuls boiling water
1 cupful sugar
1 tablespoonful lemon juice
1 cupful crushed strawberries
Whites 3 eggs
Whip from 3 cupfuls cream
Soak gelatin in cold water, dissolve in boiling water, strain, add sugar, lemon juice and strawberries. Chill in a pan of cold water. When it thickens add gradually two stiffly-beaten whites of eggs, then fold in… Continue reading

Strawberry Cottage Pudding

1/3 cupful butter
1 cupful sugar
1 egg
1 cupful milk
1 ¾ cupful flour
3 teaspoonfuls baking powder
Cream shortening, add sugar then beaten egg; mix well, then add milk alternately with flour and baking powder sifted together. Bake in undivided greased gem pans in a moderate oven. Serve with crushed and sugared strawberries with a little whipped cream or marshmallow whip.… Continue reading

Strawberry Whip

1 ¼ cupfuls strawberries
1 cupful powdered sugar
White 1 egg
Crush the strawberries. Beat white of egg until stiff, then add crushed strawberries and sugar. Continue beating until mixture holds its shape. Chill and serve with fresh strawberries.… Continue reading

Honey Cookies

2/3 cup honey
2/3 cup sugar
2 ½ cups flour
¼ teaspoon soda
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon allspice
2 oz. finely chopped candied orange peel
½ lb. walnut meat chopped finely
Sift together the flour, spices and soda and add other ingredients. Knead thoroughly, roll out thin and cut with biscuit cutter. These cookies are very hard.… Continue reading

Yellow Honey Cake

½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
2 yolks
¼ teaspoon cloves
2/3 cups honey
1½ cups flour
Sift together flour and spices. Mix sugar and yolks, add honey and then the flour gradually. Roll out thin, moisten surface with egg white and mark into small squares. Bake in moderate oven.… Continue reading

Honey Sponge Cake

½ cup sugar
½ cup honey
4 eggs
1 cup sifted flour
Mix sugar and honey and boil till syrup spins a thread when dropped from spoon. Pour syrup over yolks of eggs which have been beaten until light. Beat this mixture until cold; add flour, cut and fold beaten whites into mixtures. Bake 40 or 50 minutes in a pan lined with buttered paper in slow oven… Continue reading

Afternoon Tea Cakes

From 1922:

½ lb. butter, ½ lb. sugar, 2 eggs, ¼ lb. wheaten flour, ½ lb. arrowroot (St. Vincent’s is the best). Beat butter and sugar to a cream, add eggs well beaten, then the flour, arrowroot, and baking powder sifted together. Bake in a quick oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Sultanas, cinnamon, caraway seeds, or lemon peel can be added for variety. Use patty… Continue reading

Wholemeal or Wheatmeal Pastry for Tarts

From 1922:

½ lb. wheatmeal flour (about 1 ½ cup), 2 oz. dripping, butter, or copha (3 oz. if desired), 1 small teaspoonful baking powder, ½ cup warm milk or water. Mix flour and baking powder through sifter, throwing in the coarse grains that will not go through, then add the shortening with fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the warm milk or water, mix… Continue reading

GOOD SHORT PASTRY

From 1922:

A nice short light crust especially suitable for mince pies or tarts can be made as follows: Take half a pound of flour, ¼ lb. of butter (or equal parts of butter and lard), and one egg. Rub the butter into the flour, make a hole in the middle, and break in the egg. Mix all well together with a knife. If it is… Continue reading

Hardbake

A very famous Italian cake is the Pan Forte di Siena, mentioned by William Dean Howells in his book “Tuscan Cities.” The popular name for it is “hardbake.” Every baker guards his own recipe very jealously, but here is a recipe that is used by a Sienese lady:
Boil a half pound of strained honey and add to it a cupful of blanched and shredded almonds and filberts… Continue reading

Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

From 1921:
This recipe comes to us with the recommendation that the children can “eat any amount without any bad after effects.” We opine that there may be decidedly good after effects if any degree of moderation is observed.
Also there is a warning not to bake the little cakes too long, or
they will become very hard upon cooling. This was found through
sad experience. They should… Continue reading

TRANSPARENT PUDDING

Half a pound of butter, one pound of sugar, six eggs – whites and yolks beaten separately, juice of one lemon, grated rind of two lemons, a grated nutmeg, half a glass of brandy.
Cream butter and sugar light, beat in the yolks, spice, and brandy, and, last of all, fold in the stiffened whites. Bake in open crust of the best puff paste.
The above recipe is… Continue reading

CHERRY MOSS RECIPE

Soak one tablespoonful of granulated gelatin in three tablespoonfuls of cold water five minutes. Add one fourth cupful of boiling water, and as soon as gelatin is dissolved add one and one-half cupfuls of dark red canned cherries (stoned and cut in halves) and one-half cupful of juice drained from the canned cherries.
When mixture begins to thicken, add the whites of two eggs, beaten until stiff, and… Continue reading

Twelve Months Cake

From 1922:

Two lb. flour, 1 lb. best butter, 1 ½ lb. sugar, one dozen new-laid eggs, one packet of mixed spice, two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, three quarters of a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda, one teaspoonful of salt, two small tablespoonfuls of treacle, ½ lb. of almonds, blanched and cut, 2 lb. sultanas, 1 lb. currants, ½ lb. candled peel. Cream the butter… Continue reading

GINGER SPONGE SANDWICH

Quarter lb. butter, ¼ lb. sugar, 2.eggs, 1 ½ teacupfuls flour, ½ cup treacle or syrup, 1 teaspoonful each of ground ginger, nutmeg, and allspice, ½ teaspoonful soda, ½ teaspoonful cream of tartar, and a little milk. Beat sugar and butter till light, add beaten eggs, then warmed syrup. Mix in the flour, to which the spices and cream of tartar have been added, lastly ¼ cup of… Continue reading

BUTTERMILK PIE

Beat 2 eggs to a froth, with ½ teacup of sugar. Add, gradually, 1 pint of buttermilk, and a tablespoonful of butter, slightly warmed. Mix all these together, and pour into a shallow pastry-lined pie dish. Bake in a steady oven until set. Any flavouring may be used, but a little grated nutmeg on the top is usually liked.… Continue reading

Sponge Cake

From 1922:

This is the most inexpensive recipe I have, 5, 6, and even 7 eggs being used in sponge cake. This recipe contains 3, and, in addition, 4 tablespoonfuls each flour and sugar, and a wee pinch of bi-carbonate of coda. Boat the eggs and sugar to a cream, beating for quite 15 minutes; then add flour and soda and mix all as quickly as… Continue reading

Seed Cake

1 lb. flour, 6 ounces butter, 3 well beaten eggs, ½ lb. sugar, 1 teaspoonful of baking powder, 1 ounce caraway seeds. Beat butter and sugar to a cream; add the eggs and sugar. Mix the baking powder with the flour, and stir in the seeds; then add these to the butter and egg mixture. Beat well for five minutes, and bake in a moderate oven in a… Continue reading

BAKED APPLE ROLL

Make a suet crust by the following recipe: 3 ½ level teacupfuls flour, four heaped tablespoonfuls finely-chopped suet, half-teaspoonful baking powder, a saltspoonful salt, cold water to mix. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together, add the suet, and mix well. Then with cold water mix to a soft paste. Roll out, keeping the edges straight, until the dough is about twice as long as broad. Spread… Continue reading

INDIAN FRITTERS

Pour sufficient boiling water over two tablespoonfuls of flour to make a stiff paste. Leave it to cool. Then break into it two eggs. Stir all together. Have ready some boiling lard or butter, and drop in a spoonful at a time. Serve with lemon and sugar or jam. When cooked the inside of these fritters is soft, like custard.… Continue reading

Cream Dates

From 1922:

Select firm whole dates, cut them open and remove the stones. Put 1 lb. sugar into a clean saucepan with a gill of water and rather less than a quarter teaspoonful of cream of tartar.

Stir the mixture over the fire till the mixture is dissolved, taking care not to let the mixture boil. If it seems to be getting very hot… Continue reading

Push Pie

Soak equal quantities of dried apples and dried peaches until plump. Cook until tender and chop slightly. To two cups of the apple-peach mixture add ¾ cup thin cream, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and ½ teaspoon of lemon extract. Fill pie tin lined with plain paste and bake without a top crust. Serve with whipped cream.… Continue reading

Western Coupe

One quart cider
Two cups sugar
Juice of one lemon
Six fine western apples (any good apple may be used).
Six oranges

Boil sugar and cider five minutes. Add lemon, cool and freeze as you would ice cream. Pare and cut the apples in eighths; cook in cider, adding sugar to taste, until the apples are soft, but not broken.

Separate into sections the… Continue reading

Cornstarch Prune Pudding

One-quarter cup cornstarch, ½ pound prunes, 2 cups cold water, ¾ cup sugar, 2-inch piece stick cinnamon, 1 1/3 cups boiling water, 1 lemon.

Wash prunes through several waters. Add the two cups of cold water and let stand an hour. Boil until soft in same water. Remove stones from prunes and return prunes to the water in which they were cooked. Add sugar, cinnamon and… Continue reading

Figolette Sundaes

Boil together for fifteen minutes two cupfuls of water, three-quarters of a cupful of sugar, three-quarters of a cupful of chopped figs and the grated rind from a small orange.
Remove from the fire, add half a cupful of chopped nut meats and a quarter of a cupful of thick maple syrup. Cool and serve as a sauce with vanilla ice cream or a coffee mousse.… Continue reading

Cherry Roll

Particularly good and rather unusual.

Prepare a rich biscuit dough and roll out into a thin sheet. Spread thickly with stoned cherries and sprinkle thickly with sugar and chopped nut meats. Dust lightly with grated nutmeg and ground cinnamon and roll up. Pinch the ends of the dough well together, lay in a buttered pan and brush over with beaten egg yolk, blended with a little… Continue reading

ITALIAN CHESTNUT PUDDING

Boil a pound of large Italian chestnuts, peel them and put through a vegetable press. Moisten them with a couple of tablespoons of sherry, after you have heaped the powdery chestnuts in a shallow dish.
Put whipped cream, a little sweetened, over and around them, and garnish with whole chestnuts or with maraschino cherries.… Continue reading

One-Egg Cookies

Cream half a cupful of butter with a cupful of powdered sugar; beat an egg very light and stir into the creamed sugar and butter. Beat hard for a minute; add a cupful of milk, a teaspoonful of vanilla and 2 ½ cupfuls of flour, sifted twice with 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Mix into a soft dough, roll thin, cut into rounds of any shape you like… Continue reading

Hermits

Beat to a very light cream a cupful of butter and 2 cupfuls of powdered sugar. Whip light the yolks of three eggs, and stir into this next ½ cupful of milk. Have ready 2 cupfuls of flour, sifted twice with a teaspoonful of baking powder, and stir this in alternately with the whipped whites of the eggs. Add more flour if you cannot manage the dough easily… Continue reading

Peppernuts

From 1910:

Rub to a light cream 1 ½ cupful of powdered sugar and ½ cupful of butter; beat three eggs (whites to a meringue, yolks very smooth) and add, first, the yolks to the creamed mixture, then ½ cupful of milk and 2 cupfuls of flour, sifted with a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder and a scant teaspoonful of powdered cinnamon and ginger mixed.
Finally… Continue reading

“Sand” Cookies

From 1910:

Cream together a cupful of butter and 2 of granulated sugar. Beat 2 eggs very light — yolks and whites separately — and add the yolks to the creamed butter and sugar. Stir in ½ teaspoonful of nutmeg. Sift in 2 cupfuls of flour twice with a teaspoonful of baking powder and add, alternately, with the whipped whites. If not stiff enough for rolling… Continue reading

Jersey Cookies

Cream together a cup of butter and 2 of powdered sugar; beat into this 3 eggs, whipped light; stir in a teaspoonful each of powdered cloves and mace and ½ teaspoonful of soda dissolved in boiling water. Have 2 cups of fried and sifted flour, and work in cautiously. The dough should be just stiff enough to be rolled out. Cut into round cakes, stick a raisin in… Continue reading

Southern Sweet Potato Pones

Take a half dozen medium sized potatoes, wash and boil. When tender, peel them and mash thoroughly, then add one cup sugar, three eggs, two heaping tablespoons butter, two teaspoons vanilla extract and enough milk to make a firm batter. Bake in a shallow cake pan. When cold, serve in squares with whipped cream.… Continue reading