1-1/2 pints of milk, 5 eggs, vanilla essence, 4 oz. of castor sugar for the caramel, and a little more sugar to sweeten the custard. Heat the milk, whip up the eggs, and carefully stir the hot milk into the beaten eggs; flavour with vanilla and sugar to taste. Meanwhile put the castor sugar into a small enamelled saucepan and stir it over a quick fire until it is quite melted and brown. Add about 2 tablespoonfuls of hot water to the caramel, stir thoroughly, and pour it into a tin mould or a cake tin. Let the caramel run all round the sides of the tin; pour in the custard, and bake it in a moderate oven, standing in a larger tin of boiling water, until the custard is set. Let it get cold, turn out, and serve. This is a very dainty sweet dish.
Take a dozen good-sized potatoes and hake them in the oven till done, then peel and put them into a saucepan with a little salt and grated lemon-peel; set them upon the stove and put in a piece of fresh butter and stir the whole; add a little cream and sugar, still continuing to stir them; then let them cool a little and add some orange-flower water, eight yolks of eggs and four only of whites, whisked into froth; heat up the whole together and mix it with the potato puree. Butter a mould and sprinkle it with bread-crumbs; pour in the paste, place the pan upon hot cinders, with fire upon the lid, and let it remain for three-quarters of an hour, or it may be baked in an oven.
To 8 oz. of sugar take 2 whites of eggs, well beaten, and 1 tablespoonful of orange-or rosewater. Whisk the ingredients thoroughly, and when the cake is cold cover it with the mixture. Set the cake in the oven to harden, but do not let it remain long enough to discolour.
To make a small cheese souffle in a round cake- tin, proceed as follows:--Make the tin very hot in the oven. Put in about an ounce of butter, so as to make the tin oily in every part inside. The tin must be tilted so that the butter pours round the sides of the tin as well as the bottom. Take two eggs, separate the yolks from the whites, and beat the whites to a stiff froth; beat up the two yolks very thoroughly with a quarter of a pint of milk. Add to this two tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese; add this mixture to the beaten-up whites, and mix the whole carefully together. Now pour this mixture into the hot buttered tin, which should be five or six inches deep, and bake it in the oven. The mixture will rise to five or six times its original depth. As soon as it is done, run with the souffle from the oven door to the dining-room door. However quick you may be, the souffle will probably sink an inch on the way. Some cooks wrap hot flannel on the outside of the tin to keep up the heat. If you have a folded dinner napkin round the tin for appearance sake, as is usually the case, fold the napkin before you make the souffle, and make the napkin sufficiently big round that it can be dropped over the tin in an instant. The napkin should be pinned, and be quite half an inch in diameter bigger than the width of the tin. This is to save time. Delay in serving the souffle is fatal.
1-1/2 pints of milk, 4 eggs, 1 dessertspoonful of sugar, 1/2 lemon and 4 oz. of castor sugar for caramel. Put the dry castor sugar into an enamelled saucepan and let it melt and turn a rich brown over the fire, stirring all the time. When the sugar is melted and browned stir into it about 2 tablespoonfuls of hot water, and the juice of 1/2 lemon. Then pour the caramel into a mould or cake-tin, and let it run all round the sides of the tin. Meanwhile heat the milk near boiling-point, and add the vanilla and sugar. Whip up the eggs, stir carefully into them the hot milk, so as not to curdle the eggs. Then pour the custard into the tin on the caramel and stand the tin in a larger tin with hot water, place it in the oven, and bake in a moderately hot oven for about 20 minutes or until the custard is set. Allow it to get cold, turn out, and serve.
1 lb. of fine wholemeal flour, 6 oz. of desiccated cocoanut, 3 oz. of butter, 3 eggs, a little cold milk, 6 oz. castor sugar. Rub the butter into the meal, add the sugar, cocoanut, and the well-beaten eggs. Mix, and add only just enough milk to make the mixture keep together. Put small lumps on a floured baking tin, and bake in a quick oven.
2-1/2 lbs. meal, 1 breakfastcupful sultanas, 1 oz. ground bitter almonds, 3 oz. chopped sweet almonds, 2 eggs, 3 oz. butter or 1/2 teacupful of oil, 6 oz. sugar and 1 teaspoonful cinnamon, 1/4 oz. yeast, milk to moisten the cake. Dissolve the yeast in a cup of warm water, 100 degrees Fahrenheit in winter, 85 degrees in summer; make a batter of the yeast and water, with two spoonfuls of the meal, and stand it on a cool place of the stove to rise; do not let it get hot, as this will spoil the yeast. Meanwhile prepare the fruit and almonds, mix the meal, fruit, butter (or oil), sugar, cinnamon and eggs; then add the yeast and as much lukewarm milk as is required to moisten the cake. The dough should be fairly firm and wet. Let the dough rise in front of the fire. Fill into greased cake tins and bake for 1-1/2 hours.
8 sponge cakes, 3 large bars of chocolate, 1/4 pint of cream, white of 1 egg, 3 inches of stick vanilla, 3 oz. of almonds blanched and chopped, 2 oz. of ratafia, 1/2 pint of milk. Break the sponge cakes into pieces, boil the milk and pour it over them; mash them well up with a spoon. Dissolve half the chocolate in a saucepan with 2 tablespoonfuls of water, and flavour it with 1 inch of the vanilla, split; when the chocolate is quite dissolved remove the vanilla. Have ready a wetted mould, put into it a layer of sponge cake, next spread some of the dissolved chocolate, sprinkle with almonds and ratafias, repeat until you finish with a layer of sponge cake. Grate the rest of the chocolate, whip the cream with the whites of eggs, vanilla, and 1 teaspoonful of sifted sugar; sift the chocolate into the whipped cream. Turn the sponge cake mould into a glass dish, spread the chocolate cream over it evenly, and decorate it with almonds.
Home-made bread is not so much used now as it was years back. Most housekeepers have found by experience that it is a waste both of time and money. There are very few houses among the middle classes which possess an oven capable of competing with any chance of success with a baker's oven. There are, however, many vegetarians who believe in what is called whole-meal bread. A good deal of the whole-meal bread sold as such has been found to be adulterated with substances very unwholesome to ordinary stomachs. We may mention saw-dust as one of the ingredients used for the purpose. Again, if you attempt to make whole-meal bread into loaves, you will find great difficulty in baking the loaves. This whole-meal is a very slow conductor of heat, and the result will probably be that the outside of the loaf will be very hard while the inside will be too underdone to be eaten. Consequently, should you wish to have home-made whole-meal bread, it is far best to bake it in the form of a tea-cake or flat-cake. We cannot do better, in conclusion, than quote what Sir Henry Thompson says on this subject:--"The following recipe," he says, "will be found successful, probably, after a trial or two, in producing excellent, light, friable, and most palatable bread: To two pounds of coarsely ground or crushed whole-meal, add half a pound of fine flour and a sufficient quantity of baking powder and salt; when these are well mixed, rub in two ounces of butter, and make into dough with half milk and water, or with all milk if preferred. Make rapidly into flat cakes like 'tea-cakes,' and bake without delay in a quick oven, leaving them afterwards to finish thoroughly at a lower temperature. The butter and milk supply fatty matters, in which the wheat is somewhat deficient; all the saline and mineral matters of the husk are retained; and thus a more nutritive form of bread cannot be made. Moreover, it retains the natural flavour of the wheat, in place of the insipidity which is characteristic of fine flour, although it is indisputable that bread produced from the latter, especially in Paris and Vienna, is unrivalled for delicacy, texture, and colour. Whole meal may be bought; but mills are now cheaply made for home use, and wheat may be ground to any degree of coarseness desired."
Work 4 oz. of butter to a cream, add a 1/4 lb. of castor sugar, 3 eggs, and a little milk. Mix together 1/2 lb. of Allinson fine wheatmeal, a heaped tablespoonful of cocoa. Add to the butter mixture, and bake on a shallow tin or plate in a quick oven. The cake can be iced when done, and cut, when cold, into diamond-shaped pieces or triangles.
