Cookery for every household

Choose small bananas, or, if large, cut them in two or three pieces. Peel them and sprinkle them witn a little lemon juice. Spread them with raspberry, or any other good flavoured jam, and roll them in cake or biscuit crumbs. Ratafia or macaroon crumbs are really the best to use. Take some good pastry, roll it out rather thinly and stamp it out in oval-shaped pieces, a little longer than the bananas. Lay a banana in the centre of each, brush round the edges with a little white of egg or water, fold over and press the edges together. Mark or ornament according to taste, brush the puffs over with a little white of egg, and dredge them well with sugar. Bake in a good oven until the pastry is nicely browned and thoroughly cooked. Serve hot or cold. If liked, the puffs may be decorated with a little thin glace icing. Note. — Lemon juice may be used instead of the jam. Time to bake, 15 minutes. Probable cost, 1\d. to 2d. each. 1556. Banbury Puffs Mixture. 1 oz. butter. 2 oz. sugar. 1 J oz. flour. 1 oz. candied peel. Grated rind § lemon. 3 oz. currants. A pinch of cinnamon. A pinch of allspice . 1 yolk of egg. 1 dessert-sp. brandy or 1 table-sp. sherry. Puff or flaky pastry. To Prepare the Mixture. — Put the butter and sugar into a basin, and beat them together to a cream. Add the grated lemon rind and spice, and then the yolk of egg and flour. Clean the currants and shred the peel very finely, add them to the other mixture and moisten with the brandy or wine. Allow this mixture to stand a short time before using it. To Make the Puffs. — Roll out some puff or flaky pastry to rather less than inch in thickness, and cut it in pieces about 6 inches square. Wet round the edges with slightly beaten white of egg, and put a good tea-spoonful of the mixture in the centre of each. Fold over two sides of the pastry, making them overlap in the centre. Pinch the two ends together and draw out like a little bolster. Turn over, making two or three slits in the puffs with the point of a knife, brush them over with white of egg, dredge with sugar and bake in a good oven until they are nicely browned and the pastry thoroughly cooked. Sprinkle again with sugar and serve hot. Time to bake, 20 minutes. Sufficient for 5 or 6 pufis. Probable cost, 2d. each. 1557. Cherry or Plum Tartlets (Tartelettes de Cerises) 1 lb. cherries or small plums. J lb. granulated sugar. 1 gill water. Juice of | lemon. 1 tea-sp. cornflour or potato flour. 2 or 3 drops carmine. A little butter. Short crust. Line about a dozen tartlet tins with short crust or other pastry, and bake them to a golden brown colour. Put the sugar, water, and lemon juice into a small saucepan, and let them boil a few minutes. Then put in the fruit carefully picked and wiped, and allow it to stew slowly until tender. When ready, strain the fruit, return the liquid to the saucepan, and add to it the cornflour or potato Cherry Tartlets flour mixed with a little cold water. Stir until boiling, add the butter and enough carmine to make the syrup a pretty pink colour, and then reduce if necessary. Pill up the tartlets with the fruits, and when the syrup has cooled pour it over them. Serve hot or cold. Note. — It will be an improvement if the fruit can be stoned, and a little brandy or liqueur may be added to the syrup.