Two or three pounds of white bread dough taken when ready for
the oven, will make a good light biscuit if well managed, with the
addition of from half to three-quarters of a pound of sugar, a very
small quantity of butter, and a few currants, or carraway- seeds, or a
teaspoonful of mixed spices✪ Nursery Cake. The dough should be rather firm ; the
butter should first be well kneaded into it in small portions, then the
sugar added in the same way, and next the currants or spice. The
whole should be perfectly and equally mingled, flour being slightly
dredged upon it as it is worked, if needful. It must then be allowed
to rise until it is very light, when it should again be kneaded down,
but not heavily ; and when it has once more risen, it should be sent
without delay to the oven. An ounce of butter to the pound of
dough will be sufficient for it. Much richer cakes can be made thus,
and they will be extremely good if care be taken to let them rise
MODERN COOKERY.
[chap. xxvl.
£56
sufficiently before they are baked. We regret that we cannot mul-
tiply our receipts for them. Sultana raisins are an excellent sub-
stitute for currants in these and other common cakes.
ISLE OF WIGHT DOUGII-NUTS.
Work smoothly together with the fingers four ounces of good lard,
and four pounds of flour ; add half a pound of fine brown sugar, two
table spoonsful of allspice, one drachm of pounded cinnamon, half as
much of cloves, two large blades of mace, beaten to powder, two
tablespoonsful of fresh yeast which has been watered for one night,
and which should be solid, and as much new milk as will make the
whole into a rather firm dough✪ Isle of Wight Doughnuts ; let this stand from an hour to an
hour and a half near the fire, then knead it well, and make it into
balls about the size of a small apple ; hollow them with the thumb, and
enclose a few currants in the middle ; gather the paste well over
them, and throw the dough -nuts into a saucepan half filled with
boiling lard ; when they are equally coloured to a fine brown, lift
them out and dry them before the fire on the back of a sieve. When
they are made in large quantities, as they are at certain seasons in the
island, they are drained upon very clean straw. The lard should
boil only just before they are dropped into it, or the outsides will be
scorched before the insides are sufficiently done.
Flour, 4 lbs. ; lard, 4 oz. ; sugar, £ lb. ; allspice, 2 tablespoonsful ;
pounded cinnamon, 1 drachm ; cloves and mace, each 5 drachm ;
yeast (solid), two large tablespoonsful: to rise, 1 to l.^hour. Cur-
rants, at choice : dough-nuts boiled in lard, 5 to 7 minutes.
QUEEN CAKES.
To make these, proceed exactly as for the pound currant-cake of
page 546, but bake the mixture in small well-buttered tin pans
(heart-shaped ones are usual), in a somewhat brisk oven, for about
twenty minutes.
JUMBLES.
Hasp on some good sugar the rinds of two lemons ; dry, reduce it
to powder, and sift it with as much more as will make up a pound in
weight ; mix with it one pound of flour, four well-beaten eggs, and
six ounces of warm butter : drop the mixture on buttered tins, and
bake the jumbles in a very slow oven from twenty to thirty minutes.
They should be pale, but perfectly crisp.
A GOOD SODA CAKE.
Break down half a pound * of fresh butter into a pound of fine
* Six ounces would to many tastes be quite sufficient, and the less butter tho
cake contains the better.
✪ Doughnuts
Page 483 · 5 recipe records on this page
Presented as published in 1884. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Two or three pounds of white bread dough taken when ready for the oven, will make a good light biscuit if well managed, with the addition of from half to three-quarters of a pound of sugar, a very small quantity of butter, and a few currants, or carraway- seeds, or a teaspoonful of mixed spices. The dough should be rather firm ; the butter should first be well kneaded into it in small portions, then the sugar added in the same way, and next the currants or spice. The whole should be perfectly and equally mingled, flour being slightly dredged upon it as it is worked, if needful. It must then be allowed to rise until it is very light, when it should again be kneaded down, but not heavily ; and when it has once more risen, it should be sent without delay to the oven. An ounce of butter to the pound of dough will be sufficient for it. Much richer cakes can be made thus, and they will be extremely good if care be taken to let them rise
[chap. xxvl.
£56
sufficiently before they are baked. We regret that we cannot multiply our receipts for them. Sultana raisins are an excellent substitute for currants in these and other common cakes.
ISLE OF WIGHT DOUGII-NUTS.
Work smoothly together with the fingers four ounces of good lard, and four pounds of flour ; add half a pound of fine brown sugar, two table spoonsful of allspice, one drachm of pounded cinnamon, half as much of cloves, two large blades of mace, beaten to powder, two tablespoonsful of fresh yeast which has been watered for one night, and which should be solid, and as much new milk as will make the whole into a rather firm dough ; let this stand from an hour to an hour and a half near the fire, then knead it well, and make it into balls about the size of a small apple ; hollow them with the thumb, and enclose a few currants in the middle ; gather the paste well over them, and throw the dough -nuts into a saucepan half filled with boiling lard ; when they are equally coloured to a fine brown, lift them out and dry them before the fire on the back of a sieve. When they are made in large quantities, as they are at certain seasons in the island, they are drained upon very clean straw. The lard should boil only just before they are dropped into it, or the outsides will be scorched before the insides are sufficiently done.
Flour, 4 lbs. ; lard, 4 oz. ; sugar, £ lb. ; allspice, 2 tablespoonsful ; pounded cinnamon, 1 drachm ; cloves and mace, each 5 drachm ; yeast (solid), two large tablespoonsful: to rise, 1 to l.^hour. Currants, at choice : dough-nuts boiled in lard, 5 to 7 minutes.
QUEEN CAKES.
To make these, proceed exactly as for the pound currant-cake of page 546, but bake the mixture in small well-buttered tin pans (heart-shaped ones are usual), in a somewhat brisk oven, for about twenty minutes.
JUMBLES.
Hasp on some good sugar the rinds of two lemons ; dry, reduce it to powder, and sift it with as much more as will make up a pound in weight ; mix with it one pound of flour, four well-beaten eggs, and six ounces of warm butter : drop the mixture on buttered tins, and bake the jumbles in a very slow oven from twenty to thirty minutes. They should be pale, but perfectly crisp.
A GOOD SODA CAKE.
Break down half a pound * of fresh butter into a pound of fine
* Six ounces would to many tastes be quite sufficient, and the less butter tho cake contains the better.
Records on this page
Nursery CakeIsle of Wight DoughnutsDoughnutsJumblesGood Soda Cake