The household cook book

No. 5. PIE CRUST — Use 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon lard, |- teaspoon baking powder, ^ teaspoon salt. Sift the baking powder and salt together, chop the lard into the flour, and add just enough cold water to moisten the flour. This quantity will make 1 pie with 2 crusts. No. 6. PIE CRUST — Mix equal amounts of white and graham flours; stir in cold sweet cream with a sjDOon, lightly and rapidly, in the proportion of 1 cup of cream to 3 cups flour; with the fingers gather the dough together, without kneading it, and set it in a very cool place ^ hour before rolling out. It can be made still lighter by adding 2 teaspoons baking powder for each 3 cups flour, but in that case roll out and bake at once. Time to Bake. — Pies should bake, as a rule, in | to f hour. They should slip on the tin when done. Crust alone should brown in about \ hour. APPLE PIE. — Line a large pie-plate with a good crust, fill it well with sliced apples; take a small cup of sugar and mix well with it 1 tablespoon of flour, a little nutmeg, half a teaspoon of cinnamon, and sprinkle over the pie; put on the top crust; wet the edges of the under crust, pinch the top one upon it closely, cut an opening in the middle of the top crust, and bake in a good oven about an hour; serve the day of baking. POT APPLE PIE — Put a quart of water in a kettle with 2 cups of sugar, a saltspoon of salt and 6 tart apples, pared, quartered and cored; let them cook in the syrup until they look like preserves, then make a baking-powder crust, without shortening, cut it in rounds with a biscuit-cutter, put it in the kettle, add a jpiece of butter the size of an egg, and more water if the syrup is much reduced; cover, and cook 20 minutes. Turn into a deep dish to serve. DRIED APPLE PIE.— The dried apples should be soaked over night, then slowly stewed, in just water enough to cover them, for 2 or 3 hours, especially those dried in the old-fashioned way, and which are preferred by many cooks to those that are bleached. When soft, stir to a mash with a spoon, or work the apple through a coarse colander; season to taste with sugar and spices, and bake in two crusts. A few dried raspberries, or a little raspberry jam is a great improvement in dried apple pies. A good way to treat dried apples is to soak them over night, then cover with boiling water, and stew soft. A little sour cider or lemon juice may be added if they are not tart enough, and a fine flavor will be imparted by adding a little orange peel when they are about half stewed; then add sugar and nutmeg to season, and strain through a colander. APPLE CUSTARD PIE.— Take 2 cups sweet milk, 2 cups apple sauce, 3 eggs; flavor and sweeten, and bake with an under crust only. This wiU make 2 small or 1 large pie. Apple Custard No. 2.— Take | cup melted butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups stewed apples, 4 eggs beaten separately. Bake in pie-plates in bottom crusts only. APPLE PIE A LA MODE.— Take a good apple pie, warm it, and spread ice cream over the top 1 inch thick, and serve at once. BANANA PIE. — Slice the bananas thinly, put over them the grated peel and juice of a lemon, and let them lie in the acid for an hour before using; then sweeten to taste, and bake in two crusts.