The Rural cook book

Fancy Baked Apples. — Peel and core medium-sized tart apples. Put them in a baking dish and pour half a cup of water over them. Set in a hot oven, and when the apples are heated, sprinkle with enough sugar to coat each and bake until tender. Make a syrup of one cup of water, half a cup of sugar, the juice of half a lemon, and a teaspoonful of the grated rind. Add two tablespoon fuls of chopped raisins, two of chopped candied cherries, two of chopped candied pineapple, and two of chopped almonds, and when the sugar Is dissolved set at the back of the stove and let cook slowly for half an hour. When the apples are done put in little glass saucers, taking care not to break them. Fill with the cooked sweets and pour the syrup over them. Serve cold with whipped cream. Boiled Apples in Syrup.—Rub the apples clean, but do not peel, and stick four cloves into each. Put in earthen dish, half cover with cold water, and add one cup of sugar to each pint of water. Place upon stove and cook until apple skins crack; remove apples, then boil down syrup until it is like jelly, and pour over the fruit. Apple Butter. — Apple butter should be made from new cider, fresh from the press, and not yet fermented. Fill a porcelain-lined kettle with cider and boil until reduced one-half. Then boil another kettleful in the same way, and so continue until you have sufficient quantity. To every four gallons of boiled cider allow a half-bushel of nice juicy apples, pared, cored and quartered. The cider should be boiled the day before you make the apple butter. Fill a very large kettle with the boiled cider and add as many apples as can be kept moist. Stir frequently, and when the apples are soft beat with a wooden stick until they are reduced to a pulp. Cook and stir continuously until the consistency is that of soft marmalade and the color is a very dark brown. Have boiled cider at hand in case it becomes too thick, and apples if too thin. Twenty minutes before you take it from the fire add ground cinnamon, and nutmeg to taste. It requires no sugar. When cold, put into stone jars and cover closely. Apple Dumplings. — Pare, quarter and core tart apples. Put one tablespoonful of baking powder in one quart of flour, add one cupful of lard and half a teaspoonful of salt and mix with sweet milk, make stiffer than for biscuits, roll and cut in squares and put around the pieces of apple. Into a deep pudding dish put one quart of water, one cupful of sugar and a small lump of butter. Set it on top of the stove and let it come to a boil. Then put in the dumplings and bake in a brisk oven one hour. Apple Dumplings with Bread Dough. — Take out about a pint of bread dough in the morning when it is ready to go in the baking pans, more or less according to the size of the family; add shortening half the size of an egg, mix through the dough and set aside until an hour and a half before dinner. Then cut the dough into as many pieces as there are persons to serve and roll out. Pare and core good, tart apples, set one un each sheet of dough, putting a teaspoonful of sugar and a small lump of butter in the place of the core, fold the dough about the apple, pinching it tightly together, set them in a deep earthen dish and let rise half an hour; then sprinkle a tablespoonful of sugar over them and pour on one cupful of cold water and bake half an hour in a hot oven. It may be well to cover them with a greased paper to keep them from getting too brown or crusty. Eat warm with cream and sugar or any sauce preferred. Also excellent steamed. Boiled Apple Dumplings..— Pare eight fine apples and cut them in quarters, remove the cores. Roll the suet crust out half an inch thick and