The Rural cook book

Zimmet-Kuchen. — Two cupfuls of bread sponge, one rgg, half a cupful of sugar, butter the size of a walnut, one cupful of warm water. Mix these ingredients together and make a dough not quite as stiff as for bread. Let it rise well, roll out one-half inch thick, let it rise again until quite light. Spread the dough thinly and evenly in a long shallow tin. Cover with an egg beaten with a tablespoonful of sugar and sprinkle liberally with powdered cinnamon and granulated sugar. The ingredients on the kuchen will melt and run together into a delicious candied top. Serve by cutting into strips one inch wide. Butter Cakes. — Sift two cupfuls of flour with three teaspoonfuls of baking powder and a half teaspoonful of salt. Rub in two tablespoonful s of butter and add gradually three-fourths of a cupful of milk. Toss upon a well-floured board and roll out as thick as though you were making biscuit, then cut into rounds with a small biscuit cutter and bake upon a hot, well-greased griddle. Cook slowly until they puff up double their size, then turn and bake on the other side. Set them in a moderate oven for a few minutes before serving, then break them open and serve with butter and maple syrup. Waffles. — For the batter use one pint of sifted flour, one level teaspoonful baking powder, one-half teaspoonful salt, one tablespoonful butter, melted, two eggs and V/i cupful milk ; beat to a smooth batter. Heat the waffle iron very hot; grease both lids; put a cooking spoonful of batter into each lid, and cook five minutes on each side Slip out on to a hot dish. Place in the oven until more are cooked, then put them one on top of the other, each buttered and heaped with grated maple sugar. 3,„i,i=db,GoogIc CHAPTER VIII. CAKES. "Breathes there a man with soul so dead He lores not new-baked ginger bread? Wbo, stepping tbrough tbe kitchen 'door, [illustration: On baking day sees goodly store] Of fragrant amber-shadowed cake. And, ball-uncoDscious, do«s not break A ragged chunk I Ab, toothaome blLaa ! He Is a cbutl wbo knows not this." To get a fine grained cake, beat thoroughly after the flour is added. Sweet milk makes cake that cuts like pound cake. Sour milk makes spongy, light cake. Always sjft flour before measuring, then it may be sifted again with the baking powder to insure their being thoroughly blended. In making fruit cakes add the fruit before putting in the flour, as this will prevent it falling to the bottom of the cake. Flouring the fruit is unnecessary, unless the fruit is damp. If a cake cracks open while baking, the recipe contains too much flour. In creaming butter and sugar, when the butter is too hard to blend easily, warm the l^owl and if necessary warm the sugar, but never warm the butter, as this will change both texture and flavor of the cake. The smaller ihe cake the hotter should be the oven. Large rich cakes require very slow bakii^. Grease cake pans with lard or drippings, as butter will be likely to make the cake stick, owing to the salt in it. When eggs are short in the Winter snow may be used as a substitute ; one of Tbe R. N.-Y. housewives says that one cupful of snow, beaten in after all the ingredients are put together, is equal to two eggs. Almond Cookies. — Cream together one-half cupful of butter and two cupfuls sugar. Stir in alternately a little at a time one cupful of sweet milk and twice sifted flour to make a dough which can be handled. With the last of the flour sift in two teaspoonfuls of baking powder; roll out one-quarter inch thick ; before cutting out sprinkle with a cup of glmonds which have been blanched and chopped and a teaspoon of granulated sugar mixed through them. Bake in quick oven. These should be eaten fresh, as should all cakes made without the addition of eggs.