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BAKERY AND BREAKFAST DISHES

Thin batters are about the consistency of thin cream. Thick batters are like cream. Still thicker batters, which may be poured in a continuous stream, are called pour batters. Any batter is a pour batter until it is made so stiff that it breaks or drops in the pouring, when it is called a drop batter. It will remain a batter until too stiff to be beaten, when it becomes a dough.

Doughs, like batters, are of varying degrees of thickness, ranging from those just stiff enough to be handled to those which may be rolled thin as paper. Generally speaking, one full measure of flour to one scant measure of liquid makes a pour batter. Two full measures of flour make a drop batter; and three full measures make a dough; although, for various reasons, these proportions are subject to many modifications.

If the ingredients in batters were simply mixed and cooked slowly, the resulting substances would be hard and compact, unfit for human digestion. Hence, to obviate this, and to make them light and porous, we must resort to other processes. This is accomplished by means of the expansion of incorporated air, by the generation of gas within the mixture, or by a combination of both methods, supplemented by quick cooking before the gas has a chance to escape.

Air at seventy degrees expands to about three times its volume when exposed to the temperature of a hot oven. Consequently, as a mixture heats in cooking, incorporated air expands, giving the desired lightness. Air is incorporated or enclosed in batters by beating the mixture thoroughly, as in making whole-wheat gems; by adding eggs to the beaten mixture, as in popovers; and by the gas obtained by the union of an acid with an alkaline carbonate, as in the use of baking powders. In batters made light by the admixture of air, one must exercise care in beating to actually incorporate and retain the air. When eggs are added to the mixture, the glutinous consistency of the albumin they contain assists in retaining the entangled air.

GEMS OR PUFFS (PLAIN)

• Milk, 1 cup.
• Salt.
• Cooking oil, 1 tablespoonful, if desired.
• Egg, 1.
• Sifted flour, about 2 cups.

Break the egg into the milk, add salt, and beat thoroughly. Beat into this enough sifted flour to make a batter that will pile slightly when poured in a thick stream. Bake in hot greased gem irons in a brisk oven. A tablespoonful of cooking oil may be added to the milk if a richer batter is desired.

CORN GEMS

Make same as plain gems, but use one-fourth corn meal and a little sugar.

WHOLE-WHEAT AND GRAHAM GEMS

Use one-fourth to one-third whole wheat or graham flour.

GRANOSE PUFFS

• Eggs, 4.
• Ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoonful.
• Salt.
• Sugar, ¼ cup.
• Granose flakes, 4 cups.

Beat the yolks of the eggs with the sugar until light, then add the cinnamon and salt. Beat again, then add two cups granose flakes. Mix thoroughly and add half of the stiffly-beaten whitest of the eggs, then two more cups granose flakes, and lastly the rest of the whites. Drop in round gem irons, filling them heaping full, and bake a light brown. They may be iced and a little shredded cocoanut sprinkled on top.

VEGETARIAN HOT CAKES

• Bread crumbs, 4 cups.
• Flour, 1 cup.
• Salt, 1 teaspoonful.
• Sugar as desired.

Mix all together thoroughly, and add sufficient

• Milk heated at 140° or 150°,

To make a thick pour batter. To this add the

• Yolks of 5 eggs.

Beat up thoroughly and add the

• Stiffly-beaten whites.

Bake on soapstone griddle. Be careful not to have the milk scalding hot, as it renders cakes soft and sticky.

GREEN CORN GRIDDLE CAKES

• Corn, 1 quart, cut from the ear.
• Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls.
• White corn meal, 3 tablespoonfuls.
• Salt, ¼ teaspoonful.
• Milk, 1 cup.
• Eggs, 4.
• Flour, ½ cup.

Mix thoroughly and bake on soapstone griddle.

BAKED CORN PIE

• Sweet corn, 1 can.
• Milk, 2 cups.
• Salt, 1 teaspoonful.
• Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls.
• Eggs, 2.

Warm the butter and stir through the corn; beat the eggs with the milk, add the salt, and mix with the butter and the corn. Turn into a pan and bake until set. Should be light brown.

POPOVERS

• Flour, 2 cups.
• Milk, 1¾ cups.
• Butter.
• Salt, ½ level teaspoonful.
• Eggs, 3.

Mix the salt and flour, pour on slowly half the milk to make a smooth batter; add the eggs, one at a time, beating well, and gradually the remaining milk. Beat vigorously for a few minutes, then turn at once into hot well-buttered gem-pans, filling them about half full. Bake in rather hot oven from twenty to thirty minutes.

CORN BREAD WITHOUT BAKING POWDER NO. 1

• Corn meal, 2 cups.
• Eggs, 4.
• Salt.
• Boiling milk, 3 cups.
• Butter, size of egg.

Put the meal into the mixing bowl, make hollow in the center, put in butter and salt, and pour the hot milk over all, and stir well. Let cool, and if too stiff, add a little more cold milk. Break the eggs and separate them; add the yolks to the meal and beat five minutes. Beat the whites and add them to the batter. Oil a baking-pan, make it hot, and turn in the batter. Bake in a quick oven thirty minutes.

HOE CAKE

• Corn meal, 4 cups.
• Water, or milk.
• Melted butter, 1 tablespoonful.
• Salt and sugar as desired.

Sift corn meal with a little salt, and sugar if desired; scald with sufficient water or milk to make a stiff batter, but soft enough to spread easily with a knife. A tablespoonful of melted butter may be added if desired. Spread on a baking-sheet or pan about one-half inch thick or less and bake slowly till crisp clear through.

If the cake bakes fast on the bottom, it may be turned over so that both sides may be evenly baked.

CORN BREAD WITHOUT BAKING POWDER NO. 2

• Corn meal, 2 cups.
• Flour, 1 cup.
• Salt, 1 teaspoonful.
• Sugar, ¼ cup.

Mix and add

• Boiling water.

sufficient to make stiff dough; let cool, then stir in

• Butter, 1 tablespoonful.
• Beaten yolks, 6.

and lastly the

• Stiffly-beaten whites, 6.

CORN BREAD NO. 3

• Sponge, 3 cups.
• Butter, 1 rounded tablespoonful.
• Mixture, 2 parts corn meal to 1 part flour.
• Eggs, 2.
• Sugar, 3 heaped tablespoonfuls.

Take three cups of the sponge as set for making wheat bread, measured when light, ready to mix up stiff. Add sugar, eggs, and butter. To this add a mixture of two-thirds corn meal and one-third flour until it is as stiff as will stir conveniently (if made too stiff, the bread will be dry; if not stiff enough, it will be sticky). Put about half an inch deep in greased pans, and let rise till nearly an inch deep and bake in a moderate oven. It may be in deeper loaves, but they are not likely to be so satisfactory.

GEORGIA PONES

• Southern corn meal, 2 cups.
• Sugar, 1 tablespoonful.
• Salt, ½ teaspoonful.
• Boiling milk or cream.

Sift meal with sugar and salt. Pour over this enough boiling milk or cream to make a stiff drop batter. Stir constantly, that the meal may not lump. When perfectly smooth, drop in large spoonfuls on a cold buttered baking-sheet and bake in a brisk oven. The pones should be browned on top.

BOSTON BROWN BREAD

• Yellow corn meal, 1 cup.
• White flour, ¾ cup.
• Salt, 1 teaspoonful.
• Eggs, 4.
• Graham flour, 1 cup.
• New Orleans molasses (good), ¾ cup.
• Milk, about 3 cups.

Mix meal, flour, molasses, and milk; separate eggs and mix yolks with other ingredients. Beat whites very stiff and fold into mixture, which should not be thick. Put this in the tin dish immediately and steam for three or four hours.

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