The art of cooking

Galettes. — One ounce of compressed yeast, one dessert spoonful of sugar, one and one-half gills of milk, one gill of cold water, two pounds of flour, seven eggs- Put the yeast and the sugar into a mixing bowl. Bring the milk and water to a tepid degree of heat and pouring this over the powdered yeast and Sugar, stir these together until both sugar and yeast dissolve. Mix into this as much flour as will make a firm dough, covered with a towel, and place it in a warm place to rise, which will take about two hours. Put into another bowl one pound of the flour, and into this drop one by one, the eggs. To this add half a gill of milk, and beat all together with the hand for fifteen minutes. When the dough has risen, mix into it the beaten flour, egg and milk; beat all again with the hand until the different components are thoroughly blended. SULTANA CAKE. 197 Set this again for two hours in a warm place to rise, add the remainder of the flour and knead the dough slightly. Cut from it pieces of dough which should be moulded in the hands, to the shape and size of a large egg. Gash them over the surface with a pair of scissors, place them upon a slightly floured baking tin, let stand for a short time to resume their lightness, and bake in a quick oven for fifteen minutes, drawing them out, however, when about half done, long enough to sprinkle each galette with a little sugar. Serve either hot or cold according to taste. CAKES. Sultana Cake. — One-half pound of flour, one quarter of a pound of butter, one-quarter of a pound of powdered sugar, one-quarter of a pound of sultana raisins, one teaspoonful of baking-powder, rind of one lemon, one ounce of citron, one-half gill of milk, two eggs. First line a cake tin with a sheet of greased kitchen paper, put the flour into a mixing bowl and rub into it the butter with the hands. Add to these the bakingpowder and the grated rind of lemon, and cutting the citron into thin small slices, stir this in also. Put the eggs and sugar together in a small bowl, beat these until very light, stir into this the milk, after which the mixture should be poured into the mixing bowl, and all thoroughly beaten together. Place the raisins into a towel and rub them in this until the stems and all extraneous matter are rubbed off, pick them out and stir into the cake batter as quickly as possible, and pouring all into the prepared baking panf bake the cake in a moderate oven for an hour and a quarter. When done remove the cake frotti the oven and place it upon a sieve to cool. Notes. — The cake tins should always be prepared before the cake, because when baking powder is used there should be no delay in baking, as it effervesces but once, and the mixture to be raised should be firmed by the heat while the baking powder is doing its work. For this same reason the raisins should also be prepared prior to the stirring of the cake and added last, because being heavy, they naturally sink to the bottom of the mixture if allowed to stand. Raisins should be never be washed, as it is extremely difficult to dry them thoroughly and the moisture which they would gather in being washed must inevitably cause heaviness in whatever they are used. Cakes should always be tested before being removed from the oven with a skewer or clean broom splint, for the reason that if exposed to a chill before thoroughly done they will always fall. If done, the skewer or broom splint will come out of the cake without any dough clinging thereto. The oven should always be kept closed, until the cake dough firms, and opened thereafter as little as is consistent with the proper watching of the baking.