Original White House Cookbook

Sift together a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder and a pint of flour; add a piece of butter as large as a walnut, a pinch of salt, one beaten egg and sweet milk enough to make a soft dough. Roll it out half an inch thick ; butter a square biscuit tin and cover the bottom and sides with the dough ; fill the pan with quartered juicy apples, sprinkle with a little cinnamon and molasses. Bake in rather quick oven until the crust and apples are cooked a light brown. Sprinkle a little sugar over the top five minutes before removing from the oven. Ripe peaches are fine used in the same manner. APPLE TARTS. Pare, quarter, core and boil in half a cupful of water, until quite soft, ten large, tart apples; beat until very smooth and add the yolks of six eggs, or three whole ones, the juice and grated outside rind of two lemons, half a cup of butter, one and a half of sugar (or more, if not sufficiently sweet) ; beat all thoroughly, line patty-pans with a puff paste and fill ; bake five minutes in a hot oven. Meringue. — If desired very nice, cover them when removed from the oven with the meringue made of the whites of three eggs remaining, mixed with three tablespoonfuls sugar ; return to the oven and delicately brown. CREAM TARTS. Make a rich, brittle crust, with which cover your patty-pans, smoothing off the edges nicely and bake well. While these “ shells ” are cooling, take one teacupful (more or less according to the number of tarts you want) of perfectly sweet and fresh cream, skimmed free of milk ; put this into a large bowl or other deep dish, and with your egg-beater whip it to a thick, stiff froth ; add a heaping tablespoonful of fine white sugar, with a teaspoonful (a small one) of lemon or vanilla. Fill the cold shells with this and set in a cool place till tea is ready. OPEN JAM TARTS. Time to bake until paste loosens from the dish. Line shallow tin dish with puff paste, put in the jam, roll out some of the paste, wet it lightly with the yolk of an egg beaten with a little milk, and a tablespoonful of powdered sugar. Cut it in very narrow strips, then lay them across the tart, lay another strip around the edge, trim off outside, and bake in a quick oven. CHESS CAKES. Peel and grate one cocoanut ; boil one pound of sugar fifteen minutes in two-thirds of a pint of water ; stir in the grated cocoanut and boil fifteen minutes longer. While warm, stir in a quarter of a pound of butter ; add the yolks of seven eggs well beaten. Bake in patty-pans with rich paste. If prepared cocoanut is used, take one and a half coffeecupfuls. Fine. . ★ ★ ★ The usual rule for custards is, eight eggs to a quart of milk ; but a, very good custard can be made of six, or even less, especially with the addition of a level tablespoonful of sifted flour, thoroughly blended in the sugar first, before adding the other ingredients. They may be baked, boiled or steamed, either in cups or one large dish. It improves custards to first boil the milk and then cool it before being used ; also a little salt adds to the flavor. A very small lump of butter may also be added, if one wants something especially rich.