Practical West African cookery

11 breakfastcups of flour. 1 good teaspoon baking powder, About 5 tablespoons milk (if Ideal, 1 tablespoon to the rest of water). i saltspoon salt. 1. Mix the flour, well dried and sifted, with the salt and baking powder. Slowly stir in enough milk to make a paste thick enough to roll. 2. Sprinkle some flour on the board, lay on the paste and roll it out with a bottle to the thickness of half an inch. Cut into triangular shapes and put immediately on a greased baking sheet in the oven. The scones rise at once and will be cooked in a few minutes. Notes. — In the bush, these same scones should be made with a teaspoon butter or lard mixed with the flour. They can be then cooked in a greased frying pan over a not too hot fire, instead of in the oven. They would be easier to cook in the frying pan if cut into rounds with the lid of a tin. They should be turned over when nicely browned. The same scones can be made for tea by adding an egg, a dessertspoon castor sugar and a good tablespoon currants when mixing the flour. Massara 4 heaped tablespoons massara flour. 1 teaspoon baking powder. 1 egg. 2 lumps or 1 teaspoon sugar. A pinch of salt. Scones. 3 tablespoons milk (if Ideal, one teaspoon to three tablespoons water), i teaspoon butter or ground nut oil. 1. Slightly beat the egg and mix it in the pudding basin with the well-sifted massara flour, sugar and salt, add the butter and the milk and mix to a paste. This paste cannot become sufficiently stiff to be rolled like ordinary scones, it must just be shaped on the floured board with a spoon and knife as quickly as possible. Flatten it out to one and a quarter inch thickness and cut into rounds with a cocoa tin, (the lid would not be high enough). 2. Put on a greased baking sheet and put in the oven for ten minutes. They must be carefully watched as they burn easily. Take them out of the oven as soon as they are light brown. Rock Cakes. 6 heaped tablespoons flour. 4 good tablespoons finely crushed sugar. 3 good tablespoons currants. 3 good tablespoons butter or lard. About 1 or 2 tablespoons milk, (if Ideal, 1 teaspoon to the rest of water). 2 eggs. 1 \ heaped teaspoons baking powder. A pinch of salt. The butter or lard should have been kept over-night in the cooler to make it as hard as possible. 1. Mix the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in the large pudding basin, add the butter or lard, breaking it into the flour with the fingers and mixing it well. Slightly beat the eggs and pour them in, mix all together with a knife, add the currants and a little milk if the paste is too sticky, but it should not be made at all sloppy. 2. Divide the paste into little heaps and put them on a greased baking sheet. Bake immediately in a quick oven for about a quarter of an hour. It must always be remembered that anything made with baking powder must be mixed and baked as quickly as possible. Plain Currant Cake. l-lb. flour. 4-lb. butter or lard. 5 eggs. 4-lb. sugar. 4-lb. currants. 2 or 3 tablespoons milk. 1 dessertspoon baking powder. 1. Put the flour and baking powder into a basin, rub the butter well in, add the sugar and currants. 2. Beat up the eggs in a basin, add the milk, then pour it into the basin with the flour and mix well (do not beat it) with a fork.