Catherine Owen's new cook book ..

never handsome ; but take a piece of brioche paste, roll it out thin, dredge with flour, fold and roll again, then use as you would puff paste ; if for sweet pastry, a little powdered sugar may be sprinkled through it instead of dredging with flour. This makes a yery handsome and delicious crust. Or, another use to which it may be put is to roll it out, cut it in rounds, lay on them mince-meat, orange marmalade, jam, or merely sprinkle with currants, chopped citron, and spices, fold, press the edges, and bake. Before quitting the subject of breads I must introduce anovelty which I will call "soufflee bread"." It is quickly made, possible even when the fire is poor, and so delicious that I know you will thank me for making you acquainted with it. Use two or three eggs according to size you wish, and to each ^gg a tablespoonful of flour. Mix the yolks with the flour and with them a dessert-spoonful of butter melted, and enough milk to make a thick batter, work, add a pinch of salt and a teaspoonful of sugar, work till quite smooth, then add the whites of the eggs in a firm froth, stir them in gently, and add a quarter teaspoonful of soda and half a one of cream of tartar. Have ready an iron frying-pan (or an earthen one that will stand heat is better), made hot with a tablespoonful of butter in it, also hot, but not so hot as for frying. Pour the batter (which should be of the consistency of sponge cake batter) into the pan, cover it with a lid or tin plate, and set it back of the stove if the fire is hot — if very slow it may be forward ; when well risen and near done, put it in the oven, or if the oven is cold you may turn it gently, not to deaden it. Serve when done (try with a twig), the under side On Bread. 21 uppermost ; it should be of a fine golden brown and look like an omelet. This soufflee bread is equally good baked in a tin in which is rather more butter than enough to grease it ; the oven must be very hot indeed. Coyer it for the few minutes with a tin plate or lid, to prevent it scorching before it has risen ; when it has puffed up remove the lid, and allow it to brown, ten to fifteen minutes should bake it ; turn it out as you would sponge cake — very carefully, not to deaden it. To succeed with bread you must use the very best flour. CHAPTER III. PASTRY. To MAKE good puff paste is a thing many ladies are anxious to do, and in which they generally fail, and this not so much because they do not make it properly, as because they handle it badly. A lady who was very anxious to excel in pastry once asked me to allow her to watch me make paste. I did so, and explained that there was more in the manner of using than in the making up. I then gave her a piece of my paste when completed, and asked her to cover some patty pans while I covered others, cautioning her as to the way she must cover them ; yet, when those covered by her came out of the oven they had not risen at all, they were like rich short paste ; while my own, made from the same paste, were toppling over with lightness. I had, without saying anything, pressed my thumb slightly on one spot of one of mine ; in that spot the paste had not risen at all, and I think this practical demonstration of what I had tried to explain was more useful than an hour's talk would have been.