The European cookbook for American homes (from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France)

2 cups granulated sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup milk 4 egg yolks, well beaten 4 egg whites 1 cup pine nuts Cream butter. Gradually add sugar and beat together until light and creamy. Add extract and egg yolks. Sift flour and baking powder together 3 times and add to mixture alternately with the milk. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry and fold in with the pine nuts. Pour into baking pans lined with oiled paper. Bake 45 minutes in a moderate oven (350° F.). Pine nuts enrich many a Spanish specialty. Though difficult to shell, they are well worth the trouble because of their incomparable flavor. r MACAROONS (Almendrados) 3/4 cup blanched almonds 1 teaspoon each, mace, cinna- 3 egg whites mon, nutmeg Y\ cup powdered sugar 1 teaspoon rosewater 4 drops bitter almond Pound almonds smooth as your cheek, adding a little eggwhite to prevent oiling, and let stand overnight if convenient. In morning, beat egg-whites to a stiff froth, adding sugar gradually in small quantities. Continue beating, stir in spices and rosewater a little at a time and add pounded almonds gradually. Flavor. The mixture should be worked until it becomes a soft dough — if too thick it will be heavy, if too thin the cake will spread and run over in baking. Take up dough with teaspoon and shape into balls with your fingers, floured. Lay on buttered baking sheet, 2 inches apart, and bake 8-10 minutes in moderate oven (35o°F.). The macaroons should rise in the middle while baking and crack on the surface. Split almonds may be laid on top before baking. Macaroons and macaroni are Siamese twins in origin, both being the offspring of the Italian root-word maccare — to bruise, crush to a paste. Although accredited to Italy, macaroons are now the specialties of many countries, with variations both in flavor (lemon, apple, coffee, chocolate, etc.) and in the nut of which the paste is made (almond, coconut and pistachio). Indeed, the Spanish macaroon is the type best known in this country, for it is made only of almonds and hence called "almendrados." The oriental influence so prevalent in Spanish cooking is noted in the rosewater flavoring. PASTRY TWISTS (Roscoqs de feringas) 2 cups almonds 3 tablespoons grated lemon rind 3 tablespoons granulated sugar 3 egg whites Grind almonds to a meal, add sugar, grated lemon rind, and the whites of the eggs beaten until stiff but not dry. Mix ingredients lightly and put into a pastry bag with tube. Squeeze out in little twists on a buttered baking sheet and bake in a moderate oven (3500 F.) until golden brown. DOUGHNUTS (Buhuelos) 1 cup water 2 teaspoons granulated sugar 1 pinch salt 1 cup flour 2 teaspoons butter 4 eggs Honey Boil water with salt, butter and sugar. Stir in flour, a little at a time, and cook 15 minutes, stirring continually. Cool, then work in the eggs, one at a time. Drop the batter by spoonfuls into deep hot fat and fry the doughnuts a rich brown. Drain on brown paper, brush with honey and roll in powdered sugar. At the fiestas of Spain the honeyed aroma of these toothsome bufiuelos spices the air. They are as much a part of the great spring cattle fair as the empanads, pastellilos, goats, and