Foods and home making

used. Continue beating only long enough to mix the sugar with the egg white. When the custard has cooled, add the vanilla. Pour the custard into sherbet glasses or into a large serving dish. With a tablespoon drop the meringue on top of the custard. The meringue looks attractive and tastes better to some persons if it is browned slightly. To brown the meringue, place the serving cups or dish in the broiling oven. Let remain until the surface is slightly browned. A bit of jelly may be used as a garnish on the top of each meringue island. Chill. Serve cold. Yield : 6 servings. How are fruit shortcakes made ? Have you ever heard house- keepers speak of shortening? Shortening is a fat. Often in recipes the term “ shortening ” is used. Butter, lard, or one of the substitutes for these fats is commonly used as shortening. Fat in a quick bread makes the bread more crisp or tender. A quick bread with much fat in it is so tender or short that it breaks readily. A shortcake is a cake containing enough fat to make it tender. If you know how to make drop biscuits (see page 302), it is very easy for you to learn how to make one kind of shortcake. Merely add more fat and a little sugar to plain biscuit dough to make the foundation for a shortcake. FRUIT SHORTCAKE Use the recipe for baking-powder biscuits (see page 302), making the following changes : Increase the fat to ^ cup. Add \ cup of sugar to the dry ingredients. Place half of the mixture in a greased cake pan or in greased muffin pans. Spread the mixture in the pans so it is somewhat smooth. Then spread the surface with a very thin layer of softened butter. Put the remainder of the dough on top of the buttered layer. Bake in a quick oven — 450° F. — for 20 minutes or until the cake is browned and has shrunk from the sides of the pan. 32° Luncheon or Supper Remove from the pan and place on a cake cooler for a few minutes. Split the cake open, using a fork, and place crushed and sweetened fruit between the layers. The top of the cake may be covered with (i) sweetened and crushed fruit, (2) whipped cream garnished with uncrushed fruit, or (3) meringue garnished with uncrushed fruit. (Serve with soft custard sauce; see page 317.) Strawberries are a favorite fruit for shortcakes. About £ cup of sugar is needed to sweeten 1 quart of strawberries. Peaches , fresh or canned, make a good shortcake. This fruit may be served with whipped cream or with custard sauce. If whipped cream is used it should be sweetened and flavored. Use : £ pint of whipping cream, a speck of salt, \ cup of powdered sugar, and £ teaspoon of vanilla. (Directions for whipping cream are given on page 443-) How is gingerbread made ? How does molasses aid in leav- ening? As you perhaps know, gingerbread is not bread, that is, it is not the kind of bread we eat with meat and vegetables. Gingerbread is cake, flavored with ginger. Although gingerbread and muffins are not much alike in many ways, the methods of making them are quite similar. Indeed, if you can make good muffins, you should be able, with the aid of a reliable recipe, to make good gingerbread. Gingerbread is dark in color because it contains molasses and spices. Molasses helps not only to color the cake, but to sweeten it. However, a more pleasing flavor can be obtained by using a combination of molasses and white sugar for sweeten- ing.