Foods and home making

Cream-puff shells are successfully baked by placing them first in a quick oven — 450° F. — and baking for 20 minutes, then reducing the heat of the oven to moderate temperature — 325° F. and baking for 25 minutes longer. Baking for about 45 minutes is necessary to harden the shell so it will be firm and will not collapse. Yield : 8 large or 10 medium shells. For the custard, use the recipe for butterscotch filling, page 324, with the following changes : Use f cup of white sugar instead of 1 cup of brown. Double the quantity of vanilla. Reduce the butter to 1 table- spoon. After the custard is cooled, you may improve it by folding into it 5 pint whipped cream. To insert the custard in the shells, make a slit in the side of the puff and insert some custard with a teaspoon. Serve on a dessert plate. Use a fork in eating the cream puff. How may nuts be salted? If nuts are boiled in strong salt water, the seasoning will permeate them. The nuts will taste salty but will not have a gritty coating of salt. Try this method of salting nuts given below. Nuts prepared in this way are delicious. SALTED PEANUTS OR ALMONDS I cup salt 2 cups shelled unroasted peanuts 3 cups water or shelled almonds 2 teaspoons butter Blanch thv, nuts, i.e., remove their skins by placing them in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain, cover with cold water, then slip off the skins. Put the salt, water, and nuts in a saucepan. Boil for I hour. Drain and rinse off the salt. Place in a shallow pan. Add the butter. Bake in a moderate oven — 375° F. — for 40 to 50 minutes or until slightly browned. Pour on to unglazed paper. Cool. How is a Christmas-tree cake made ? Does a look at Figure 149 make you want to bake a Christmas-tree cake? For a Christmas dinner or a Christmas party, this cake is very appro- priate. It is a fruit cake — not heavily laden with fruits as an English fruit — but having enough fruit to make it taste good and keep moist for several weeks if stored in a tightly-covered tin box. Suggested by a cake devised by Alice Bradley Figure 149. A Christmas-Tree Cake Birthday-cake candle holders with red candles are used to decorate this cake. A circular piece of paraffin paper is placed under each candle holder to protect the frosting. Red cinnamon candies are sprinkled over the coco- nut. A tinsel star is thrust into the top layer. 58i 5»2 Hospitality The cake is baked in 6 layers, each one about an inch less in diameter than the one underneath. Four pans with sloping sides about inches deep were used for the 4 lower layers. The largest pan was about 7 inches in diameter. (Shopping in several stores was necessary to get pans of proper diameter.) For the next to the top layer, one cup of a muffin pan was used, and for the top layer, a timbal mold. FRUIT CAKE 2 cup butter or other fat 2 cups sugar 2 eggs 1 cup sour milk 1 package dates 1 package currants \ pound citron \ pound candied lemon peel 1 cup nut meats 4 cups soft wheat or pastry flour, sifted before measuring £ teaspoon salt | teaspoon baking soda 2 or 3 tablespoons baking powder (See footnote, page 88.) H teaspoons each cinnamon and nutmeg 1 teaspoon cloves Wash and dry the raisins, dates, and currants. Stone the dates and cut them in pieces. Cut into bits or chop the citron and candied lemon peel. Sprinkle a few spoonfuls of flour, taken from the measured flour, over the fruit and nuts.