French dishes for American tables

Spread on a pan a sheet of white paper, form your mixture in little rounds, somewhat smaller than a twenty-five cent piece, place them on top of the paper in your pan, each about an inch and a half apart from the other. Send them to a gentle oven for about twelve minutes, the door of the oven shut, and, at the end of that time, if they are well colored, remove them from the oven, let them become cold, turn the paper upside down, moisten it with a little water underneath, and remove the macaroons. 571. Tea Cakes. Put on a table a pound of flour, which you have previously sifted, make a hole in the middle, in which place half a pound of butter, six ounces of powdered sugar, a pinch of ginger, and four eggs. Mix all well together, and roll out your paste extremely thin, cut it out in rounds or squares, which put on a pan, which you have buttered lightly, brush your cakes with beaten egg, sprinkle them on top with half a pound of currants. Send them to the oven, and, when colored a bright yellow, remove them, and serve when needed. 572. Chocolate Cakes. Make the same mixture as for Savoy cake (Art. 569), put it in a cornucopia made of stiff paper, with a hole in the end, through which press it on a pan (on which you have spread a sheet of white paper), and form it into small rounds about the size of a fifty-cent piece. Send them to a gentle oven until they are quite firm, then let them become cold, and cut them all the same size with a small round cutter. Spread a layer of peach or other marmalade on the half of your cakes, which cover with the other half. Melt about two ounces of chocolate in about two tablespoonfuls of water. Put in a saucepan on the fire half a pound of sugar, with half a glass of water, boil for about eight to ten minutes, lift out some of the sugar with a spoon, drop it into cold water, place it between the thumb and third finger, and, if you may draw the sugar out into a long fine thread without breaking, you have reached the desired result. Then put your chocolate in a bowl, add your sugar, stirring until beginning to thicken. Take as many little wooden skewers as you have cakes, sharpen them to a fine point, stick one into each cake, which dip into your chocolate and sugar, covering it entirely. Put a colander upside down on a table, and in the holes place the ends of your sticks, thereby allowing the cakes on the opposite end to dry, after which remove your cakes from the sticks, and serve when needed. 573. Angel Cake. Beat the whites of eleven eggs very stiff. Mix with half a pound of sifted flour, half a pound of sugar, and a teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Flavor with extract of almond or extract of pineapple. Then mix all together with the whites of eggs, and bake in a moderate oven for about forty minutes, or until thoroughly done, of which you may judge by passing the point of a knife into your cake, and, if it comes out dry, it is sufficiently done. Do not butter the pan for this cake. 574. Pound Cake. Put in a bowl half a pound of butter, which you have put in rather a warm place, so as to be a little soft. Add two eggs, which beat