German cookery for the English kitchen

lb. butter, lb. sugar. 4 eggs. Stiste. 2 OZ. sweet almonds. I lb. flour. I OZ. baking powder. 4 bitter almonds. Cakes. 207 Cream the butter. Stir in the sugar and grated almonds and then alternately a beaten-up egg and a heaped tablespoonful of flour, mixing well. The flour should be mixed with the baking powder and then sifted. Fill a well-buttered cake tin and bake i hour. Altdeutscher Napfkuchen. I lb. clarified butter, i^ lb. sifted flour. \ oz. baking powder. A little cardamom. 8 eggs. f lb. sugar. I lb. currants. Grated rind of a lemon. Cream the butter and the sugar and then add the yolks of eggs. Beat ½ hour to a froth, then add the grated lemon peel and cardamom and alternately the whites of eggs, whisked to a snow, and the sifted flour, mixed with the baking powder. Finally stir in the currants lightly. Bake about i^ hour. Berliner Pfannkuchen. (Berlin Pancakes.) 1 lb. flour. 2 oz. sugar. 4 eggs. 4 oz. butter. 8 bitter almonds. I tablespoonful rum. \ pint milk, 1½ oz. yeast. Crumble the yeast, sprinkle a little sugar over it and stir it with ^ gill milk and 3 tablespoonsml flour. Stand on one side for 10 minutes to rise. Beat the sugar and eggs to a froth, Stir into them by degrees the grated almonds, rum, flour, butter (melted), prepared yeast, and remaining milk, mixing thoroughly. Knead and beat the dough and place in a covered pan near the fire to rise. Then take a piece of the dough, place it on a floured pasteboard and draw out a strip to about ½ inch in thickness. On this, at intervals of about 2 inches from one another and from the edge, place with a teaspoon, small heaps of jam, mixed with a little rum. Fold the edges of the strip of dough together, so that the jam is completely covered, and 2o8 Gebdck : Torten und Kucken. press together a little round each heap of the jam. Then with a wine glass cut out the doughnuts, leaving a good margin round the jam. Press the edges together firmly and place on another floured board to rise. Continue in this manner until the whole of the dough has been made into doughnuts. When they have well risen, slide them carefully, three or four at a time, into a large saucepan of steaming hot fat and leave them in till brown on all sides. To test if done, insert a wooden skewer ; if dry when withdrawn, the doughnuts are ready to take out. Place them then on a sieve, on blotting paper, to absorb all fat and afterwards on a dish, rolling them first in fine castor sugar. Instead of the sugar, a thin icing may be poured over them, composed of i lb. castor sugar mixed with a gill of rosewater. Spritzkuchen. 2 oz. butter, ½ pint water. A pinch of salt. \ lb. sifted flour. i^ oz. sugar. 6 eggs. Some grated lemon peel or grated almonds. Put the water into a saucepan with the butter, and, as soon as it boils, stir in the sugar, lemon peel, salt and flour, and heat, stirring well, till all becomes a firm, dry mass. Remove from the fire and stir in at once 2 beaten-up eggs. When nearly cool, add gradually the remaining 4 eggs. Fill a special cake syringe (Kuchenspritze) three-quarters full with this paste. Bring 2 lbs. of frying fat to the boil. Take small pieces of paper (about 4 inches square), dip them into the boiling fat, and then press out from the syringe a ring of paste on to each paper, joining the ends of the ring together, so that they do not open out again. Slide the papers into the fat, a few at a time. As the paste rings touch the fat, they come away from the paper and swell out. When they begin to show cracks on the upper side and appear a light brown, turn them and let the other side finish browning. On taking out, dip into a mixture of castor sugar and rosewater, so that they receive a glaze on their upper sides. To make this icing, mix i gill rosewater with i lb. castor sugar. Cakes. 209