The school kitchen textbook

Put three cups of dark brown or maple sugar in a clean saucepan, or the chafing-dish, add one cup rich creamy milk, and boil till it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water. Add one teaspoon vanilla and beat vigorously as it cools and thickens. Stir in one or two cups of broken English walnuts or pecans. Turn into buttered pans to cool. Recipe, No. 118. Fruit and Nut Paste Take equal parts of best raisins, dates and figs and half as much nuts, or one cup each of the three fruits and one and one half cups of nuts, measured after preparing. Remove the seeds from the raisins, the stones and scales from the dates, the stems from the figs, and the shells from the nuts ; the brown skin also if almonds or peanuts are used. One variety or a mixture of nuts may be used. The nuts should be ground through the fine blade of the meat chopper and then rubbed with a pestle to a paste ; the raisins and dates also should be minced fine, and if you want it especially nice you may rub the figs through a sieve fine enough to keep back the seeds. Mix all very thoroughly, then turn it on a board in a bed of confectioner's sugar, and knead it until firm enough to roll out. Roll part of it one half inch thick and cut in half-inch cubes with a sharp knife, and part of it one fourth inch thick, and cut in rounds with the smallest pattie cutter. Dip the roller and the cutter in the sugar to prevent the paste from sticking. Roll the cubes and discs in the sugar until well covered, then put away in a cool place, with confectioner's paper between the layers. These will keep some time in air-tight tin boxes. PART II LESSON I BAKING POWDER BISCUIT AND VARIATIONS Put into a sieve over a mixing bowl, two cups sifted pastry flour, one teaspoon salt and four teaspoons baking powder. Mix thoroughly and sift. Rub or chop in two tablespoons cold butter, or one of butter and one of lard, till fine and mealy. Wet with about one cup milk into a stiff dough. The amount of milk required will vary with different kinds of flour, and in dividing or doubling the rule, the milk cannot always be proportioned exactly. When the shortening is soft and seems to moisten the dough, the flour will take up less milk than when the shortening makes a mealy mixture. Bread flour will take more than pastry flour. Toss about on a well floured board, knead it gently, but effectually, until it is smooth and will not stick. Use plenty of flour to prevent sticking, but do not knead flour into the dough. There is a knack about it which comes by practice. Roll or pat it very gently with the rolling pin, until half an inch thick, less rather than more. Use a cutter two inches in diameter, — use a four inch cutter for short cake, — place close together in a baking pan. Cut economically, that there may be but few trimmings. Let them stand in the pan at least ten minutes before baking ; then bake in a hot, but not too hot, oven, about ten minutes. When done, brush over with a little melted butter. Now because these biscuits are not two or three inches high when they are done, do not think they are not light or right. Remember the biscuits were thin when cut, and if