ISSUE 44, À LA CRÉOLE, Part 6: Baking & Confectionery
Baking & Confectionery
Potato Biscuit (Olympe Boudinot) —Warm half cup of milk—enough to melt two tablespoonfuls of butter. Stir into it a pint of hot mashed potatoes, seasoned with teaspoonful of salt, two dashes of white pepper, two eggs beaten together; sift in enough flour to handle; lay on biscuit board, roll lightly into thickness of an inch; cut out with cooky-cutter; bake in moderate oven about twenty minutes. Can be baked in jelly-cake pans, and cut in pie-shape pieces, if preferred. Then I would suggest splitting and buttering before sending to table. [Daily News Cook Book, 414]
Corn Bread (St. Charles Hotel) – Two eggs beaten very light. Mix with them 1 pt. sour milk or buttermilk, 1 pt. of meal. Melt 1 large tablespoon butter and add to the mixture. Dissolve 1 tablespoon soda in a portion of the milk and add to the mixture. Then beat very hard and bake in pan in a quick oven. [Famous Old Receipts, 48.]
New Orleans Gingerbread – Half a pound of butter; One quarter of a pound of brown sugar; One table-spoonful of ginger; One tea-spoonful of cinnamon; Six eggs; Three gills of molasses; Half a gill of milk; The grating of one orange; Half a pound of flour; Half a pound of fine Indian meal; One table-spoonful of saleratus. Beat the butter, sugar, spice and orange together until light. Mix the wheat and the Indian meal together, and beat in one fourth, whisk the eggs until thick, which add half at a time; then stir the molasses and milk together and add gradually; then the remaining wheat and Indian meal, one half at a time; after beating all well together, stir in the saleratus, which mix well through, but not sufficient to destroy the lightness produced. Butter and line your pan (either square or round) with white paper, put in the batter, smooth over the top with a knife and bake in a moderate oven. [Whiddifield’s New Cook Book, 370]
French Pancakes – Beat the yolks of two eggs, two tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar and the same of butter all together until very light. Add one half pint milk. Into half a teacup of flour put a teaspoonful of baking powder: mix thoroughly and stir quickly into the mixture of milk, eggs, sugar and butter; lastly add the whites of the eggs beaten very light. Butter some pie plates and put enough of the batter in each to make about six of the cakes altogether. Bake in a quick over a delicate brown, sif powdered sugar over each, and serve with a spoonful of jelly in the centre of each. Sometimes the children are delighted to have them served in rolls. To do this, grease a frying pan with sweet dripping very slightly, and put a tablespoonful of the batter in at the time, tippig the pan about until the surface is covered. Fry light brown, spread the jelly quickly over one side and roll the pancake up; serve very hot, with powdered sugar sprinkled over. . Irene H., “Creole Cookery: The Economic and Nutritive Qualities of Well-Made Soups,” St. Louis Republic (August 3, 1890).
Hominy Waffles – Half a pint of cold boiled hominy [grits]; half a pint of rice flour; two tablespoonfuls of what flour; one pint of milk; one tablespoonful of butter; two eggs well beaten. Mix and bake in waffle irons. [Unrivalled Cook Book, 272]
Beauprès Waffles – Half a pound of butter stirred to a cream; the yolks of five eggs stirred in half a pound of flour; half a pint of sweet milk gradually stirred in; lastly, the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and stirred in the batter. [Unrivalled Cook Book, 280]
Rice Waffles – Half a pint of rice, picked, washed, boiled very soft, then drained, and allowed to cool; one and a half pints of flour sifted over the pan of rice; quarter of apound of butter warmed at the fire; one quart of fresh milk; five eggs beaten light. When you have sifted the flour into the rice, stir in the warmed butter and the salt; then stir the beaten eggs gradually into the milk; then beat all together, and bake in well-greased waffle irons; serve very hot. [Unrivalled Cook Book, 280-81]
Crumb Griddle Cakes (Mrs. H. Scoville, N.O.) – The night before using put some bread crumbs to soak in one quart of sour milk; in the morning rub through a sieve, and add four well-beaten eggs, two tea-spoons soda dissolved in a little water, one table-spoon melted butter, and enough corn-meal to make them the consistency or ordinary griddle-cakes. It is better to beat yolks and whites separately, stirring the whites lightly in just before baking. [The Dixie Cook Book, 53]
Indian Loaf Cake (St. Charles Hotel) – Mix a teacupful of powdered white sugar with a quart of rich milk, and cut up in the milk two ounces of butter, adding a saltspoonful of salt. Put this mixture into a covered pan or skillet, and set it on the fire till it is scalding hot. Then take it off, and scald with it as much yellow Indian meal (previously sifted) as will make it of the consistence of thick boiled mush. Beat the whole very hard for a quarter of an hour, and then set it away to cool. While it is cooling, beat three eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture when it is about as warm as new milk. Add a teacupful of good strong yeast, and beat the whole another quarter of an hour, for much of the goodness of this cake depends on its being long and well-beaten. Then have ready a tin mold or earthen pan with a pipe in the centre, (to diffuse the heat through the middle of the cake). The pan must be very well-buttered, as Indian meal is apt to stick. Put in the mixture, cover it, and set it in a warm place to rise. It should be light in about four hours. Then bake it two hours in a moderate oven. When done, turn it out with the broad surface downwards, and send it to table hot an whole. Cut it into slices and eat it with butter. This will be found an excellent cake. If wanted for breakfast, mix it, and set it to rise the night before. If properly made, standing all night will not injure it. Like all Indian cakes, (of which this is one of the best), it should be eaten warm. [The White House Cook Book, 220]
Grand Duke Cake (Mrs. Alex Delgado, N.O.) – (White layer) The whites of 3 eggs, 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup butter, ½ cup sweet milk, ½ cup cornstarch, 2 cups flour, 2 level teaspoons baking powder, flavor with lemon. (Dark layer) Yolks of 3 eggs, 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup milk, ½ cup butter, 2 cups flour, 1 cup chopped raisins, 1 tablespoon of molasses, 2 level teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon mixed spices. Bake in jelly cake pans and put boiled icing in between. [Famous Old Receipts, 252]
New Orleans Sponge Cake – Weight ingredients and prepare paking pans, then pour one gill of boiling water on three-quarters of a pound of sugar in a bowl; stir it, cover and let it stand on the table until yolks of six eggs are beaten, add the grated rind of half a lemon to the eggs; froth the whites and our the yolks on them, beat thoroughly together then add the syrup, (sugar and water) and beat ten minutes, or till thick, sift in half-pound of flour, mixing very gently with a knife, add juice of half a lemon, pour in pans and bake from twenty to thirty minutes. The syrup is sometimes left on the range, and when boiling is poured into the eggs which are then beaten until cold. The eggs thicken more quickly in this way and the cake is excellent but perhaps not quite so moist as that made with cool syrup. This cake has the advantage of keeping much longer than ordinary sponge cake. [The Dixie Cook Book, 6-7]
Rice Meringue — One quart of milk; half a cupful of rice; sugar to taste; small piece of fresh butter; whites of eight eggs. Put the rice into the milk, and let it simmer for three hours, until quite smooth; then remove from the fire, sweeten to taste, and add a small piece of fresh butter; stir until well mixed; then beat the whites of four eggs, and beat into the rice, adding also a little grated nutmeg, and the finely grated rind of one lemon ; pour into a buttered pudding-dish, and drop lightly on it the whites of the remaining four eggs, which should previously have been beaten to the stiffest possible froth with live table-spoonfuls of sugar and the juice of a lemon; bake to a light brown in a slow oven ; eat cold. [Unrivalled Cook Book, 665-66]
Ice Cream (New Orleans Recipe) – Take six cream cheeses and the cream that comes with them; two tins of condensed milk, four cups of powdered sugar, fifteen eggs, whites and yolks, beaten separately; add one quart of cold water; beat all together. Flavour with vanilla and add the whites last. Freeze. [The Housewife Referee, 205]
Hickory Nut Ice Cream (Mamie Richards, N.O.) – One pound of hickory nut kernels, two cups of sugar, one quart of cream, two tablespoonfuls of sugar burnt brown. Pick over the kernels carefully for pieces of shell, then pound them in a mortar with a little sugar and water added. Set two spoonfuls of sugar over the fire without water and let it melt brown. Pour in a little water to dissolve it, then add to it the cream with the sugar and nut paste and freeze in the usual manner. [The Dixie Cook Book, 378]
Stuffed Apples – Take 10 good sized sound apples (not sweet). Core them removing as much of the inside as possible without making too thin. Chop fine to of the same kind of apples, also ½ tumbler of seeded raisins, ¼ of pecans after being picked out, the raisins cut with scissors, the pecans chopped fine. Mix with them butter and sugar and stuff the apples. Bake and add a teaspoonful of sherry to each apple. Serve with whipped cream, to, which add a little sherry, the cream put over the apples. After placing in dish mout top of each with candied cherry. A recipe from a written recipe book compiled from Mrs. R. O. Pritchard’s collected and original recipes, of New Orleans, by Mrs. Theodore Shute, New Orleans, 1894. [Famous Old Recipes, 312]
Baked Peaches (Mrs. Celestin Villeneuve) – Halve fruit and remove stones. Fill inside with a paste of sugar, butter and cinnamon. Bake slowly, basting with a syrup of lemon juice. Cover with a meringue, brown and serve. May be baked in individual dishes, and served hot or cold. [Famous Old Receipts, 154]
Pecan Pralines – Take a pound of new pecans, shelled so that they have come out unbroken, and rub them well in a linen cloth to take off any lingering dust. Put them into a skillet with a pound of sugar, a little carmia and a half glass of water. Place on the fire until the pecans crackle hard, then take off and work until the sugar becomes quite sandy and well detached from the pecans. Separate one part of the sugar, and gain put the pecans or almonds on the fire, stirring them lightly with a spoon, according as they pick up the sugar, paying strict attention that the fire is not too quick. When the pecans have taken up this part of the sugar put in that which you have reserved, and continue to parch them until they have taken up all the sugar. Then place a piece of paper on a sieve and throw the pecans upon it, shaking them around to separate those which still hold together. [“Pecan Pralines,” Times Picayune (December 30, 1897).]
Cream Praline – Is not much larger than twice the size of the salted almond. It is made by carefully shelling the pecan without breaking the fruit, except to separate it in two whole halves. Then the maker has at hand a nice meringue made by beating the whites of an egg and a little white sugar together; a drop is allowed to fall on one of the inner hals of the pecan; then the other half is clamped upon it; a pretty delicate fringe of meringue spreads around the pecan, and these are served in dainty little platters, just like salted almonds at luncheon, only they come on with the dessert. [Times Picayune (November 1, 1896)]
Pistachio Pralines – Fresh-imported pistachio-kernels should be selected for this purpose, as they then still retain their beautiful pinky-purple bloom, while the interior of the kernel is of a bright, delicate green. Rub half a pound of pistachio kernels in a cloth to rid them from dust, and put them to get warm in the screen. Boil three-quarters of a pound of sugar nearly to the snap, add a spoonful of vanilla sugar, and a few drop of prepared cochineal; withdraw the sugar from the fire, throw in the pistachios, stir altogether with a wooden spoon, detaching the sugar from the bottom and sides of the sugar-boiler; and as soon as the pistachios become covered with the sugar, turn all over upon a wire sieve, and cover with paper for five minutes; at the end of this time, picked out the charged pistachios from the sugar; put this back into the sugar-boiler with just enough water to dissolve it, and having boiled it to the snap, again throw in the pistachios, and give them another charge, by stirring them carefully, so as to allow them to take as much sugar as possible, keeping them separate; and when this is accomplished, turn them out upon the wire sieve; again pick the pistachios from the sugar, and put this into the boiler with a little water, and a few more drops of cochineal, and having boiled it nearly to the snap, stir the pistachios in it to give them another charge of sugar, and turn them out upon the sieve to cool; the pistachios by this time, having received three charges, should be double their original size: they may be served in their natural state, or else wrapped in Cossack papers. [Francatelli, The Cook’s Guide, 47-28]