Melt the chocolate over the teakettle and stir in the sugar and b.u.t.ter and a couple of drops of vanilla, if you like.
Take little round crackers, and with a fork roll them quickly in this till they are covered; dry on b.u.t.tered paper. You can also take saltines, or any long, thin cracker, and spread one side with the chocolate.
Almond Strips
White of 1 egg.
1 cup chopped almonds.
2 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar.
Beat the egg just a little and put in the sugar and almonds; spread on thin crackers, and brown in the oven with the door open.
PIES
General Rule
Margaret"s mother did not like her to eat pie, but she let her learn how to make it, and once in awhile she had a small piece. Here is her rule:
1 pint of flour.
1/4 cup of b.u.t.ter.
1/4 cup lard, 1 teaspoonful salt.
1/2 cup ice-water.
Put the flour, b.u.t.ter, lard, and salt in the chopping-bowl and chop till well mixed. Then add the water, a little at a time, turning the paste and chopping till smooth, but never touching with the hand. Put a very little flour on the pastry-board and lift the crust on this, and with a floured rolling-pin lightly roll it out once each way; fold it over and roll again, and do this several times till the crust looks even, with no lumps of b.u.t.ter showing anywhere. Put it on a plate and lay it in the ice-chest for at least an hour before you use it.
Pie-crust will never be light and nice if you handle it. Do not touch it with your fingers unless it is really necessary.
When you use it, get everything ready for the pie first, and then bring out the crust, roll quickly, and spread over the pie.
In putting the pie in the pan, cut the bottom piece a little larger than you want it, as it will shrink. Sprinkle the tin with flour, lay on the crust, and after it has been fitted evenly, and is not too tight, cut off the edge. Put a narrow strip of paste all around the edge, and press it together; if you wet it with a little water it will stick. If you wish to be sure the filling of the pie will not soak into the under crust, brush that over with beaten white of egg. After you put in the filling, fold your top crust together and cut some little shutters to let out the steam. Put on the cover, wet the edges so they will stick together, and pinch evenly.
Deep Apple Pie, or Apple Tart
Fill a baking-dish with apples, peeled and cut in slices.
Sprinkle with flour, cinnamon, and plenty of sugar, about half a cup. Put in the oven and bake till the apples are soft, and then cool, put on the crust, and bake till brown. Serve powdered sugar and rich cream with this. All pies cooked in a baking-dish, with no crust on the bottom or sides of the dish, are called tarts by the English. They are the best kind of pie.
Peach Pie
Line a pie-plate with crust, lay in the peaches, peeled and sliced, sprinkle with flour, and then cover with sugar; put on a top crust, cut some little slits in it to let out the steam, and cook till brown.
Or, make a deep peach tart.
French Peach Pie
Put the crust in the pie-pan as before; boil a cup of sugar with two tablespoonfuls of water till it threads. Lay quarters of peaches in the paste, around and around, evenly, no one on top of the other.
Break ten peach-stones and arrange evenly on top; the pour the syrup over, and put a few narrow strips of crust across the pie, four each way, and bake.
Pumpkin Pie
1 small pumpkin.
2 1/2 cups of pulp.
2 cups of milk.
1 tablespoonful mola.s.ses.
2 eggs.
1 teaspoonful each of salt, ginger, cinnamon, and b.u.t.ter.
2 heaping tablespoonfuls of sugar.
Cut the pumpkin in small pieces and take out the seeds and remove the peel. Put the good part over the kettle and steam it till it is tender, keeping it covered. Then you take off the cover, and stand the steamer you have cooked it in on the back of the stove, till the heat makes the pumpkin nice and dry.
Then mash it and put it through the colander. While it is warm, mix in everything in the rule except the eggs; let it cool, and put these in last, beating them till light. Line the pie-tin with crust, and pour in the filling and bake. This rule is a very nice one; it makes two pies.
Cranberry Pie
Cook a quart of cranberries till tender, with a small cup of water; when they have simmered till rather thick, put in a heaping cup of sugar and cook five minutes more. When as thick as oatmeal mush, take them off the fire and put through the colander; line a tin with crust, fill with berries, put strips of crust across, and bake. A nice plan is to take half a cup of raisins and a cup of cranberries for a pie, chopping together and cooking with water as before, adding a sprinkling of flour and a little vanilla when done.
Orange Pie
1 orange.
1 cup of water.
1 small cup of sugar.
2 teaspoonfuls corn-starch.
b.u.t.ter the size of a hickory-nut.
Yolk of one egg.
Grate the rind of the orange, and then squeeze out the juice.
Beat the yolk of the egg, add the water, with the corn-starch stirred in, orange juice and rind and b.u.t.ter, and cook till it grows rather thick. Bake your crust first; then bake the orange filling in it; then beat the white of your egg with a tablespoonful of granulated sugar, and put over it and brown.
This is an especially nice rule.
Lemon Pie
Make exactly as you did the orange-pie, but put in a good-sized cup of sugar instead of a small one, with a lemon in place of the orange.
Tarts
Whenever Margaret made pie she always saved all the bits of the crust and rolled them out, and lined patty-pans with them and baked them. She often filled them with raw rice while they baked, to keep them in shape, saving the rice when they were done.
She filled the sh.e.l.ls with jelly, and used the tarts for lunch.
CANDY