Mix well together the juice and grated rind of two lemons, two cupfuls of sugar, two eggs and the crumbs of sponge cake; beat it all together until smooth; put into twelve patty-pans lined with puff paste and bake until the crust is done.
ORANGE TARTLETS.
Take the juice of two large oranges and the grated peel of one, three-fourths of a cup of sugar, a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter; stir in a good teaspoonful of cornstarch into the juice of half a lemon and add to the mixture. Beat all well together and bake in tart sh.e.l.ls without cover.
MERINGUE CUSTARD TARTLETS.
Select deep individual pie-tins; fluted tartlet pans are suitable for custard tarts, but they should be about six inches in diameter and from two to three inches deep. b.u.t.ter the pan and line it with ordinary puff paste, then fill it with a custard made as follows: Stir gradually into the beaten yolks of six eggs two tablespoonfuls of flour, a saltspoonful of salt and half a pint of cream. Stir until free from lumps and add two tablespoonfuls of sugar; put the saucepan on the range and stir until the custard coats the spoon. Do not let it boil or it will curdle. Pour it in a bowl, add a few drops of vanilla flavoring and stir until the custard becomes cold; fill the lined mold with this and bake in a moderate oven. In the meantime, put the whites of the eggs in a bright copper vessel and beat thoroughly, using a baker"s wire egg-beater for this purpose. While beating, sprinkle in lightly half a pound of sugar and a dash of salt. When the paste is quite firm, spread a thin layer of it over the tart and decorate the top with the remainder by squeezing it through a paper funnel. Strew a little powdered sugar over the top, return to the oven, and when a delicate yellow tinge remove from the oven and when cold serve.
BERRY TARTS.
Line small pie-tins with pie crust and bake. Just before ready to use fill the tarts with strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, or whatever berries are in season. Sprinkle over each tart a little sugar; after adding berries add also to each tart a tablespoonful of sweet cream. They form a delicious addition to the breakfast table.
CREAM STRAWBERRY TARTS.
After picking over the berries carefully, arrange them in layers in a deep pie-tin lined with puff paste, sprinkling sugar thickly between each layer: fill the pie-tin pretty full, pouring in a quant.i.ty of the juice: cover with a thick crust, with a slit in the top and bake. When the pie is baked, pour into the slit in the top of the pie the following cream mixture: Take a small cupful of the cream from the top of the morning"s milk, heat it until it comes to a boil, then stir into it the whites of two eggs beaten light, also a tablespoonful of white sugar and a teaspoonful of cornstarch wet in cold milk. Boil all together a few moments until quite smooth; set it aside and when cool pour it into the pie through the slit in the crust. Serve it cold with powdered sugar sifted over it.
Raspberry, blackberry and whortleberry may be made the same.
GREEN GOOSEBERRY TART.
Top and tail the gooseberries. Put into a porcelain kettle with enough water to prevent burning and stew slowly until they break. Take them off, sweeten _well_ and set aside to cool. When cold pour into pastry sh.e.l.ls and bake with a top crust of puff paste. Brush all over with beaten egg while hot, set back in the oven to glaze for three minutes.
Eat cold.
_Common Sense in the Household._
COCOANUT TARTS.
Take three cocoanuts, the meats grated, the yolks of five eggs, half a cupful of white sugar, season, a wine-gla.s.s of milk; put the b.u.t.ter in cold and bake in a nice puff paste.
CHOCOLATE TARTS.
Four eggs, whites and yolks, one-half cake of Baker"s chocolate, grated, one tablespoonful of cornstarch, dissolved in water, three tablespoonfuls of milk, four of white sugar, two teaspoonfuls of vanilla, one saltspoonful of salt, one-half teaspoonful of cinnamon, one teaspoonful of b.u.t.ter, melted; rub the chocolate smooth in the milk and heat to boiling over the fire, then stir in the cornstarch.
Stir five minutes until well thickened, remove from the fire and pour into a bowl. Beat all the yolks and the whites of two eggs well with the sugar, and when the chocolate mixture is almost cold, put all together with the flavoring and stir until light. Bake in open sh.e.l.ls of pastry. When done, cover with a meringue made of the whites of two eggs and two tablespoonfuls of sugar flavored with a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Eat cold.
These are nice for tea, baked in patty-pans.
_Common Sense in the Household._
MAIDS OF HONOR.
Take one cupful of sour milk, one of sweet milk, a tablespoonful of melted b.u.t.ter, the yolks of four eggs, juice and rind of one lemon and a small cupful of white pounded sugar. Put both kinds of milk together in a vessel, which is set in another and let it become sufficiently heated to set the curd, then strain off the milk, rub the curd through a strainer, add b.u.t.ter to the curd, the sugar, well-beaten eggs and lemon. Line the little pans with the richest of puff paste and fill with the mixture; bake until firm in the centre, from ten to fifteen minutes.
GERMAN FRUIT PIE.
Sift together a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder and a pint of flour; add a piece of b.u.t.ter as large as a walnut, a pinch of salt, one beaten egg and sweet milk enough to make a soft dough. Roll it out half an inch thick; b.u.t.ter a square biscuit tin and cover the bottom and sides with the dough; fill the pan with quartered juicy apples, sprinkle with a little cinnamon and mola.s.ses. Bake in rather quick oven until the crust and apples are cooked a light brown. Sprinkle a little sugar over the top five minutes before removing from the oven.
Ripe peaches are fine used in the same manner.
APPLE TARTS.
Pare, quarter, core and boil in half a cupful of water, until quite soft, ten large, tart apples; beat until very smooth and add the yolks of six eggs, or three whole ones, the juice and grated outside rind of two lemons, half a cap of b.u.t.ter; one and a half of sugar (or more, if not sufficiently sweet); beat all thoroughly, line patty-pans with a puff paste and fill; bake five minutes in a hot oven.
_Meringue._--If desired very nice, cover them when removed from the oven with the meringue made of the whites of three eggs remaining, mixed with three tablespoonfuls of sugar; return to the oven and delicately brown.
CREAM TARTS.
Make a rich, brittle crust, with which cover your patty-pans, smoothing off the edges nicely and bake well. While these "sh.e.l.ls" are cooling, take one teacupful (more or less according to the number of tarts you want) of perfectly sweet and fresh cream, skimmed free of milk; put this into a large bowl or other deep dish, and with your egg-beater whip it to a thick, stiff froth; add a heaping tablespoonful of fine white sugar, with a teaspoonful (a small one) of lemon or vanilla. Fill the cold sh.e.l.ls with this and set in a cool place till tea is ready.
OPEN JAM TARTS.
Time to bake until paste loosens from the dish. Line shallow tin dish with puff paste, put in the jam, roll out some of the paste, wet it lightly with the yolk of an egg beaten with a little milk, and a tablespoonful of powdered sugar. Cut it in narrow strips, then lay them across the tart, lay another strip around the edge, trim off outside, and bake in a quick oven.
CHESS CAKES.
Peel and grate one cocoanut; boil one pound of sugar fifteen minutes in two-thirds of a pint of water; stir in the grated cocoanut and boil fifteen minutes longer. While warm, stir in a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter; add the yolks of seven eggs well beaten. Bake in patty-pans with rich paste. If prepared cocoanut is used, take one and a half coffeecupfuls. Fine.
CUSTARDS, CREAMS AND DESSERTS.
The usual rule for custards is, eight eggs to a quart of milk; but a very good custard can be made of six, or even less, especially with the addition of a level tablespoonful of sifted flour, thoroughly blended in the sugar first, before adding the other ingredients. They may be baked, boiled or steamed, either in cups or one large dish. It improves custard to first boil the milk and then cool it before being used; also a little salt adds to the flavor. A very small lump of b.u.t.ter may also be added, if one wants something especially rich.
To make custards look and taste better, duck"s eggs should be used when obtainable; they add very much to the flavor and richness, and so many are not required as of ordinary eggs, four duck"s eggs to the pint of milk making a delicious custard. When desired extremely rich and good, cream should be subst.i.tuted for the milk, and double the quant.i.ty of eggs used to those mentioned, omitting the whites.
When making boiled custard, set the dish containing the custard into another and larger dish, partly filled with boiling water, placed over the fire. Let the cream or milk come almost to a boil before adding the eggs or thickening, then stir it briskly one way every moment until smooth and well cooked; it must _not_ boil or it will curdle.
To bake a custard, the fire should be moderate and the dish well b.u.t.tered.
Everything in baked custard depends upon the _regularly heated slow_ oven. If made with nicety it is the most delicate of all sweets; if cooked till it wheys it is hardly eatable.
Frozen eggs can be made quite as good as fresh ones if used as soon as thawed soft. Drop them into boiling water, letting them remain until the water is cold. They will be soft all through and beat up equal to those that have not been touched with the frost.