The English Housekeeper: Or, Manual of Domestic Management / Containing advice on the conduct of household affairs and practical instructions concerning the store-room, the pantry, the larder, the kitchen, the cellar, the dairy; the whole being intended for the use of young ladies who undertake the superintendence of their own housekeeping

by Anne Cobbett

Dr. Oliver's Biscuits.

Put 2 lbs. flour into a shallow pan, mix 1 table-spoonful of yeast with a little warm water, and pour it into a hole in the middle of the flour, work a little of the flour into the yeast, and set the pan before the fire a quarter of an hour. Melt ¼ lb. butter in milk to mix the flour into a stiff paste, and bake on tins.

Lemon Biscuits.

Beat the yolks of 12, and the whites of 6 eggs, with 1 lb. loaf sugar: when the oven is ready, add 2 table-spoonsful rose water, 12 oz. flour, the juice and rind of 2 lemons, grated, a few almonds if you choose. Bake in a quick oven.—Or: mix 1 lb. sifted sugar with ¼ lb. butter melted, the rind of a lemon grated, 2 eggs, and a very little flour: roll into little flat cakes, and bake on tins.

Rusks.

Boil a quart of milk, let it cool, then put to it ½ pint of yeast, 2 eggs, 2 oz. coriander seeds, 2 oz. carraway seeds, a little ginger, and ¼ lb. finely pounded sugar, beat these together and add flour to make a stiff paste: divide it into long thin bricks, put these on tins and set them before the fire a short time to rise, then bake them. When cold, cut in slices, and dry them in a slack oven.—Or: melt ½ lb. butter in a quart of milk, let it cool, add 1 egg, ½ pint yeast, and 4 oz. sifted sugar, beat this a few minutes, then work in flour to make a light dough, and set it by the fire to rise. Make this into little loaves, bake them on tins, in a quick oven; when half done take them out of the oven, split, and put them back to finish.

Maccaroons, and Ratafia Cakes.

Blanch, and pound, with the whites of 4 eggs, 1 lb. of sweet almonds, 2 lbs. fine sugar, and beat it to a paste; add 8 more whites of eggs and beat well again. Drop it from a knife, on buttered paper, and bake on tins. Ratafia Cakes.—The same as maccaroons, only use half bitter and half sweet almonds.

Jumbles.

Rub ½ lb. flour, ½ lb. sifted sugar, with ¼ lb. butter, add a table-spoonful brandy and 2 eggs; keep out part of the flour to roll them out with; twist them up, and bake on tins. If too soft, leave out 1 white of egg.