WONDERS.—Cut up half a pound of fresh butter into a pound of sifted flour, and rub them well together with your hands. Mix in three-quarters of a pound of white sugar, and a large tea-spoonful of cinnamon. Add a glass of good white wine, and a glass of rose-water. Beat six eggs very light, and mix them gradually with the above ingredients, so as to form a dough. If you find the dough too soft, add by degrees a little more flour. Roll out the dough into a thick sheet, and cut it into long slips with a jagging-iron. Then form each strip into the figure 8. Have ready over the fire a pot of boiling lard. Throw the cakes into it, a few at a time, and let them cook till they are well browned all over. Then take them out, with a perforated skimmer, draining back into the pot the lard that is about them. As you take them out lay them on a flat dish, the bottom of which is strewed with powdered sugar. They will keep a week, but like most other cakes are best the day they are baked.
SOFT CRULLERS.—Sift three quarters of a pound of flour, and powder half a pound of loaf-sugar. Heat a pint of water in a round-bottomed sauce-pan, and when quite warm, mix the flour with it gradually. Set half a pound of fresh butter over the fire in a small vessel; and when it begins to melt, stir it gradually into the flour and water. Then add by degrees the powdered sugar, and half a grated nutmeg. Take the sauce-pan off the fire, and beat the contents, with a wooden spaddle or spatula, till they are thoroughly mixed. Then beat six eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture. Beat the whole very hard, till it becomes a thick batter. Flour a paste-board very well, and lay out the batter upon it in rings, (the best way is to pass it through a screw funnel.) Have ready, on the fire, a pot of boiling lard of the very best quality. Put in the crullers, removing them from the board by carefully taking them up, one at a time, on a broad-bladed knife. Boil but a few at a time. They must be of a fine brown. Lift them out on a perforated skimmer, draining the lard from them back into the pot. Lay them on a large dish, and sift powdered white sugar over them.
Soft crullers cannot be made in warm weather.
NOTIONS.—Put into a sauce-pan a pint of milk, and two table-spoonfuls of fresh butter. Set it over the fire, and when the butter begins to melt, stir it well through the milk. As soon as it comes to a boil, begin to stir in a pint of sifted flour, a little at a time; making the mixture very smooth, and pressing out all the lumps. Let it continue to boil five minutes after the flour is all in. Then pour it into a deep pan, and set it to cool. In another pan beat six eggs very light. When it is nearly cool, stir the beaten egg into the mixture, a little at a time; stirring the whole very hard, till it is as light as possible.
Have ready, over the fire, a pot with a pound or more of fresh lard melting in it. When the lard comes to a boil, take up portions of the batter in a large spoon, or a small ladle, and drop them into the boiling lard, so as to form separate balls. When they are well browned, take them out with a perforated skimmer, draining the lard from them back into the pot. Lay them on a flat dish, and when all are done, sift over them a mixture of powdered sugar and powdered cinnamon or nutmeg. They should be eaten quite fresh.
CROSS-BUNS.—Pick clean a pound and a half of Zante currants; wash, drain, and dry them; spreading them on a large flat dish, placed in a slanting position near the fire or in the sun. When they are perfectly dry, dredge them thickly with flour to prevent their sinking or clodding in the cakes. Sift into a deep pan two pounds of fine flour, and mix thoroughly with it a table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, (or of mixed nutmeg and cinnamon,) and half a pound of powdered white sugar. Cut up half a pound of the best fresh butter in half a pint of rich milk. Warm it till the butter is quite soft, but not till it melts. While warm, stir into the milk and butter two wine-glasses (or a jill) of strong fresh yeast. Make a hole in the centre of the pan of flour; pour in the mixed liquid; then, with a spoon or a broad knife, mix the flour gradually in; beginning round the edge of the hole. Proceed thus till you have the entire mass of ingredients thoroughly incorporated; stirring it hard as you go on. Cover the pan with a clean flannel or a thick towel, and set it in a warm place near the fire to rise. When it has risen well, and the surface of the dough is cracked all over, mix in a small tea-spoonful of soda, dissolved; flour your paste-board; divide the dough into equal portions, and mixing in the currants, knead it into round cakes about the size of a small saucer. Place them on a large flat dish, cover them, and set them again in a warm place for about half an hour. Then butter some square tin or iron baking-pans; transfer the buns to them; and brush each bun lightly over with a glazing of beaten white of eggs, sweetened with a little sugar. Then, with the back of a knife, mark each bun with a cross, deeply indented in the dough, and extending entirely from one edge to another. Let the oven be quite ready; set in it the buns; and bake them of a deep brown colour. In England, and in other parts of Europe, it is customary to have hot cross-buns at breakfast on the morning of Good Friday. They are very good cakes at any time; but are best when fresh.