Yeast-powders, put in at the last, are an improvement to all sorts of batter-cakes that have been previously raised with good real yeast; also to cakes made light by eggs. But to depend entirely on the powders, without either real yeast, or eggs, is not well; as the cakes, though eatable, are generally too tough and leathery to be wholesome. In cities, fresh yeast, from the brewers, can be obtained every day, at a very trifling cost, during the brewing season; which is usually from October till April. At other seasons, it can be procured from the bakers, or made at home; and should always be used in preference to depending solely on yeast-powders. Though they improve the lightness of batter, for which real yeast or beaten eggs have already been used, they will not, of themselves alone, give it a wholesome degree of either lightness or crispness. Too much dependence on yeast-powders is one reason that the buckwheat-cakes of the present day are so inferior to those of former times, when they were always made with real yeast.
Indian batter-cakes may be made as above.
HARLEM CAKES.—Sift into a pan three pints of flour. Warm, in a sauce-pan, a pint of milk, and cut up in it half a pound of fresh butter. When the butter is soft enough to mix with the milk, stir them well together, and remove the sauce-pan from the fire. Beat three eggs, very light, and mix them with the milk and butter, after they have cooled. Then make a hole in the middle of the flour, and pour in the mixture, and two large table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast. With a spoon, mix the flour into the liquid, till the whole is thoroughly incorporated. Then cover the pan with a thick woollen cloth, and set it near the fire, to rise. It should be light in about five hours; perhaps sooner. When quite light, mix in a tea-spoonful of soda, dissolved in a very little warm water; divide the dough into long oval cakes, or rolls; knead each separately. Sprinkle an iron baking-pan with flour; put in the cakes; cover the pan, and let it stand half an hour before baking. Bake the cakes in a moderate oven. Eat them fresh, with butter. They are excellent tea cakes. Of course, they must be mixed in the forenoon.
BREAD MUFFINS.—Take four thick slices of baker’s bread, and cut off all the crust. Lay them in a pan, and pour boiling water over them; but barely enough to soak them well. Cover the bread, and after it has stood an hour, drain off the water, and stir the soaked bread till it is a smooth mass; then mix in two table-spoonfuls of sifted flour, and a half-pint of milk. Having beaten two eggs very light, stir them, gradually, into the mixture. Grease some muffin-rings; set them on a hot griddle, and pour into each a portion of the mixture. Bake them brown; send them to table hot; pull them open with your fingers, and spread on butter. They will be found an excellent sort of muffin; very light and nice.
SWEET POTATOE PONE.—Stir together, till very light and white, three quarters of a pound of fresh butter, and three quarters of a pound of powdered white sugar, adding two table-spoonfuls of ginger. Grate a pound and a half of sweet potatoe. Beat eight eggs, very light, and stir them, gradually, into the butter and sugar, in turn with the grated sweet potatoe. Dissolve a tea-spoonful of sal-eratus or soda, in a gill of sour milk, and stir it in at the last, beating the whole very hard. Butter the inside of a tin pan. Put in the mixture, and bake it four hours, or more. It should be eaten fresh.
RICE BREAD.—To a pint of well-boiled rice, add half a pint of wheat-flour, mixing them well together. Take six eggs, and beat the whites and yolks separately. Having beaten the whites to a stiff froth, mix them, gradually, with a pint of rich milk, and two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter, softened at the fire. Mix, by degrees, the yolks of the eggs with the rice and flour. Then add the white-of-egg mixture, a little at a time. Stir the whole very hard. Put it into a buttered tin pan, with straight or upright sides. Set it in a moderate oven, and bake it an hour or more. Then turn it out of the pan, put it on a dish, and send it warm to the breakfast-table, and eat it with butter.