Pick clean a pound and a half of dried or Zante currants; wash, drain, and dry them on a large flat dish placed in a slanting position near the fire, or in the sun. It will be still better to substitute for the currants a pound of Sultana (or seedless) raisins, each raisin cut in half. When quite dry, dredge the fruit thickly with flour to prevent their sinking or clodding in the cake. Sift into a deep pan two quarts of flour, and mix thoroughly with it a table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and three quarters of a pound of powdered sugar. Cut up three-quarters of a pound of fresh butter, into a large half pint of rich milk. Warm it till the butter is quite soft, but not till it melts. Make a hole in the centre of the pan of flour, and pour in the mixed liquid, adding a jill (or two wine-glasses) of strong fresh yeast. Mix in the flour by degrees, beginning round the edge of the hole, and proceed gradually till you have the whole mass of ingredients well incorporated. Cover the pan with a clean thick towel, and set it in a warm place to rise. When it has risen high, and is cracked all over, mix in a small tea-spoonful of dissolved soda. Flour your pasteboard, divide the dough into equal portions, mix in the plums, and slightly knead it into round cakes the size of a small saucer. Place them on a large dish, cover them, and set them again to rise in a warm place for half an hour. Mark every one deeply with a cross, bake them brown, and when done brush each bun lightly over with a glazing of white of egg, sweetened with sugar.
CINNAMON BREAD.—
On a bread-baking day, (having made more than your usual quantity of wheat bread,) when the dough has risen quite light, and is cracked all over the surface, take out as much as will weigh two pounds. Mix into it a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, that has been cut up and melted in a half pint of milk; and also, three beaten eggs. Incorporate the butter, milk, and egg, thoroughly with the dough, and then add (dissolved in a little tepid water,) a salt-spoonful (not more) of soda. Have ready mixed in a bowl a pint of brown sugar, moistened with fresh butter, so as to make a stiff paste, and flavor it with two heaped table-spoonfuls of powdered cinnamon. Form the cake into the shape of a round loaf, and make deep incisions or cuts all over its surface; filling them up with the cinnamon mixture pressed hard into the cuts, pinching and closing the dough over them with your thumb and finger to prevent the seasoning running out. Put the loaf into a round pan, and set it into the oven to bake with the other bread. When cool, glaze it over with white of egg, in which some powdered sugar has been dissolved. Send it to table whole in form, but cut into loose slices. Eat it fresh. All yeast cakes become dry and hard the next day.
This mixture may be baked in a square iron pan, and cut into square cakes when cool.
WAFFLES.—
We are indebted to the Germans for this cake, which, if this receipt is exactly followed, will be found excellent. Warm a quart of milk, and cut up in it a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, and stir it about to soften in the warm milk. Beat eight eggs till very thick and smooth, and stir them gradually into the milk and butter, in turn with half a pound of sifted flour. Then add two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh brewer's or baker's yeast. Cover the pan with a clean thick cloth, and set it in a warm place to rise. When the batter has risen nearly to the top, and is covered with bubbles, it is time to bake; first stirring in a wine-glass of rose-water. Having heated your waffle-iron in a good fire, grease it inside with the fresh butter used for the waffle mixture, or with fresh lard; fill it, and shut the iron closely. Turn it on the fire, that both sides of the cake may be equally well done. Each side will require about three minutes baking. Take them out of the iron by slipping a knife underneath. Then grease and prepare the iron for another waffle. Butter them, and send them to the tea-table "hot and hot;" and, to eat with this, a bowl or glass dish of sugar flavored with powdered cinnamon.
In buying waffle irons choose them very deep, so as to make a good impression when baked—if shallow, the waffle will look thin and poor. Those that bake one waffle at a time are the handsomest and most manageable.