SOFT CRULLERS.—
Sift a pound and a half of flour, and have ready a pound of powdered sugar. Heat in a round-bottomed sauce-pan a quart of water; and when quite warm, stir the flour gradually into the water. In another vessel set a pound of nice fresh butter over the fire, and when it begins to melt, stir it, by degrees, into the flour and water. Then add, gradually, the powdered sugar, and a grated nutmeg. Take the sauce-pan off the fire, and beat the contents with a wooden spaddle, (which is far better than a spoon) till they are thoroughly mixed. Next, having beaten six eggs till very thick and light, stir them, gradually, into the mixture, and then beat the whole very hard till it becomes a thick batter. Add rose-water or lemon juice. Flour a pasteboard, and lay out the batter upon it in the form of rings. The best and easiest way is to pass it through a screw funnel.
Have ready on the fire a pot of boiling lard. Put in the crullers, taking them off the board 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 with a perforated skimmer, draining back the lard into the pot. Lay them on a large dish, and dredge them with sugar.
These, if properly managed, are far superior to all other crullers, but they cannot be made in warm weather.
DOUGH-NUTS.—
On baking day, take two pounds of very light bread dough that has been made in the usual manner. Put it into a broad pan. Rub into it half a pound of fresh butter, and half a pound of powdered sugar, and a table-spoonful of mixed nutmeg and cinnamon. Wet it with half a pint of milk, and mix in three well beaten eggs. Cover it, and set by the fire to rise again. When quite light, flour your pasteboard, and make the dough into oval balls; or, you may cut it into diamond shapes, (handling it as little as possible.) Have ready, over the fire, a pot of boiling lard. Drop the dough-nuts into it, and boil them; or fry them brown in a frying-pan. Take them out one by one in a perforated skimmer, draining back the lard into the pan. Spread them on a large dish, and sift sugar over them. Eat them fresh; when heavy and stale they are not fit. This is a German cake.
COMMON CRULLERS.—
The above mixture for dough-nuts will make good crullers. Flour your pasteboard, lay the dough upon it, roll it very thick, and cut it into strips with a jagging iron. Take off short pieces, and twist them into various forms. Throw them into a pot of boiling lard. When done, drain the lard from them, spread them on a large dish, and dredge them with powdered white sugar.