RICE FLOUR BATTER CAKES.—
Melt a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, or lard, in a quart of milk; but be careful not to let it begin to boil. Divide the milk equally, by putting it into two pans. Beat three eggs very light, and stir them into one half of the milk with the addition of a large table-spoonful of wheat flour. Stir in as much ground rice flour as will make a thick batter. Then put in a small tea-cupful of strong fresh yeast, and thin the batter with the remainder of the milk. Cover it, and set it to rise. When it has risen high, and is covered with bubbles, bake it on a griddle in the manner of buckwheat cakes. Send them to table hot, and butter them.
Similar cakes may be made with indian meal instead of rice flour.
GROUND-NUT MACAROONS.—
Take a sufficiency of ground-nuts, or pea-nuts, that have been roasted in an iron pot over the fire; remove the shells, and weigh a pound of the nuts. Put them into a pan of cold water, and wash off the skins. Have ready some beaten white of egg. Pound the ground-nuts (two or three at a time,) in a marble mortar, adding frequently a little cold water to prevent their oiling. They must be pounded to a smooth light paste; and, as you proceed, remove the paste to a saucer or a plate. Beat, to a stiff froth, the whites of four eggs, and then beat into it gradually a pound of powdered loaf sugar, and a large tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg mixed. Then stir in, by degrees, the pounded ground-nuts, till the mixture becomes very thick. Flour your hands, and roll between them portions of the mixture, forming each portion into a little ball. Lay sheets of white paper on flat baking tins, and place on them the macaroons at equal distances, flattening them all a little, so as to press down the balls into cakes. Then sift powdered sugar over each. Place them in a brisk oven, with more heat at the top than in the bottom. Bake them brown.
Almond macaroons may be made as above, mixing one quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds, with three quarters of shelled sweet almonds. For almond macaroons, instead of flouring your hands, you may dip them in cold water; and when the macaroons are formed on the papers, go slightly over every one with your fingers wet with cold water.
Macaroons may be made, also, of grated cocoa-nut mixed with beaten white of egg and powdered sugar.