Rub fine four ounces of butter into eight ounces of flour; mix eight ounces of currants, and six of fine Lisbon sugar, two yelks and one white of eggs, and a spoonful of brandy. Roll the paste the thickness of an Oliver biscuit, and cut with a wineglass. You may beat the other white, and wash over them; and either dust sugar, or not, as you like.
Little short Cakes.
Rub into a pound of dried flour four ounces of butter, four ounces of white powder sugar, one egg, and a spoonful or two of thin cream to make into a paste. When mixed, put currants into one half, and carraways into the rest. Cut them as before, and bake on tins.
Very good common Plum Cakes.
Mix five ounces of butter in three pounds of dry flour, and five ounces of fine Lisbon sugar; add six ounces of currants, washed and dried, and some pimento finely powdered. Put three spoonfuls of yeast into a Winchester pint of new milk warmed, and mix into a light dough with the above. Make it into twelve cakes, and bake on a floured tin half an hour.
Benton Tea Cakes.
Mix a paste of flour, a little bit of butter, and milk; roll as thin as possible, and bake on a back-stone over the fire, or on a hot hearth.
Another sort, as Biscuit.
Rub into a pound of flour six ounces of butter, and three large spoonfuls of yeast, and make into a paste, with a sufficient quantity of new milk; make into biscuit, and prick them with a clean fork.