Strawberry Shortcake. ✠
- 1 quart flour.
- 3 tablespoonfuls butter.
- 1 large cup sour cream or very rich “loppered” milk.
- 1 egg.
- 4 tablespoonfuls white sugar.
- 1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in hot water.
- 1 saltspoonful salt.
Proceed, in mixing and baking, as with the huckleberry short-cake, except that, instead of putting the berries between the crust, you lay one sheet of paste smoothly upon the other, and bake until done. While warm—not hot—separate these. They will come apart easily, just where they were joined. Lay upon the lower a thick coating several deep, of strawberries; sprinkle powdered sugar among and over them; cover with the upper crust. It is best to bake strawberry shortcake in round jelly-cake tins, or round pans a little deeper than these, as they should be sent to table whole, while the hot short-cake is generally cut into square slices, and piled upon a plate.
Strawberry shortcake is esteemed a great delicacy in its season. It is eaten at tea, cut into triangles like pie, and sweet cream poured over each slice, with more sugar sifted over it, if desired.
Scotch Short-bread.
- 2 lbs. flour.
- 1 lb. best butter.
- ½ lb. powdered sugar.
Chop the flour and butter together, having made the latter quite soft by setting it near the fire. Knead in the sugar, roll into a sheet half an inch thick, and cut in shapes with a cake-cutter. Bake upon buttered paper in a shallow tin until crisp and of a delicate yellowish brown.
Grandma’s Shortcake.
- 1 lb. flour, dried and sifted.
- ¼ lb. butter, and half as much lard.
- 1 saltspoonful salt.
- A pinch of soda, thoroughly dissolved in just enough vinegar to cover it, and well worked in.
Enough ice-water to enable you to roll out into paste half an inch thick. Cut into squares, prick with a fork, and bake light brown. Split, butter, and eat while hot.