African Shoots or Shrewsbury Biscuits. Time—½ hour.
¼ lb. butter, ¼ lb. castor sugar, ½ lb. flour, 1 egg, a few drops flavouring (essence of lemon, vanilla, &c.).
Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, add to them the flavouring and the egg, well beaten, mix all well together, then stir the flour in smoothly. Pass the paste through a biscuit-forcer on to a greased tin, or turn it on to a floured board, roll it out as thin as possible, and cut it into rounds with a cutter or tumbler. Place the biscuits on a greased tin, and bake 20 minutes.
Bola. Time—2½ hours.
Crust: 1 lb. dough, ½ lb. butter, 1 oz. brown sugar. Inside: 4 oz. ground almonds, ½ oz. ground cinnamon, ½ lb. brown sugar, ½ lb. candied peel, 1 egg.
Shred the peel, and mix in the sugar, spice, almonds, and egg. Rub the butter well into the dough, sweeten it, roll it out thin, cut off a strip, and line the inside of a greased tin with it. Spread the inside mixture smoothly over the remainder of the dough with a knife, roll up like a roly-poly pudding; cut it into four pieces, and fill the tin, placing the cut ends upwards. Bake about ¼ hour in a hot oven, then 1¼ hour in a cooler part of the oven. When nearly baked, make holes, and pour in clarified sugar.
Bread. Time—4 hours.
3½ lbs. flour, 1 oz. yeast, 1 teaspoonful salt, 1 teaspoonful castor sugar, 1½ pint tepid water.
Put the yeast and sugar into a basin, and cream them together with a wooden spoon till liquid, then add the tepid water. Pass the flour through a sieve, put it in a large basin, make a well in the centre, pour in the yeast and water, work in a little flour from the sides, cover with paper, and set it in a warm place (on the fender) to rise 20 minutes. Then work in the remainder of the flour with the hand, till the dough is smooth, and set to rise 2 hours. Then turn on to a floured board, and knead for a ¼ hour. Divide the dough into two pieces. For tin loaves, flour the tins, put in the dough, prick the top, and set to rise once more ¼ hour. For cottage loaves, cut each piece again into two, one piece twice as large as the other, form into balls with the hand, put the small one on the top of the large one, and make a hole in the top with the finger. Bake in the hottest part of the oven ¼ hour, then remove to a cooler part for 1½ hour. If the loaf sound hollow when tapped, it is done.