42.—Laughing or Fun Nuts.
1 lb. of gingerbread dough, 3 ozs. of butter, 3 ozs. of sugar, 1 oz. of cayenne pepper. Mix all together, pin out in a sheet, one-eighth of an inch thick. Cut them out the size of a penny. They are very hot.
43.—Grantham or White Gingerbread.
4 lbs. of flour, 2½ lbs. of loaf sugar, 4 ozs. of butter, 1 oz. of volatile salt, 1 pint of milk, ½ oz. of ginger, ¼ oz. of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace, ½ oz. caraway seeds.
44.—Spice Nuts.
3 lbs. of flour, 1 lb. of butter, 1 lb. of moist sugar, 4 ozs. of candied peel cut small, 1 oz. ginger, 2 ozs. allspice, ¼ oz. of cinnamon, 1 oz. caraway seeds, 3 lbs. prepared treacle. Mix same as other doughs.
45. Another Way.—Take 3 lbs. of flour, 2 lbs. of sugar, 2 lbs. of treacle, 2 ozs. of ginger, ¼ oz. of carbonate of soda, 2 drs. of tartaric acid. Mix the day before baking.
46. Another Way.—7 lbs. of flour, 5 lbs. of syrup, 2¾ lbs. of moist sugar, 1 lb. of lard, 4 ozs. ginger, ½ oz. of tartaric acid, ½ oz. of carbonate of soda, ½ oz. of cinnamon, ½ oz. of mace. Mix and work same as other doughs. This is a capital mixture.
47.—Light Gingerbread.
Dr. Colquhoun gives a recipe for preparing a light gingerbread as follows: Take 1 lb. of flour, ¼ oz. of carbonate of magnesia, and 1/8 oz. of tartaric acid. Mix the flour and magnesia thoroughly, then dissolve and add the acid; take the usual quantity of butter, treacle, and spice; melt the butter and pour it with the treacle and acid into the flour and magnesia. The whole must then be made into a dough by kneading, and set aside for a period varying from half an hour to an hour; it will then be ready for the oven, and should not on any account be kept longer than two or three hours before being baked. When taken from the oven it will prove a light, pleasant, and spongy bread, having no injurious ingredients in it. That made with potash, says Dr. Colquhoun, gives the bread a disagreeable alkaline flavour, unless disguised with some aromatic ingredient, and is likely to prove injurious to delicate persons.