A half tea-spoonful of pearl-ash or salaeratus, dissolved in a little vinegar.
Cut up the butter in the flour, and mix it with the ginger and other spice. Wet the whole with the molasses, and stir all well together with a knife. Then add the dissolved pearl-ash or salaeratus.
Throw some flour on your paste-board, take the dough (a large handful at a time) and knead it in separate cakes. Then put all together, and knead It very hard for a long time, in one large lump. Cut the lump in half, roll it out in two even sheets, about half an inch thick, and cut it out in little cakes, with a very small tin, about the size of a cent. Lay them in buttered pans, and bake them in a moderate oven, taking care they do not scorch, as gingerbread is more liable to burn than any other cake,
You may, if you choose, shape the gingerbread nuts, by putting flour in your hand, taking a very small piece of the dough, and rolling it into a little round ball.
COMMON GINGERBREAD.
A pint of molasses.
One pound of fresh butter.
Two pounds and a half of flour, sifted.
A pint of milk, A small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash, or less if it is strong.
A tea-cup full of ginger.
Cut the butter into the flour. Add the ginger. Having dissolved the pearl-ash in a little vinegar, stir it with the milk and molasses alternately into the other ingredients. Stir it very hard for a long lime, till it is quite light.
Put some flour on your paste-board, take out small portions of the dough, and make it with your hand into long rolls. Then curl up the rolls into round cakes, or twist two rolls together, or lay them in straight lengths or sticks side by side, and touching each other. Put them carefully in buttered pans, and bake them in a moderate oven, not hot enough to burn them. If they should get scorched, scrape off with a knife, or grater, all the burnt parts, before you put the cakes away.
You can, if you choose, cut out the dough with tins, in the shape of hearts, circles, ovals, &c. or you may bake it all in one, and cut it in squares when cold.
If the mixture appears to be too thin, add, gradually, a little more sifted flour.
LAFAYETTE GINGERBREAD
Five eggs.
Half a pound of brown sugar.
Half a pound of fresh butter.
A pint of sugar-house molasses A pound and a half of flour.
Four table-spoonfuls of ginger.
Two large sticks of cinnamon, powered and sifted.
Three dozen grains of allspice, powdered and sifted.
Three dozen of cloves, powdered and sifted.
The juice and grated peel of two large lemons.
A little pearl-ash or salaeratus.
Stir the butter and sugar to a cream. Beat the eggs very well.
Pour the molasses, at once, into the butter and sugar. Add the ginger and other spice, and stir all well together.
Put in the egg and flour alternately, stirring all the time. Stir the whole very hard, and put in the lemon at the last. When the whole is mixed, stir it till very light.
Butter an earthen pan, or a thick tin or iron one, and put the gingerbread in it. Bake it in a moderate oven, an hour or more, according to its thickness. Take care that it do not burn.
Or you may bake it in small cakes, or little tins.
Its lightness will be much improved by a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash dissolved in a tea-spoonful of vinegar, and stirred lightly in at the last. [Footnote: If the pearl-ash is strong, half a tea-spoonful will be sufficient, or less even will do. It is better stir the pearl-ash in, a little at a time, and you can tell by the taste of the mixture, when there is enough.] Too much pearl-ash, will give it an unpleasant taste.
If you use pearl-ash, you must omit the lemon, as its taste will be entirely destroyed by the pearl-ash. You may substitute for the lemon, some raisins and currants, well floured to prevent their sinking.
This is the finest of all gingerbread, but should not be kept long, as in a few days it becomes very hard and stale.
A DOVER CAKE.
Half a pint of milk.
A half tea-spoonful of pearl-ash, dissolved in a little vinegar.
One pound of sifted flour.
One pound of powdered white sugar.
Half a pound of butter.
Six eggs.
One glass of brandy.
Half a glass of rose-water.
One grated nutmeg.
A tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon.
Dissolve the pearl-ash in vinegar. Stir the sugar and butter to a cream, and add to it gradually, the spice and liquor. Beat the eggs very light, and stir them into the butter and sugar, alternately, with the flour. Add, gradually, the milk, and stir the whole very hard.
Butter a large tin pan, and put in the mixture. Bake it two hours or more, in a moderate oven. If not thick, an hour or an hour and a half will be sufficient.
Wrap it in a thick cloth, and keep it from the air, and it will continue moist and fresh for two weeks. The pearl-ash will give it a dark colour.
It will be much improved by a pound of raisins, stoned and cut in half, and a pound of currants, well washed and dried.
Flour the fruit well, and stir it in at the last.
CRULLERS.
Half a pound of butter.
Three quarters of a pound of powdered white sugar.
Six eggs, or seven if they are small.
Two pounds of flour, sifted.
A grated nutmeg.
A tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon.
A table-spoonful of rose-water.
Cut the butter into the flour, add the sugar and spice, and mix them well together.
Beat the eggs and pour them into the pan of flour, &c. Add the rose water, and mix the whole into a dough. If the eggs and rose-water are not found sufficient to wet it, add a very little cold water. Mix the dough very well with a knife.
Spread some flour on your paste-board, take the dough out of the pan, and knead it very well. Cut it into small pieces, and knead each separately. Put all the pieces together, and knead the whole in one lump. Roll it out into a large square sheet, about half an inch thick. Take a jagging-iron, or, If you have not one, a sharp knife; run it along the sheet, and cut the dough into long narrow slips. Twist them up in various forms. Have ready an iron pan with melted lard. Lay the crullers lightly in it, and fry them of a light brown, turning them with a knife and fork, so as not to break them, and taking care that both sides are equally done.
When sufficiently fried, spread them on a large dish to cool, and grate loaf-sugar over them.
Crullers may be made in a plainer way, with the best brown sugar, (rolled very fine.) and without spice or rose-water.
They can be fried, or rather boiled, in a deep iron pot. They should be done in a large quantity of lard, and taken out with a skimmer that has holes in it, and held on the skimmer till the lard drains from them. If for family use, they can be made an inch thick.