GINGERBREAD, PARKINGS, SHORT-BREAD, ETC

GINGERBREAD, PARKINGS, SHORT-BREAD, ETC. 

35. -- Queen's Gingerbread.

Take 2 lbs. of honey, 1 1/2 lb. of best moist sugar, and 3 lbs. of flour, 1/2 lb. of sweet almonds blanched, and 1/2 lb. of preserved orange peel cut into thin fillets, the yellow rinds of two lemons grated off, 1 oz. of cinnamon, 1/2 oz. of cloves, mace, and cardamoms mixed and powdered.

Put the honey in a pan over the fire with a wineglassful of water, and make it quite hot; mix the other ingredients and the flour together, make a bay, pour in the honey, and mix all well together. Let it stand tilt next day, make it into cakes, and bake it. Rub a little clarified sugar until it will blow in bubbles through a skimmer, and with a paste-brush rub over the gingerbread when baked. 

36. -- German Gingerbread.

Same as Queen's Gingerbread, but dust tins with flour instead of grease. 

37. -- Spiced Gingerbread.

Take 3 lbs. of flour, 1 lb. of butter, 1 lb. of moist sugar,

4 ozs. of candied lemon or orange peel cut small, 1 oz. of powdered ginger, 2 ozs. of powdered allspice, 1/2 oz. of powdered cinnamon, 1 oz. of caraway seeds, and 3 lbs. of treacle.

Rub the butter into the flour, then add the other ingredients, and mix in the dough with the treacle. Make it into nuts or cakes, and bake in a cool oven. 

38. -- Scarborough Gingerbread (for wholesale purposes).

Take 180 lb. of treacle, 4 lbs. of lard, 4 lbs. 10 ozs. of carbonate of soda, 2 lbs. 11 ozs. of caraway seeds, 2 lbs. 11 ozs. of ginger, and 1/2 a gallon of water to dissolve the soda. Mix all together with a sufficient quantity of flour.

This should turn out about 390 lbs. of very good gingerbread. Wash with glue and water which has been boiled.

The taste for gingerbread is very widespread, large quantities of the best quality being exported to India. Holland is regarded as carrying off the palm for making good gingerbread. Shakespeare makes mention of it in Love's Labour's Lost, where he says, 'An I had but one penny in the world thou should'st have it to buy gingerbread.' 

39. -- Ginger Cakes.

2 1/4 lbs. of flour, 1/2 lb. of butter, 1 lb. moist sugar, 2 ozs. of ginger. Rub the butter in with the flour and make the whole into a paste with prepared treacle. Make them into round flat cakes, wash the top with milk, lay a slice of peel on each, and bake in a cool oven. 

40. -- Prepared Treacle.

Take 4 lbs. of treacle, 1 oz. of alum, 2 ozs. of pearlash, and mix. 

41. -- Prepared Treacle for Thick Gingerbread,

Take 7 lbs. of treacle, 3 ozs. of potash, 1 oz. volatile salt, and ozs. of alum. The colour of the gingerbread when baked will be according to the quality of the treacle used. Golden syrup makes the lightest coloured and best. 

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, 2 1/2 lbs. of loaf sugar, 4 ozs. of butter, 1 oz.' of volatile salt, 1 pint of milk, 1/2 oz. of ginger, 1/4 oz. of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace, 1/2 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, 1/4 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, 1/4 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, 2 3/4 lbs. of moist sugar, 1 lb. of lard, 4 ozs. ginger, 1/2 oz. of tartaric acid, 1/2 oz. of carbonate of soda, 1/2 oz. of cinnamon, 1/2 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, I 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. 

48. -- Italian Jumbles, or Brandy Snaps.

6 lbs. of flour, 7 lbs. of good rich sugar, 1 1/4 lb. of butter or lard, 2 ozs. of ginger or mixed spice, 6 lbs. of raw syrup. Make the whole into a moderately stiff paste or dough, roll out into sheets fully an eighth of an inch thick, cut them with a plain round cutter of 3 inches diameter, put them on tins well greased, and bake in a moderate oven. When baked cut them from the tin and lay them on the peel-shaft till they are hard. If they should get too cold to turn, put them in the oven to warm. Brandy snaps are the same as above, without being turned.

Note. -- For cakes, spice nuts, or biscuits of a small size, that require washing on top, use a piece of linen the size of the tin, dip it in water, squeeze it, and spread it on top of the snaps or biscuits and gently press your hand over it. This will prevent them from running together on the tins. 

49. -- Halfpenny Gingerbread Squares.

8 lbs. of flour, 4 lbs. of treacle, 3 ozs. of pearlash, 3 ozs. of alum, and 1 oz. of carbonate of soda. Make a bay, put in the treacle, add the soda, dissolve the pearlash in 1 gill of cold water and pour it on the treacle; put another gill of water in a small pan, add the alum, and let it boil till it is dissolved; then pour it on the other ingredients. Mix all together, put into two tins about 24 inches by 18 inches with an edge 1 inch high. Cut out of each tin 2s. 3 1/2d. worth. This mixture is for wholesale purposes, and pays well.

Note. -- Nearly all mixtures made in this way are best made the day before. 

50. -- Hunting Nuts.

7 lbs. of flour, 3 1/2 lbs. of treacle, 1 lb. of sugar, 1 lb. of butter, 3 ozs. of pearlash, 3 ozs. of alum, half a teaspoonful of essence of lemon, 1 lb. of lemon peel cut small. Mix as above; roll out the dough in strips, and with the fingers break off pieces the size of a small marble, lay on the tins in rows and bake in a moderate oven on tins slightly buttered. 

5l. -- Parkings.

3 1/2 lbs. of oatmeal, 1 lb. of flour, 1 lb. of butter, 8 ozs. of moist sugar, 1/2 oz. of baking powder, with sufficient syrup to make all into a moderately stiff dough; weigh off at 4 ozs. for a penny, mould up round, and place on tins 2 1/2 inches apart. Bake in a cool oven. 

52. Another Way. -- 6 lbs. of snap dough, 12 ozs. of moist sugar, 10 ozs. of butter, 1 3/4 lb. of oatmeal, 1 1/2 oz. of carbonate of soda, 1 oz. of caraway seeds, 1 oz. of seasoning. Proceed as above. 

53. -- Parking Cake.

3lbs. of oatmeal, 1 lb. of flour, 4 lbs. of treacle, 1 lb. of good butter, 2 teaspoonfuls of carbonate of soda, 1 gill of beer. Mixed up as above. Baked in an edged pan 3 inches high, in a cool oven. 

54. -- Scotch Shortbread.

Take 1 lb. of butter, 2 lbs. of flour, 8 ozs. of powdered sugar. Mix the sugar in the butter, then take in all the flour and thoroughly mix and rub all together till of a nice mellow colour and easy to work; weigh off the size required, and shape into square or round pieces; dock them on the top, notch them round the sides, put on clean dry tins, and bake in a moderate oven. 

55 -- English Shortbread.

1 lb. of flour, 1/2 lb. of sugar, 1/2 lb. butter, 2 eggs. Mix as for Scotch Shortbread, ornament the tops with designs of neatly-cut lemon peel and caraway comfits. 

56. -- French Shortbread.

2 lbs. of flour, 3/4 lb. of butter, 3/4 lb. of sugar, 4 eggs, 1/2 oz. of ammonia. Rub the butter in the flour, make a bay, put in the eggs, sugar, and ammonia; beat them well with your hand, then draw in the flour and butter; make all into a dough, weigh at 12 ozs., chaff them up round, pin out a good breadth, mark them off into eight, place a piece of peel on each, and bake in good oven. Cut the marked pieces with a sharp knife after they are baked.