PIKELETS, CRULLERS, GEMS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 483, 24 September 1948, Page 22

PIKELETS, CRULLERS, GEMS

RESH little cakes, scones and pikelets are:always in demand for morning and afternoon tea. Some of these recipes may be new to you. Puff-Ball Doughnuts These are particularly popular at tennis-teas and the like. We always cooked them in deep boiling lard; but I think modern vegetable shortening is now usually used, However, well-pre-pared cod-fat should be quite suitable. Crullers (puff-ball doughnuts) should be eaten quite fresh, preferably still warm, and certainly not the next day. One cup sugar and 1 egg beaten together till light and creamy and the sugar well dissolvéd. Add 1 cup of milk and mix carefully, then sift in enough flour to make a mixture in which, the spoon will stand upright. Sift the flour with a pinch of salt, and baking powder in the proportion of a good teaspoonful to a breakfast cup. Nutmeg if desired. Beat till very light. Have a saucepan half-full of boiling fat, and drop in the mixture in half-teaspoon lots, It must be stiff enough to require pushing off the spoon with the little finger, which nearly always makés the cruller form a pretty round ball with a tiny curly tail. They puff up at once. Turn them over once with a spatula or something not sharp; when brown all over (only a few. minutes) lift out with perforated spoon and drain on soft paper. Popular Pikelets These need 1 egg. Separate the yolk and white. Mix well together the yolk and ‘1 level tablespoon of sugar, and add a half-cup of milk. Sift ,together 1 breakfast cup flour, a pinch of salt, 4 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon cream of tartar (or 142 teaspoons baking powder), and into this stir the egg mixture; beat it up to a smooth batter. Now fold in lightly the stiffly beaten egg-white. Cook on hot greased girdle (or electric hot-plate, or thick frying pan, or even 2. oven-sheets fixed together). Turn when bubbles form, and. brown other side. Cool in a cloth, not a cold-plate, A teaspoon of melted butter or golden syrup added to the batter will make the — keep till next day. Grandmother's Gems This recipe is from Gretchen McMullen, 'a home-economist of Boston. Before mixing the batter, grease well the iron gem-pans, put. them ‘in oven, set control at 400 degrees (gas regulo 6) and turn on the heat. One egg; 4 cup milk; % teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 tablespoon melted butter; 1 cup sifted flour. Beat eggs vigorously, add sugar, salt and butter. Sift flour and baking powder and add alternately with the milk to the

egg mixture. Pour into gem pans which should be cane hot.. Bake about 10 minutes. Vermont Doughnuts One egg; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup milk; 3 cups flour; 3 teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon salt. Beat egg and sugar, add milk. Mix and sift dry ingredients and add to the first mixture, stir all until smooth. Roll out and cut. Use more flour, if necessary, to roll. Fry in

deep fat (lard, vegetable fat, or codfat) hot enough to colour a one-inch cube of bread golden brown in 40 seconds (about 385 degrees). As they tise to the top, turn and brown on other side. Many people just cut out the rounds, and use the top of a lemonadebottle to cut out the centre. ‘Hot Griddle Cakes One and a-half cups sifted flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 42 teaspoon salt; 1 cup milk; 1 egg; 2 tablespoons melted butter; 1 level tablespoon sugar is optional. Sift into a bowl the flour, baking powder and salt, and add the well-beaten egg. Then add the milk and melted butter and mix well. Bake on hot griddle, slightly greased. Drop the batter by spoonfuls on to the hot griddle, and when bubbles appear, turn and cook on the other side. Serve hot, spreading eath with a little butter, and piling 3 or 4/one on the other. Pour over hot maple syrup (or golden syrup heated and thinned a little with hot water and a dash of lemon juice), or heated honey or even heated: jam, Or spread each with a little sugar, sprinkle with lemon juice and roll. Apple Griddle Cakes , Use same recipe, adding % teaspoon cinnamon and 1 cup finely chopped apples to the batter before cooking, Waffles Beat 2 eggs well. Add 2 bare cups milk. Sift together 24% cups flour; 4 teaspoons baking powder; and! 1° teaspoon salt. Of the flour, the 4% cup may be cornflour. Beat dry ingredients into the beaten egg and milk. Add 4 tablespoons melted butter or vegetable fat, and beat well with egg beater. Bake in hot waffle irons. Recipe may be halved. Serve hot with butter and hot maple syrup.