COOKERY NOTES

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 19, 21 November 1930, Unnumbered Page

COOKERY NOTES

Original Recipes By

Frank

Hilton

As. broadcast from 2YA, Wellington

\ Queen Drops. Ingredients : 4b. butter, #lb. sugar, Gozs, flour, 20zs. cornflour, 41b. eggs, weighed in their shells, 4ozs. currants, pinch baking powder. Method: Mix all these exactly the same as fairy cakes. Queen drops are baked on sheets of paper the same way as sponge kisses, etc. The best way of dropping them on the paper is to make yourself a biscuit bag; these are made of strong calicé in the shape of a clown’s or pierrot’s hat, and have a tin biscuit tube at the pointed end. If you haven’t a biscuit tube, file the end off a large thimble and put this in the end of your bag. The flanged edge can then be bound io the calico with strong cotton. You will see the idea is to make a kind of funnel to force the mixture through into little round. drops, about a thimbleful, on to the paper. Space them nicely apart as they will swell considerably in baking. See that the pieces of paper are no larger than the oven shelves. You can load up all your papers, gradually screw up your bag as the mixture is forced out. It does the drops no harm to stand until the previous batches are cooked. They require a good solid oven, about 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and when cooked should be rather a rich. brown colour. Bake on plain white paper, no greasing necessary. Remove from papers ‘yrhen cold. They will keep a considreable time in tins, Boiled Fruit Pudding. Y fruit pudding is meant that it contains fresh fruits, such as apples, plums, gooseberries, rhubarb, etc. For the size we are going to make Wwe will need a pint and a half or a two-pint pudding basin nicely greased with butter. Ingredients : 1b. flour, joz. baking powder. Method: Sieve both together and put into. mixing-bowl, then rub in 4ozs. butter and make into a firm dough with cold water. Roll the dough out on the table nicely, without wet patches, to the thickness of half an inch Lift it up and drop into greased basin, lining it all round with half an inch of dough. Then prepare your fruit and place it in the basin lined with dough, adding some sugar according to the kind of fruit used. Trim the edges of the dough round the top of the basin. Now take thé remainder of the dough and fasten it over the top of your pudding, moistening the dough so that the lid will stick and not allow the syrup and juices to boil out. Your pudding is now ready for cooking. If it is to be steamed you need only Jay a piece of butter paper over the top to keep out condensation. If it is to be boiled you will need to tie a cloth over the top, Boil or steam for two hours and your pudding is ready for serving. , Fruit puddings should be served hot with cream, syrup, butter, or any swéet sauce you may fancy. ) Madeira Cakes. A MADEIRA is a plain cake, something like a sponge, only more solid and more substantial. For the quantity I am going to give we will need two tins, each holding about: 2Ib. of raw mixture; the mixture will increase by half its original size while in the baking. The tins must be lined with grease-proof or butter paper, and if your oven has too much bottom heatas is generally the case-cut a few layers of newspaper and put them in the tin before the grease-proof paper. Newspaper is a wonderful non-conductor of heat in an oven. Now for the recipe. The cakes we are to talk about this week are cheaper to make than the previous ones, but will not keep fresh so long. Ingredients: +1b. butter, 1lb. sugar, 7 eggs, 141b. flour, 1 ounce baking powder, mix with fresh milk. Method: Weigh the butter and sugar into a mixing-bowl, slightly arm them over the fire or gas or something. Do not oil the butter or the cake will have large uneven holes when cut. When you have the butter and sugar nice and warm, with the right hand beat it up to a nice light cream, the more you beat the nicer your cakes. It will need a little practice, but persevere and you will get there. Now add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. When the eggs are all in your battle is over. All you have to do is to add the flour and make into a nice firm mixture with the milk. I couldn’t really give you the exact quantity of milk because some.

of you may have larger eggs than others and some may have softer butter than others; but the consistency has to be so that it does not run flat in the tins; the mixture should be about like whipped cream, After the mixture is in the tins sift or sprinkle a little icing-sugar on top, not much, just a shade, This will cause the top to crack and give that beautiful cauliflower appeare ance so much desired. Bake in 2 moderate oven about 250 degrees Iahrenheit. They should take about three-quarters of an hour to bake,. but it is dangerous to give times, so Somewhere round about that. When cooked leave'in tins till eold, and leave paper on until cake is to be used. ‘The interior should be a nice even crumb; the crust should be a very rich brown, and when cut should be as thin as possible. No essence of any kind must be added; the ingredients mentioned give all the flavour that is required in a-Madeira, Nut Bread. Nor BREAD is something that can be buttered, toasted and eaten like bread. I was once asked to judge a show, and the nut bread there resembled cake containing nuts more than any kind of bread. Nut loaf is not,a cake, but a loaf raised with baking powder only, and should be slightly sweet and contain nothing but chopped walnuts. Here is the recipe:Ingredients: ilb. flour, 3 ounces butter, 2 ounces sugar, 4 ounce baking powder, 2 ounces chopped walnuts, Method: Weigh the flour and powder into a mixing-bowl; rub in the butter until it is quite fine, then dissolve the sugar slightly in a little milk to soften the grain. Mix all into a nice firm dough, and when about three-parts mixed put in the walnuts earefully. Knead up into. small loaves and bake in greased tins. Take them out of the oven as soon as they are cooked, as they must not be dried. They require an oven about 300 degrees Fahrenheit. They are rather nice for lunches, ete., but will not keep fresh long.