Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry Cakes, and Sweetmeats | Page 6

half a pound of sweet almonds, and pour scalding water over
them, which will make the skins peal off. As they get cool, pour more
boiling water, till the almonds are all blanched. Blanch also the bitter

almonds. As you blanch the almonds, throw them into a bowl of cold
water. Then take them out, one by one, wipe them dry in a clean towel,
and lay them on a plate. Pound them one at a time to a fine paste, in a
marble mortar, adding, as you pound them, a few drops of rose-water to
prevent their oiling. Pound the bitter and sweet almonds alternately,
that they may be well mixed. They must be made perfectly fine and
smooth, and are the better for being prepared the day before they are
wanted for the pudding.
Stir the butter and sugar to a cream, and add to it, gradually, the liquor.
Beat the whites of six eggs till they stand alone. Stir the almonds and
white of eggs, alternately, into the butter and sugar; and then stir the
whole well together.
Have ready a puff-paste sufficient for a soup-plate. Butter the plate, lay
on the paste, trim and notch it. Then put in the mixture.
Bake it about half an hour in a moderate oven.
Grate loaf-sugar over it.
A CHEESECAKE.
Four eggs.
A gill of milk.
A quarter of a pound of butter.
A
quarter of a pound of powdered sugar.
Two ounces of grated bread.

A table-spoonful of mixed brandy and wine.
A tea-spoonful of
rose-water.
A tea-spoonful of mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg, mixed.

A quarter of a pound of currants.
Pick the currants very clean. Wash them through a colander, wipe them
in a towel, and then dry them on a dish before the fire.
When dry take out a few to scatter over the top of the cheesecake, lay
them aside, and sprinkle the remainder of the currants with the flour.
Stir the butter and sugar to a cream. Grate the bread, and prepare the
spice. Beat the eggs very light.

Boil the milk. When it comes to a boil, add to it half the beaten egg,
and boil both together till it becomes a curd, stirring it frequently with a
knife. Then throw the grated bread on the curd, and stir all together.
Then take the milk, egg, and bread off the fire and stir it, gradually, into
the butter and sugar. Next, stir in the remaining half of the egg.
Add, by degrees, the liquor and spice.
Lastly, stir in, gradually, the currants.
Have ready a puff-paste, which should be made before you prepare the
cheesecake, as the mixture will become heavy by standing. Before you
put it into the oven, scatter the remainder of the currants over the top.
Bake it half an hour in rather a quick oven.
Do not sugar the top.
You may bake it either in a soup-plate, or in two small tin patty-pans,
which, for cheesecakes, should be of a square shape. If baked in square
patty-pans, leave at each side a flap of paste in the shape of a half-circle.
Cut long slits in these flaps and turn them over, so that they will rest on
the top of the mixture.
You can, if you choose, add to the currants a few raisins stoned, and cut
in half.
SWEET POTATO PUDDING.
A quarter of a pound of boiled sweet potato.
Three eggs.
A quarter
of a pound of powdered white sugar.
A quarter of a pound of fresh
butter.
A glass of mixed wine and brandy.
A half-glass of
rose-water.
A tea-spoonful of mixed spice, nutmeg, mace and
cinnamon.
Pound the spice, allowing a smaller proportion of mace than of nutmeg
and cinnamon.

Boil and peal some sweet potatoes, and when they are cold, weigh a
quarter of a pound. Mash the sweet potato very smooth, and rub it
through a sieve. Stir the sugar and butter to a cream.
Beat the eggs very light, and stir them into the butter and sugar,
alternately with the sweet potato. Add by degrees the liquor, rose-water
and spice. Stir all very hard together.
Spread puff-paste on a soup-plate. Put in the mixture, and bake it about
half an hour in a moderate oven.
Grate sugar over it.
PUMPKIN PUDDING.
Half a pound of stewed pumpkin.
Three eggs.
A quarter of a pound
of fresh butter, or a pint of cream. A quarter of a pound of powdered
white sugar.
Half a glass of wine and brandy mixed.
Half a glass of
rose-water.
A tea-spoonful of mixed spice, nutmeg, mace and
cinnamon.
Stew some pumpkin with as little water as possible. Drain it in a
colander, and press it till dry. When cold, weigh half a pound, and pass
it through a sieve. Prepare the spice. Stir together the sugar, and butter,
to cream, till they are perfectly light. Add to them,