The Healthy Life Cook Book, 2d ed. | Page 3

EGG BREAD.
9 ozs. fine wholemeal, 1 egg, a bare 1/2 pint milk and water, butter size of walnut.
Put butter in a qr. qtn. tin (a small square-cornered tin price 6-1/2d. at most ironmongers) and let it remain in hot oven until it boils. Well whisk egg, and add to it the milk and water. Sift into this liquid the wholemeal, stirring all the time. Pour this batter into the hot buttered tin. Bake in a very hot oven for 50 minutes, then move to a cooler part for another 50 minutes. When done, turn out and stand on end to cool.
3. GEM BREAD.
Put into a basin a pint of cold water, and beat it for a few minutes in order to aerate it as much as possible. Stir gently, but quickly, into this as much fine wholemeal as will make a batter the consistency of thick cream. It should just drop off the spoon. Drop this batter into very hot greased gem pans. Bake for half an hour in a hot oven. When done, stand on end to cool. They may appear to be a little hard on first taking out of the oven, but when cool they should be soft, light and spongy. When properly made, the uninitiated generally refuse to believe that they do not contain eggs or baking-powder.
There are proper gem pans, made of cast iron (from 1s.) for baking this bread, and the best results are obtained by using them. But with a favourable oven I have got pretty good results from the ordinary baking-tins with depressions, the kind used for baking small cakes. But these are a thinner make and apt to produce a tough crust.
4. HOT WATER ROLLS.
This bread has a very sweet taste. It is made by stirring boiling water into any quantity of meal required, sufficient to form a stiff paste. Then take out of the basin on to a board and knead quickly with as much more flour as is needed to make it workable. Cut it into small rolls with a large egg-cup or small vegetable cutter. The quicker this is done the better, in order to retain the heat of the water. Bake from 20 to 30 minutes.
5. OATCAKE.
Mix medium oatmeal to a stiff paste with cold water. Add enough fine oatmeal to make a dough. Roll out very thinly. Bake in sheets, or cut into biscuits with a tumbler or biscuit cutter. Bake on the bare oven shelf, sprinkled with fine oatmeal, until a very pale brown. Flour may be used in place of the fine oatmeal, as the latter often has a bitter taste that many people object to. The cause of this bitterness is staleness, but it is not so noticeable in the coarse or medium oatmeal. Freshly ground oatmeal is quite sweet.
6. RAISIN LOAF.
1 lb. fine wholemeal, 6 oz. raisins, 2 oz. Mapleton's nutter, water.
Well wash the raisins, but do not stone them or the loaf will be heavy. If the stones are disliked, seedless raisins, or even sultanas, may be used, but the large raisins give rather better results. Rub the nutter into the flour, add the raisins, which should be well dried after washing, and mix with enough water to form a dough which almost, but not quite drops from the spoon. Put into a greased tin, which should be very hot, and bake in a hot oven at first. At the end of twenty minutes to half an hour the loaf should be slightly browned. Then move to a cooler shelf, and bake until done. Test with a knife as for ordinary cakes.
For this loaf a small, deep, square-cornered tin is required (price 6-1/2d.), the same as for the egg loaf. 3 ozs. fresh dairy butter may be used in place of the 2 ozs. nutter.
7. SHORTENED BREAD.
Into 1 lb. wholemeal flour rub 4 ozs. nutter or 5 ozs. butter. Mix to a stiff dough with cold water. Knead lightly but well. Shape into small buns about 1 inch thick. Bake for an hour in a moderate oven.
II.--SOUPS.
Soups are of three kinds--clear soups, thick soups, and purées. A clear soup is made by boiling fruit or vegetables (celery, for example) until all the nourishment is extracted, and then straining off the clear liquid. A little sago or macaroni is generally added and cooked in this. When carrots and turnips are used, a few small pieces are cut into dice or fancy shapes, cooked separately, and added to the strained soup. Thick soups always include some farinaceous ingredients for thickening (flour, pea-flour, potato, etc.). Purées are thick soups composed of any vegetable or vegetables boiled and rubbed through a sieve. This is done, a little at a time, with a wooden spoon. A little of the hot liquor is added to the vegetable