Eclairs (Coffee Or Chocolate)

Put into a saucepan two gills of milk with two ounces of butter, set on the fire and stir with a wooden spoon; when boiling, add a quarter of a pound of well-sifted flour, and stir briskly for a couple of minutes. Stand the pan on a table, break in one egg, mix sharply for two minutes, break in a second egg, mix sharply again, and repeat with a third and a fourth egg. Place a small tube in a pastry-bag, and press out on a baking-sheet fifteen eclairs three inches in length, and bake in a hot oven for twenty minutes, then remove them and let cool. Open each eclair on one side with a pair of scissors, and, with a spoon, fill the interior with cream. Dip the eclairs, one by one, with the hand into icing. Lay them on a strainer and let cool. Dress on a dish with a folded napkin, and serve.

Cream For Eclairs

Rub, until smooth, two tablespoonfuls of flour in a little milk, and add, whilst stirring, one pint of boiling milk. Whisk three eggs, and add to them six ounces of sugar and the above, pour all into a saucepan and cook for five minutes, add one teaspoonful of butter and a saltspoonful of salt. When cool, flavor with almond, lemon or vanilla.

Icing For Eclairs

Put a pound and three-quarters of granulated sugar in a saucepan with one gill of cold water; set on the stove and mix well with a wooden spoon until the sugar is thoroughly melted; when boiling remove from the stove and pour it gradually onto a marble slab; spread it about three feet square and let it cool for ten minutes. Put one ounce of coffee into a saucepan with a breakfast cupful of cold water and boil until reduced to about two tablespoonfuls, strain through a cloth and let it cool; begin working the sugar that is on the slab with a spatula as rapidly as possible in every direction until it begins to whiten; add the coffee essence, mixing thoroughly until it becomes quite hard; remove the spatula, detach the preparation from the slab quickly with a knife, put into a vessel, cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for half an hour. Place half of the mixture in a saucepan on the hot fire and mix thoroughly and slowly with the spatula until it is lukewarm, adding in the meantime one teaspoonful of cold water. The remainder of the preparation is laid aside in a cool place and if properly taken care of will keep for a fortnight.

Family Cake

Warm half a pound of butter and mix with it an equal quantity of moist sugar, a pound of molasses, a couple of eggs, a breakfast cupful of sour milk; mix together also a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda with four large cupfuls of flour and place in the pan, beating them well. Then take half a pound of well-stoned raisins and a pound of well-washed currants, dried, flour them and stir in with the other preparation. Place on a greased pan, baking in an oven until done, and serve.

Feuillantines

Prepare some puff paste, roll it out to about a third of an inch thick and cut into one-inch strips and two-inch lengths. Spread a baking-dish thick with butter, arrange the pieces of paste on it, placing them on their sides and leaving a small space between them; put them in the oven, and when they are firm and the sides have spread, glaze them with white of egg and dust with powdered sugar. As the feuillantines are cooked, set them on paper to drain off any extra grease they may contain; they may also be masked separately with a small quantity of different-colored jam. Arrange on a fancy-edged dish-paper or a folded napkin on a dish, and serve.

Flame Cake

Beat together the yolks of ten eggs with half a pound of caster-sugar for twenty minutes; warm six ounces of butter, beat till creamy, and mix it in with the eggs, adding half a pound of the best white flour, and the grated peel and juice of one lemon. Whisk the whites of the ten eggs to a froth, and mix them into this preparation. Butter a shallow cake-tin, pour in this mixture, and bake in a moderate oven. When it is done, remove from the pan, leaving it until the following day. Just when serving, put it on a dish, soak it in brandy, set fire to it, and serve at once.

Fruit Cake

Put two ounces each of flour and ground rice into a basin and mix with two ounces of butter; rub it with the fingers until well mixed with the flour, then put in one ounce each of chopped preserved cherries, ginger and candied citron-peel, four ounces of powdered sugar and a tablespoonful of blanched and powdered sweet almonds. Separate the yolks and whites of two eggs, beat the yolks first, mix them with the above ingredients, then beat the whites to a stiff froth and stir them in lightly at the last. Line a buttered cake-tin with sheets of buttered paper, pour the mixture in and bake it in a good oven; when cooked, remove the paper from the cake. Serve it cold.

Galettes

Sift a pound and a half of flour onto a board; make a hollow in the center; put a quarter of a pound of slightly warmed butter, a little salt and half a pint of cold water. Work the butter well with the water, gradually mixing in the flour so as to give it the consistency of puff paste. Let it remain for fifteen minutes, and in the meantime work half a pound of butter in a cloth until it is quite firm, then give it a flat square shape. Make the paste into a flat square shape also, put the square of butter on it and cover it over with the edges of the paste that project; give it five turns like puff paste and at the last turn make it about one inch in thickness. Cut it into a round shape with scalloped edges, put it upside down on a baking-dish, brush it over with egg and mark it in lines with a sharp knife. Bake in a moderate oven for forty minutes, and just before taking it out, sprinkle over with sugar glaze. It is then ready for use.