Method.—Work the butter and the lard into the flour; add the salt, and moisten with cold water to a stiff paste. Beat this until it bubbles, cut out into small biscuits, and prick with a fork, set the paste on to clean baking-sheets, brush it over with milk, and bake in a warm oven. The more beating, the better the biscuit.
Time.—¼ hour. Average Cost, 4d. Sufficient for 4 dozen cakes. Seasonable at any time.
Buns
3340.—BATH BUNS.
Ingredients.—1¼ lbs. of flour, 10 ozs. of sugar nibs, 1½ ozs. of compressed yeast, ½ a lb. of butter, the yolks of 4 and the whites of 2 eggs, water, caraway comfits, candied peel, essence of lemon.
Method.—Dissolve the yeast in a ½ gill of tepid water, mix with it the eggs, and ¼ of a lb. of flour; beat the mixture up in a bowl, and set it before the fire to rise. Rub the butter well into the 1 lb. of flour, add the sugar, and put in a few of the comfits and the peel cut into small cubes. When the sponge has risen sufficiently, mix all the ingredients together, throw over it a cloth, and set it again to rise. Grease a baking tin, form the buns, place them on the tin, brush over yolk of egg and milk, and strew on them a few comfits. Bake in a quick oven.
Time—About 20 minutes, to bake the buns. Average Cost, 1s. 8d. Sufficient for 16 buns.
3341.—HOT CROSS BUNS.
Ingredients.—2 lbs. of flour, ½ a lb. of sugar, 1 oz. of yeast, 1 pint of warm milk, ½ a lb. of butter, 1 lb. of currants, ½ a teaspoonful of salt, 1 teaspoonful of mixed spice.
Method.—Mix the flour, sugar, spice and currants; make a hole in the middle of the flour, put in the yeast and ½ a pint of warmed milk; make a thin batter of the surrounding flour and milk, and set the pan covered before the fire until the leaven begins to ferment. Put to the mass ½ a lb. of melted butter, add the salt, and beat well together, make up into rather a soft paste with all the flour, using a little more warm milk if necessary. Cover this with a clean cloth, and let it once more rise up for ½ an hour. Shape the dough in buns, and lay them apart on buttered tin plates or baking-sheets in rows at least 3 inches apart, to rise for ½ an hour. Place a cross mould on them (this may be done roughly with the back of a knife), and bake in a quick oven from 15 to 20 minutes.
Time.—15 to 20 minutes, to bake. Average Cost, 1d. each. Sufficient to make 2 dozen buns. Seasonable on Good Friday.
