PANCAKES AND FRITTERS.
I have already explained Frying in a separate chapter, but I must repeat that in Pancakes and Fritters the preparation of the batter (too often carelessly slurred over) is of great importance. The batter for Pancakes should be made two hours before they are wanted, and only enough for one should be used at a time; this quantity will be about half a teacupful. Do not wash the pan after making Pancakes, but wipe it like an omelette-pan.
Batter for Pancakes.—Take half a pound of flour, four eggs, a pint of milk, and a pinch of salt. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, break the eggs one by one into a teacup, and drop each into the hole. Pour in a little milk, and stir the flour in gradually, adding milk by degrees, and rubbing away all lumps. When you have used half the milk beat the batter well with a wooden spoon till it is full of air bubbles, add the rest of the milk, and let the batter rest for two hours. Then butter a small frying-pan well, heat the pan till the butter smokes, but be careful that it does not burn, drop in just enough batter for one Pancake, let it spread itself over the pan, run a knife under it, and turn it over, roll the Pancake up, set it on a hot dish before the fire. Butter the pan again, and make another Pancake. When all are made, lay the Pancakes on a napkin, three in a row, and three across them, dust over with sugar, and hand quarters of lemon. Clarified suet burns less easily than butter; if it is used melt a small piece in the pan before putting each Pancake.
Ingleby Manor French Pancakes.—(Family Recipe.)— Put in a basin four tablespoonfuls of flour, a pinch of salt, a tablespoonful of sugar, the peel of a lemon, and four eggs (keeping out two whites). Mix the whole in a pint of milk. Fry the Pancakes, lay them on the dish they will be served in, and spread a little apricot jam on each Pancake as you make it. Do not roll them up, but keep them flat. When you have a dish, beat the whites of the eggs to a strong froth, adding a little sugar, put it on the top of the Pancakes, brown them in the oven, and serve quite hot.
Chocolate Pancakes.—Two ounces of fine flour and two tablespoonfuls of milk, the whites of two eggs and the yolks of four, beaten separately. Add a tablespoonful of sugar, and a pinch of salt. Beat the batter well for half an hour, with two tablespoonfuls of cream. With the batter fry some very thin small pancakes, browning them only on one side. Lay them on a plate with the unfried side uppermost, grate over each a layer of chocolate thick enough to cover the surface entirely. Roll up the pancakes, dust them with sugar, and lay them on a buttered tin. Set the tin on a trivet, push it into a moderate oven, and bake for twenty minutes.
Fritters.—The best batter for Fritters of all kinds is Wyvern's; of course any flavouring can be added to it. The batter must be made two hours before it is wanted, and kept in the kitchen covered with a cloth, not in a cold larder. Put three ounces of fine flour into a basin, make a hole in the middle, and drop into it the yolks only of two eggs which have been previously broken into a teacup. Add two tablespoonfuls of salad oil, and a saltspoonful of salt. Mix well together, and then stir in by degrees just enough lukewarm water to bring the batter to the consistency of thick cream, coating the spoon when lifted from it with a smooth film the eighth of an inch thick. When the batter is to be used stir into it the white of one of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth.
Lemon Fritters.—When the batter is being made flavour it with the "zest" of a lemon. Put plenty of clarified suet into a saute-pan, so as to be at least an inch deep when melted. Heat the suet till a piece of bread put into it fizzes very freely, then drop the batter in, a dessertspoonful at a time. The fritters will swell out and crisp. Let them get a rich golden brown, drain them on a perforated slice, and dry them one by one on the wire drainer. When dry dish the fritters piled up on a hot napkin, sprinkle them with lemon-juice, and dust sugar over. Hand quarters of lemon and castor sugar.
French Roll Fritters.—Rasp the outer film of crust from a French roll, and slice the roll into eight or ten rounds threeeighths of an inch thick. Lay these on a flat dish, and baste them with half a gill of slightly-sweetened cream, mixed with the yolks of two eggs. Let them rest in this ten minutes, basting them all the time, then lift them up one by one, let them drip for a minute, and afterwards roll them in finely-rasped ratafia powder, dry, and plunge them into boiling suet as usual. When a golden colour, drain, dry, and serve dusted over with castor sugar. Apricot syrup sauce may be handed. Bice Fritters may be made in the same way. Boil four ounces of rice properly, drain, empty it into a bowl, stir in two whole eggs, and two extra yolks that have been beaten up in a gill of warm milk. Set this in hot water over the fire till thickened, add two tablespoonfuls of crushed ratafias, or powdered praline, and the "zest" of an orange, and sweeten with an ounce and a half of sugar. When thoroughly blended turn the mixture out on a slab, and with two wooden spoons pat it into a fiat cake three-eighths of an inch thick, and leave it to get firm. Then cut it with a cutter, flour each fritter, egg, and roll in either finely-powdered ratafias or powdered praline (see page 488) and fry.
Fruit Fritters.—Fruit Fritters should always be marinaded in a tablespoonful of fruit juice, or a dessertspoonful of suitable spirit, for at least an hour before they are cooked. Mix the marinade with the batter, and wipe the pieces of fruit dry before you dip them into the batter. Preserved fruit in slices or halves answers perfectly for fritters. The slices of fruit must not be too thick; if unripe, or hard, parboil the fruit in thin syrup for a few minutes.
Orange Fritters.—Peel two oranges, removing all the white part, and cut them into rounds across, five slices from each orange. Set them in a breakfast cup with either a tablespoonful of juice from another orange or a tablespoonful of brandy, and a little powdered sugar, and let them remain an hour. Then make a batter of a quarter of a pound of flour, a pinch of salt, one ounce of butter and a tablespoonful of the liquid from the orange, add a teaspoonful of the orange rind very finely scraped, and a tablespoonful of powdered sugar. Beat up the yolks of two eggs and the white of one to a froth, beating the yolks and the white separately. Now put the yolks into the batter and beat it for a quarter of an hour. Add the white froth, and beat for another quarter of an hour. Coat the slices of orange with the batter, and fry in butter to a light brown. Sprinkle a little fine white sugar over them, and serve on a napkin.
Apple Fritters.—Peel apples which are good baking apples, becoming soft and clear when made into tarts. Cut them into thickish slices, take out the pips, and let them soak for two hours in water with half a lemon squeezed into it. Put a quarter of a pound of flour into a basin, melt one ounce of butter in two tablespoonfuls of the water the apples were soaked in, but be careful not to make it hotter than is required just to melt the butter. Add either a dessertspoonful of brandy or the same of lemon-juice, working the flour to a paste, and adding the brandy, apple-water, and butter by degrees. Enead all well together. Beat up the white of an egg to a froth, and beat the batter all together. Dip the slices of apple in the batter, and fry them in butter. Cover them with powdered white sugar, and serve very hot.
German Fritters.—Beat up the yolks of three eggs, and beat the whites separately to a stiff froth. Add an ounce and a half of white sugar, grate in a little lemon-peel, dust in a pinch of salt, and mix all with half a pint of milk. Butter a flat dish well, and bake the custard in it for half an hour. Leave it all night to get quite cold. Turn out the custard on a large flat dish; it will be about an inch and a half thick. Cut it into rounds two inches across. Have the yolks of two eggs beaten up in a soupplate, and plenty of well dried and sifted bread or sponge-cake crumbs in another plate. Lay each round of custard as you cut it on the egg, and spread the egg over the top and sides with a knife. Now lay the rounds one by one in the crumbs and cover them thickly. Fry in butter, which must be boiling when the fritters are put in. It requires great care to prevent breaking the fritters. Lay them on a paper before the fire to dry, and serve with a little powdered sugar sprinkled over them. The custard may be flavoured with kirsch, or vanilla. Or dried cherries may be sliced, or almonds pounded, and added to the custard before it is baked.
Chocolate Fritters.—Scrape two ounces of unsweetened chocolate, and pound an ounce and a half of sugar. Boil them for a few minutes in half a pint of new milk. Set it to cool. Then mix a little of the milk with half an ounce of ground rice, and add the beaten yolks of three eggs. Let all just simmer. Then put it into a dish to get cold. Cut it out in rounds, egg and breadcrumb like the German fritters, and fry in butter.
Plum Puddingf Fritters.—Cut small oblongs half an inch thick of cold Plum Pudding, and marinade them with lemon-juice, a little sugar, and a few drops of brandy. Make the Fritter batter, and flavour it with a dessertspoonful of brandy, and the squeeze of a lemon. Dip in the pieces of pudding, and fry them one by one. Serve Oronoco Sauce
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