4. (Lemon-rinds, cinnamon, carraway-seeds, or ginger, or currants at

choice), small pinch of salt. Slow oven about 20 minutes. _Obs._—The cakes should be but lightly coloured, and yet baked quite through. FLEED OR FLEAD CAKES. These are very much served as a tea-cake at the tables of the superior order of Kentish farmers. For the mode of making them, proceed as for flead-crust (see Chapter XVI.); cut the cakes small with a round cutter, and leave them more than half an inch thick: if well made they will rise much in the oven. Bake them rather quickly, but keep them pale. Flour, 2 lbs.; flead, 1-1/4 lb.; butter, 6 oz.: baked 10 to 15 minutes. LIGHT BUNS OF DIFFERENT KINDS. _Quite plain buns without butter._—Very good light buns may be made entirely without butter, but they must be tolerably fresh when served. To make them, dilute very smoothly an ounce of sweet German yeast or a _large_ tablespoonful of quite solid and well washed English yeast with a pint of warm new milk; mix this immediately with as much flour as it will convert into a rather thick batter, throw a double cloth over the pan, and place it where the warmth of the fire will search, without _heating_ it. When it is well risen and bubbles appear on the top, add a little salt, some pounded sugar, and as much flour as will form it into a light dough. Leave it to rise again, when it will probably be too little firm for moulding with the fingers, and must be beaten up with a strong wooden spoon and put into cups or tin pans slightly buttered, to be baked. The buns should be sent to a quick oven, and baked until the entire surface is well browned. These directions may appear to the reader somewhat vague; but we must frankly state that we have no precise memorandum by us of this receipt, though we have had buns made by it very successfully in former years: we cannot, however, exactly recall the proportion of flour which was used for them, but believe it was about two pounds. For this quantity half a pound of sugar would be sufficient. The batter will be a long time rising to the proper height; an hour and a half or two hours. Currants, carraways, nutmeg, or mixed spices, can always be added at discretion. It is usual to strew a few currants on the tops of the buns before they are baked. To render them richer and firmer, it is merely necessary to diminish the proportion of milk, and to crumble up very small two or more ounces of butter in the flour which is added to the batter after it has risen. When again quite light, the dough may then be rolled into balls, and placed on flat tins some inches apart until they have spread to the proper shape. Confectioners generally wash the tops with milk, and sift a little sugar over them. _Exeter Buns._—These are somewhat celebrated in the city whose name they bear, especially those of one maker whose _secret_ for them we have recently obtained. Instead of being made into a dough with milk, _Devonshire cream_ is used for them, either entirely or in part. If _very_ thick, a portion of water should be added to it, or the yeast would not ferment freely. The better plan is to dilute it with a quarter of a pint or rather more of warm water, and when it is sufficiently risen to make up the buns lightly, like bread, with the cream, which must also be warm; then to proceed by the receipt given above. PLAIN DESSERT OR WINE BISCUITS, AND GINGER BISCUITS. Rub very small indeed, two ounces of fresh butter into a pound of flour, and make it into a stiff paste with new milk. Roll it out half an inch thick, and cut the biscuits with a round cutter the size of half-a-crown. Pile them one on the other until all are done; then roll them out very thin, prick them, and lay them on lightly-floured tins, the pricked side downwards: a few minutes will bake them, in a moderate oven. They should be very crisp, and but slightly browned. _For the Ginger Biscuits._—Three ounces of good butter, with two pounds of flour, then add three ounces of pounded sugar and two of ginger in fine powder, and knead them into a stiff paste, with new milk. Roll it thin, stamp out the biscuits with a cutter, and bake them in a slow oven until they are crisp quite through, but keep them of a pale colour. A couple of eggs are sometimes mixed with the milk for them, but are no material improvement: an additional ounce of sugar may be used when a sweeter biscuit is liked. Plain biscuits: flour 1 lb.; butter, 2 oz.; new milk about 1/2 pint. Ginger biscuits: flour, 2 lbs.; butter, 3 oz.; sugar, 3 oz.; ginger, 2 oz. THREADNEEDLE STREET BISCUITS. Mix with two pounds of sifted flour of the very best quality three ounces of good butter, and work it into the smallest possible crumbs; add four ounces of fine, dry, sifted sugar, and make them into a firm paste with new milk; beat this forcibly for some time with a rolling-pin, and when it is extremely smooth roll it the third of an inch thick, cut it with a small square cutter, and bake the biscuits in a very slow oven until they are crisp to the centre: no part of them should remain soft. Half a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda is said to improve them, but we have not put it to the test. Carraway-seeds can be added when they are liked. Flour, 2 lbs.; butter, 3 oz.; sugar, 4 oz.; new milk, 1 pint or more: biscuits _slowly_ baked until crisp. GOOD CAPTAIN’S BISCUITS. Make some fine white flour into a very smooth paste with new milk; divide it into small balls; roll them out, and afterwards pull them with the fingers as _thin as possible_; prick them all over, and bake them in a somewhat brisk oven from ten to twelve minutes. These are excellent and very wholesome biscuits. THE COLONEL’S BISCUITS. Mix a slight pinch of salt with some fine sifted flour; make it into a smooth paste with thin cream, and bake the biscuits gently, after having prepared them for the oven like those which precede. Store them as soon as they are cold in a dry canister, to preserve them crisp: they are excellent. AUNT CHARLOTTE’S BISCUITS. These biscuits, which are very simple and very good, may be made with the same dough as fine white bread, with the addition of from half to a whole ounce of butter to the pound kneaded into it after it has risen. Break the butter small, spread out the dough a little, knead it in well and equally, and leave it for about half an hour to rise; then roll it a quarter of an inch thick, prick it well all over, cut out the biscuits, and bake them in a moderate oven from ten to fifteen minutes: they should be crisp quite through, but not deeply coloured. White-bread dough, 2 lbs.; butter, 1 to 2 oz.: to rise 1/2 hour. Baked in moderate oven 10 to 15 minutes. _Obs._—To make the biscuits by themselves, proceed as for Bordyke bread; but use new milk for them, and work three ounces of butter into two pounds of flour before the yeast is added. EXCELLENT SODA BUNS. Work into half a pound of flour three ounces of butter, until it is quite in crumbs; mix thoroughly with them four ounces of sugar, the slightest pinch of salt, an ounce, or rather more, of candied orange or, shred extremely small, and a little grated nutmeg; to these pour boiling a _small_ teacupful of cream, or of milk when this cannot be had; mix them a little, and add immediately two eggs, leaving out the white of one, and when the whole is well mingled, dust over, and beat well into it, less than half a teaspoonful of good carbonate of soda, perfectly free from lumps; rub an oven-tin with butter, drop the buns upon it with a spoon, and send them to a moderate oven. When they are firm to the touch in every part, and well coloured underneath, they are done. They resemble good cakes, if properly made, although in reality they are not rich: to render them so the proportion of sugar and of butter can be increased, and currants added also. It is immaterial, we find, whether they be put into the oven as soon as they are mixed, or an hour afterwards. They are equally light. These proportions make just a dozen of small buns. Flour, 1/2 lb.; butter, 3 oz.; sugar, 4 oz.; candied orange-rind, 1 oz. or more; grated nutmeg; cream (or milk) 1 _small_ teacupful; egg-yolks 2, white 1; good carbonate of soda about the third of a teaspoonful: 15 to 25 minutes, moderate oven. _For Geneva Buns See Chapter 30._ ------------------------------------------------------------------------