Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1912-07-11
BEST OF SHORTCAKEs
STRAWBERRY THE AcKNoWL.
EDGED KING OF THEM ALL.
Most Delicious CONNECTION Is That
Made With Sour Cream and Soda
General Proposition of the
Compromising.

First in the list of strawberry des-
serts, and, all in all, the most salts
J factory, Is the strawberry shortcake.
This is the testimony not of one per-
son or two but 1t is true by a sort of
national reclamation.
Perhaps there is not a grain of
doubt but that the original strawberry
shortcake was made with very rich
biscuit dough, and so made before
baking powder was in general use
soda biscuit dough-and made of the
small wild strawberry. A rich dough
in our grandmothers' day had plenty
Of cream in it, and the finished pro-
duct was called a cream biscuit. 1
know pretty positively about this, for
the first time l ever put my hands to
flour was in the making of these same
cream biscuits"-biscuits shortened
mostly with rich and heavy sour
cream.
These biscuits took the butter beau
tifully, Just as mullins made with
cream do, better than almost any bak-
ing powder biscuits are likely to do,
and they were consequently very hos
pitable to strawberry juice.
Young cooks of today do not learn
the knack of using soda, but the straw
berry shortcake, made with sour
cream and soda, is the one most de-
licious cake, and the undoubted orig
inal, from which there have been
many alterations. Even when it is
a bit yellow as it ought never to be,
and even if it is bit soggy, as it may
turn out when made by the inexperi-
enced, it has taste when combined
with strawberries that is the strawber-
ry shortcake taste.
The safe strawberry shortcake-one
that will never be soggy-is one made
with baking powder and an egg, the
flour being sifted twice and perhaps
thrice over. The amount of shorten
ing used may vary, but the more shor-
tening, within reason, the more of a
short cake it is and the nicer with the
berry juice. The general proportions
are as follows: To one cup pastry
flour, two teaspoons Of baking powder,
one-fourth teaspoon of salt, add the
shortening, from one to four table
spoons of sugar, one egg or only the
yolk or the white only, and good
third of a cup of milk-always make
the dough as soft as it can be handled.
From four to six even tablespoons Of
butter may be used or half butter and
AoI NJ kho 1,,ffo io Of
best. One gets daintier looking cake
by using the white of egg only, and
one that is better tasting if the cake
cannot be eaten while warm. With
but little shortening a very good cold
whipped cream, can be made in this
way. When served hot cake made
with the whole egg or the yolk only
has what most people would probably
think the more agreeable flavor.
A single cup of flour will make
nice little cake for four people. Blend
shortening with the dry mixture, add
wet ingredients, turn out on Toured
board, pat into shape with spoon, and
fiatten with rolling pin. Or drop the
roll of dough on a round Toured bak-
ing tin and pat down till very even,
with hand.
Such cake must be split, but hot
knife will not work any harm in hot
cake made of baking powder, but in
making one of soda it is better to
avoid the splitting by making two
cakes. Butter the top of one, place
the other upon it, and bake. A cake
we'll seasoned with butter takes the
strawberry juice in a most acceptable
way and cake baked in this layer
fashion may be one of the supremely
delicious sort.-Washington Star.