Gutenberg och brownies

Det finns gott om kokböcker hos Gutenberg, kokböcker som behandlar bara en eller ett par födoämnen, kokböcker med menyer för olika tillfällen, vegetariska kokböcker, kokböcker från olika länder och olika tider och kokböcker för barn.

Jag blev charmad av Caroline French Bentons ” The Fun of Cooking, A Story for Girls and Boys”, det är en berättelse med inflikade recept, och pedagogiska kommentarer och anvisningar. Boken är från 1914, och det är roligt att läsa hur den motsträviga broden, som flera gånger säger att ”pojkar lagar inte mat”, dras in i köksbestyren.

After lunch, Jack had to go and shovel out paths again, because those he had made had all disappeared. Mildred and Brownie dressed a tiny doll for a cousin they were afraid might not have quite as many as she would want, and when that was done, they said they wanted to cook some more.

Their mother told them she had one very, very nice receipt meant especially for holidays, which, strangely enough, had Brownie's name. "Because you are so very, very nice yourself," she said with a hug, "perhaps you can make these all by yourself, too."

BROWNIES
3 squares of chocolate.
2 eggs, beaten together
½ cup of flour.
2 cups of sugar.
¼ cup of butter.
1 cup of chopped English walnuts.

Cream the butter and sugar together, and add the eggs, well beaten without separating; then add the flour. Melt the chocolate by cutting it up into small bits and putting it in a little dish over the steam of the tea-kettle. Put this in next, and, last, the nuts. Lay a greased paper on the bottom of a shallow pan, and pour the cake in, in a thin layer. Bake twenty-five minutes; mark off into squares while warm, and cut before removing from the pan. These should be as thick as cookies when done.

"Don't you want me to help you make them, Brownie?" Mildred asked, as she read the recept over. "You see, I could beat the eggs for you, and you know how hard it is for you not to tip the bowl over when you beat them!"

"Well," Brownie said slowly, "I might let you do just that one thing, Mildred, but Mother said I was to make these cakes all alone."

"But let me help just a tiny little bit," Mildred coaxed; "they do sound so interesting!"

 

CHOCOLATE CRACKERS

2 squares of chocolate.
1 teaspoonful of sugar.
Butter, the size of the tip of your thumb.
3 drops of vanilla.

Cut the chocolate up into bits and put it in a saucer over the tea-kettle; when it melts, add the sugar and butter and vanilla; stir, and drop in some small crackers, only one at a time, and lay them on a greased paper to dry.