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BREAKFAST CAKES OR ROLLS (another way)
Make a batter with two pounds of flour, and as much warm milk and water, with about a quarter of a pint of fresh yeast, and a little salt, as will smooth it. Let it stand before the fire for two hours, to rise. Have ready a little flour and butter well rubbed together, and make the batter with this, and as much more flour as may be required, into a light dough. Make it into rolls and bake on tins; rasp, and keep them covered up warm till wanted. Time, fifteen to twenty minutes. Sufficient for twelve ordinary-sized rolls. Probable cost, 8d.
A straightforward sponge-and-dough roll, written for a cook who already knew what bread dough should feel like. Two things need translating: the yeast and the missing oven temperature.
- The yeastA quarter of a pint of "fresh yeast" means about 5 fl oz of liquid brewer's yeast or barm, which was far weaker than anything sold now. Use 2 teaspoons of instant dried yeast, or about 1 oz of fresh compressed baker's yeast dissolved in a little of the warm liquid.
- Flour and liquidTwo pounds of flour is roughly 7 cups; use bread flour for a better crumb. The recipe gives no liquid quantity because it depended on the flour — add the warm milk and water gradually and judge by consistency, as the direction says, until it is smooth.
- The two-stage methodThis is a sponge: a loose batter ferments first, then more flour and the butter-and-flour rubbing are worked in to make a dough. The rubbed butter is a small enrichment, not a pastry step — figure 2 to 3 oz of butter rubbed into a handful of flour.
- "Before the fire"A warm spot; in modern terms aim for somewhere around 75-80F. Two hours suits a weak barm; with modern yeast the sponge will likely be domed and bubbling in 45 minutes to an hour, and should be used then rather than left to collapse.
- Second riseThe original omits it, but shaped rolls need 30 to 40 minutes on the tins before baking or they will be dense.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. Fifteen to twenty minutes for rolls of this size implies a hot oven; about 425F is a reasonable modern equivalent.
- "Rasp"To rasp is to scrape the baked crust with a coarse grater or file, removing any scorched surface and leaving it pale and even. Skip it unless the crust catches; it was probably a response to uneven oven heat.
- Yield and keepingTwelve rolls, as stated. Covering them warm in a cloth softens the crust, which is what was wanted for the breakfast table; they are best the day they are made.
Cassell's assumed a household that could get liquid yeast easily — barm skimmed from brewing, or a quarter-pint bought from a brewer or baker, which is why the quantity looks so enormous beside a modern sachet. Its strength varied, hence the long two-hour sponge and the instruction to add "as much more flour as may be required" rather than a fixed weight: the cook was expected to correct by feel. Rasping, likewise, belongs to the age of the coal range and the brick oven, when a batch of rolls rarely browned evenly and a scraped crust was tidier than a burnt one. Hot breakfast rolls, kept covered in a warm cloth until the family came down, were a familiar feature of the Victorian middle-class breakfast, and the "probable cost, 8d" that closes the entry is characteristic of the book, which priced nearly every dish.