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Yorkshire Tea-Cakes
A hospitable Yorkshire housewife would consider her tea-table was barely spread if it were not liberally supplied with these delicious cakes, constant relays of which should be served steaming hot. Put two pounds of good flour into a bowl; scoop a hole in the centre, but do not touch the bottom of the bowl, and pour into the hollow thus made a little less than an ounce of German yeast which has been dissolved in a tea-cupful of lukewarm milk. Add to this yeast two well-beaten eggs and six ounces of butter which has been dissolved in half a tea-cupful of hot water. The water, when added to the batter, ought to be a little more than new-milk-warm. Draw a little of the flour from the side of the bowl into the liquor till it is of the consistency of very thick cream, sprinkle a little flour upon it to cover the surface, and leave it in a warm place to rise. In about an hour, when the bubbles of yeast show themselves through the flour, knead the dough thoroughly, adding as much more lukewarm milk as is necessary for the purpose. The tea-cakes will require about a pint of milk altogether. Gash the surface of the dough two or three times across with a knife, throw a warm towel over it, and leave it to rise. When it is very light (that is, when the surface cracks, which it will do in an hour or more), divide it into ten portions of equal size. Roll these lightly into cakes four inches in diameter, and put them on a baking-tin. Prick them with a fork and let them rise before the fire for ten minutes. Put them into a moderately-heated oven; they must not be baked hard. When they are to be served, either cut them into halves, toast them, and butter liberally, or make them hot in the oven, divide them, and butter them. Serve very hot. These tea-cakes will be very good if made with four ounces of butter instead of six, and if one egg only is used. They may be buttered and served cold, but are best hot. Time to bake the tea-cakes, a quarter to half an hour. Probable cost, 1d. each. Sufficient for ten cakes. A few currants may be added if liked.
A straightforward enriched yeast dough built by the sponge method, with two full risings before shaping. The instructions are complete; mainly the units and the yeast need translating.
- German yeastThis is fresh compressed baker's yeast, sold in cakes. A little under an ounce is roughly 25 g fresh, equivalent to about 2 teaspoons of instant dried yeast or a scant tablespoon of active dry. Fresh yeast is still sold in some supermarkets and by bakers, but dried substitutes behave the same here.
- Weights and cupsTwo pounds of flour is about 900 g. A teacupful is usually reckoned at about 5 fl oz, so a scant 2/3 cup; the pint of milk called for in total is an imperial pint, 20 fl oz, and includes the cupful used to slacken the yeast. Six ounces of butter is 170 g.
- OvenA "moderately-heated oven" is generally reckoned at around 350-375F/180-190C. The warning that they "must not be baked hard" is the point: pull them when the tops are pale gold and the bottoms sound hollow, closer to 15 minutes than 30 for cakes this size.
- Temperature of the liquids"A little more than new-milk-warm" is around 100F/38C, and the butter-and-hot-water mixture should be brought down to that before it meets the yeast, as the recipe itself directs. Water hot enough to melt butter can damage or kill compressed yeast.
- Why not to touch the bottom of the bowlThe hollow in the flour probably serves to keep the yeast liquid on a bed of dry flour rather than against cold crockery. Drawing in only enough flour to make thick cream produces a sponge, which contributes to the open, slightly chewy crumb.
- The gashes and the cracked surfaceCutting the dough across may serve as a proofing gauge rather than decoration; the recipe's own signal is that the surface cracks when the dough is very light. Under-proofed tea-cakes stay dense and will not toast well.
- Size and yieldTen cakes from this dough gives portions of roughly 170 g each, rolled to four inches; they rise to a generous teacake. Halving the recipe works without adjustment.
- The reduced versionFour ounces of butter and one egg, as the book allows, makes a leaner dough. The richer version is best eaten warm from the oven.
Yorkshire tea-cakes belong to the northern English tradition of yeast-leavened "cakes" that predate the chemically raised sponge cake, and the word cake here still means a flat round of bread dough rather than anything batter-based. Their place in a Victorian household book reflects the established ritual of afternoon tea in middle-class households, where a spread of breads to be split, toasted and buttered at the table was expected rather than exceptional. The optional currants point toward the same family as the still-common commercial fruited teacake. Cassell's habit of giving a probable cost, here a penny each, was aimed at the housekeeper checking her weekly accounts, though such figures are approximate estimates.