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Ragamuffins
One-half cup of butter, one-half cup of sugar, two eggs, one and one-half cups of milk, two cups of flour, or enough to stiffen, two heaping teaspoons baking powder; knead a little; roll out and spread with melted butter and sugar, roll up, cut in pieces an inch thick, bake immediately in hot even.
— Mrs. Walter S. Kniskern
A rolled sugar biscuit, close to a cinnamon roll without the cinnamon. The recipe as printed leaves the flour open-ended, so it needs judgment rather than literal following.
- The flour is the whole problemTwo cups of flour against half a cup of butter, two eggs and a cup and a half of milk gives a loose batter, not a dough you can knead and roll. Take "or enough to stiffen" seriously: expect to work in a good deal more, perhaps twice as much again, before it comes together as a soft rollable dough, adding the last of it on the board.
- "Hot even" is a typo for ovenHot means somewhere around 400 to 450F. Baking powder dough that has been rolled and cut should go in at once, as the recipe insists, or the lift is spent before the crumb sets.
- Baking powder then and nowTwo heaping teaspoons is a loose measure; a heaping teaspoon runs well over a level one, and older powders were weaker than modern double-acting sorts, which is part of why the amount looks generous. Level measures are safer here.
- Filling quantitiesNo amounts are given for the melted butter and sugar. About 3 tablespoons of butter and 1/2 cup of sugar covers a 12 by 16 inch rectangle. Cinnamon is not in the receipt.
- Rolling and cuttingRoll about 1/4 inch thick, roll up snugly from the long side, and cut inch-thick slices with a thin sharp knife or a length of thread so the spiral is not crushed.
- Pan and spacingSet the slices cut side up in a buttered pan with sides, close but not touching. The butter and sugar will run out and caramelize, which is the point; a rimless sheet will send it onto the oven floor.
- Time and yieldNothing is stated. In a hot oven they need roughly 15 to 18 minutes, until the tops are browned and the syrup at the base is bubbling. Yield will depend on how much flour the dough took.
- Eat them warmThese are chemically leavened, not yeasted, so they stale quickly. They are meant for the day they are baked, ideally within an hour or two.
"Ragamuffin" as the name of a rolled sugar biscuit belongs to the vocabulary of nineteenth-century American home baking, where quick breads were routinely given nicknames for their looks rather than their origins. Cinnamon rolls of the yeasted German and Scandinavian sort took hours; a baking-powder version like this one could be mixed, rolled and on the table inside half an hour. The attribution to Mrs. Walter S. Kniskern is characteristic of the form, and the named contributor is consistent with a community compilation, in which the measurements assume a cook who already knows what "enough to stiffen" feels like under her hands.