Currant Rolls
2 cupfuls sifted flour, 2 slightly rounded teaspoonfuls baking-powder, 1/2 teaspoonful salt, 1 rounded tablespoonful sugar; sift these together; add 1 1/2 rounding tablespoonfuls butter; rub thoroughly through the flour; beat 1 egg, add 1/2 cupful of milk; add this to dry material and stir to smooth dough. Quickly and lightly turn on to flour board, roll out into sheet about 1/4 inch thick, spread with 2 tablespoonfuls of butter which has been creamed, sprinkle with 2 tablespoonfuls granulated sugar which has been mixed with 1 teaspoonful of cinnamon, sprinkle with 3/4 cupful of dried currants that have been picked and thoroughly washed and dried; roll into small, thin rolls. Bake in quick oven for about twenty to thirty minutes.
A baking-powder dough, essentially a rich biscuit, rolled out and filled like a cinnamon roll. It comes together in minutes because there is no yeast and no rising time.
- Quick ovenRoughly 400-425F. Small rolls at that heat brown fast; start checking at 15 minutes rather than trusting the full 20 to 30, and pull them when the tops are golden and the pastry underneath is set.
- CurrantsDried currants here are Zante currants, the small dried grape sold in the baking aisle, not fresh red or black currants. The washing step was to remove grit and stems from bulk fruit; modern packaged currants need only a rinse, and they must be dried well or they will wet the dough.
- Rounded and rounding spoonfulsA rounded or rounding spoonful is a generous one, mounded above the rim; as a rough rule it is taken as something like half again a level spoonful. On that reckoning the 1 1/2 rounding tablespoonfuls of butter comes to somewhere around 2 to 2 1/4 tablespoons, and the two slightly rounded teaspoonfuls of baking powder to about 2 1/2 teaspoons.
- Sifted flourFlour was sifted before measuring, which gives a lighter cup of about 4 oz / 115 g. Two cups is therefore closer to 230 g than to the 250 g a modern scooped cup would give.
- Creamed butter"Creamed" here simply means beaten soft and spreadable, not creamed with sugar. Very soft room-temperature butter spreads over the thin sheet without tearing it.
- Handling the doughThe hinge is speed and a light hand. Once the milk and egg go in, mix only to a rough smooth mass and roll it once; kneading or rerolling develops gluten and turns a tender roll tough.
- Shaping"Roll into small, thin rolls" can be read two ways: rolling the sheet up jelly-roll fashion and cutting it into slices about an inch thick, cut side up on the pan, or cutting the sheet into strips and rolling each one separately. The plural wording leaves both open; the second gives fewer, larger rolls.
- YieldAbout 10 to 12 rolls, best eaten the day they are made.