Graham Rolls
1 pint Graham flour; 1 pint wheat flour; 1 teaspoonful salt; 2 teaspoonfuls baking-powder; 1 tablespoonful butter or lard; 3/4 pint milk. Sift together Graham flour, wheat flour, salt, and powder; rub in the shortening; add milk, and mix the whole into smooth dough that can be handled--not too soft; flour the board, turn it out, and form into rolls shape and size of large fingers. Lay them on baking-sheet so that they will not touch. Brush their surfaces with soft brush dipped in milk to glaze them. Bake in hot oven from ten to twelve minutes.
A quick baking-powder roll rather than a yeasted one, so it comes together in minutes and must go into the oven immediately. The measurements are by volume in the old style, which translates cleanly once you read a pint as two cups.
- Pints of flourFlour here is measured by volume, not weight: 1 pint is 2 cups, so the recipe uses 2 cups Graham flour and 2 cups white flour, roughly 8-9 oz each. The 3/4 pint of milk is 1 1/2 cups.
- Graham flourGraham flour is whole wheat milled coarsely with the bran and germ left in, named for Sylvester Graham. Modern stone-ground whole wheat flour is the nearest thing; standard fine whole wheat works but gives a smoother, less nutty crumb.
- Oven"Hot oven" in books of this period is usually read as somewhere around 425-450F, though the original gives no thermometer reading. At the lower end the rolls will take the full twelve minutes; at 450F check at nine.
- Baking powderTwo teaspoons for four cups of flour is on the light side by current practice, and the baking powder of the era was often single-acting. Use 1 tablespoon of modern double-acting powder for a reliable rise.
- The hingeMix only until the dough holds together and can be handled. Graham flour absorbs liquid slowly, so the dough feels wetter than it is at first; adding flour to compensate, or kneading as for bread, gives tough rolls.
- Shaping and spacing"Shape and size of large fingers" means slim logs roughly 3-4 inches long. Keeping them apart on the sheet lets the sides crust rather than steam together.
- Milk glazeA brush of milk gives colour and a soft, matte sheen rather than the gloss of an egg wash. Do it just before the rolls go in, not while they wait.
- YieldAbout 16 to 18 finger rolls. They are best within an hour or two of baking, as chemically leavened whole-grain rolls go dry quickly.