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Huckleberry Shortcake
2 cupfuls sugar, 1/2 cupful butter, 1 teaspoonful salt, 1 pint milk, 2 heaping teaspoonfuls baking-powder sifted into 3 cupfuls flour, 1 quart washed and well-drained huckleberries, more flour to make a very thick batter. Bake in greased dripping-pan, break in squares, serve hot with butter.
A plain sheet-pan berry cake of the sort that once got cut into squares and passed at breakfast. The original assumes you know your own oven and your own flour, so two things need pinning down: the heat and the consistency.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. A cake batter this thick in a shallow pan wants a moderate oven, 350-375F, for roughly 30-40 minutes, until the centre springs back and a skewer comes out clean of batter.
- Dripping-panThe dripping-pan was the shallow rectangular pan that sat under a roast. A standard 13x18 in. rimmed baking sheet or a 9x13 in. pan is the modern equivalent; the sheet pan gives a thinner, crisper square, the 9x13 a deeper cake.
- "A very thick batter"This is the hinge. The three cupfuls of flour and a pint of milk give something closer to a pourable batter; you are meant to add flour until it is thick enough to spread with a spatula rather than pour. Expect to work in another cup or so, and stop as soon as it holds a ridge, since more flour than that makes it dry.
- HuckleberriesTrue huckleberries are wild and seldom sold. Cultivated blueberries are the usual substitute, though huckleberries are tarter and have harder seeds. Toss the drained quart in a spoonful of the measured flour before folding them in so they do not all sink.
- The sugarTwo cupfuls to three of flour is very sweet by current taste. One cup gives a result many today would prefer, though the reduction will change the crumb.
- No eggsThere are none, and none are missing. The lift comes entirely from the baking powder, so mix only until the flour disappears and get it into the oven promptly.
- Baking powderTwo heaping teaspoonfuls measures out at roughly a tablespoon, which for three-plus cupfuls of flour is in the normal range. Sift it with the flour as directed rather than adding it to the wet mixture.
- Yield and servingA 9x13 pan gives about 12 generous squares. As the recipe says, break rather than slice it, and serve hot with butter; it stales quickly and is poor the next day unless rewarmed.