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Rice Gems
1 egg, 1 cupful milk, 1 cupful cold boiled rice, 1 cupful flour, 1 teaspoonful baking-powder, 1/4 teaspoonful salt, 1 tablespoonful melted butter. Mix as for plain gems, and bake in hot oven in gem-pans.
A thrifty batter built on leftover rice, meant for cast-iron gem pans heated before the batter goes in. The one thing that decides the result is the pan: cold pans give pale, heavy gems.
- Gem pansHeavy cast-iron pans of small oval or round cups, an early relative of the muffin tin. Grease them and set them in the oven to heat until the fat shimmers, then fill the hot cups two-thirds full. A standard 12-cup muffin tin works, though the crust will be softer.
- Hot ovenRead as 425F. The batter is loose and needs quick heat to set the outside before the crumb collapses.
- Cold boiled ricePlain rice cooked in water, no salt or fat needed, cooled and broken up with a fork so it does not go into the batter in clumps. Long-grain rice keeps the gems lighter; short-grain or risotto rice makes them gummy.
- Mix as for plain gemsBeat the egg, stir in the milk, rice and melted butter, then add the dry ingredients sifted together and stir only until moistened. Overworking a batter of this proportion toughens it.
- Baking powderOne teaspoon to one cup of flour is the standard proportion, and the rice contributes no lift of its own. Period powder was single-acting, so have the pans hot and the batter in the oven promptly rather than letting it stand.
- Yield and timingAbout 12 small gems, baked 15 to 18 minutes until browned and firm at the center. Best split and buttered straight from the pan; they stale within hours.