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Ring Rolls
2 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon sugar 3 tablespoons shortening 1 egg yolk 2/3 cup milk Mix and sift dry ingredients. Cut in shortening, add egg yolk beaten with milk. Mix well. Roll 1/4 inch in thickness, spread with the following filling. Cut in 2 inch strips, double over, twist into rings with cut edges uppermost. Bake in hot oven 15 minutes until brown.
A baking-powder biscuit dough enriched with egg yolk, rolled thin, filled, and twisted into rings. The dough comes together in minutes and wants a hot oven and a light hand.
- Hot oven"Hot oven" in books of this period means 425-450F. At that heat 15 minutes is about right for a quarter-inch dough rolled and doubled; check at 12.
- Handle it as biscuit doughThis is the hinge. Cut the shortening in until it is the size of peas, stir only until the dough holds together, and roll once. Kneading or re-rolling scraps toughens it.
- ShorteningWritten for lard or a hydrogenated vegetable shortening, both common in the period. Cold butter works and tastes better, though the crumb will be slightly less tender.
- The fillingThe text points to a filling printed after this recipe, which is not reproduced here. Any thick, non-runny spread suits the method: creamed butter with cinnamon sugar, grated cheese, chopped ham, or a stiff jam. Keep it thin so the strips still twist.
- ShapingCut the filled sheet into strips two inches wide, double each over as the recipe directs, then twist and join the ends into a ring with the cut edges uppermost.
- Baking sheetBake on an ungreased heavy sheet or parchment. A dark thin pan will brown the bottoms before the centers set at this temperature.
- YieldTwo cups of flour should give something in the region of a dozen rings, depending on the length of the strips. Best within an hour of baking; quick breads of this kind stale fast.
Ring rolls belong to the large family of quick breads that baking powder made possible in American kitchens from the middle of the nineteenth century onward, when a reliable chemical leavener meant a hot bread could be on the table in well under an hour rather than half a day. A dough that can be mixed, filled sweet or savory, twisted into a shape that looks like more work than it is, and baked in a quarter of an hour suits a light supper assembled from cold meats, salads and something warm from the oven.