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Whole Wheat Hot Cakes
2 cups whole wheat flour 4 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 3/4 cups milk 2 eggs 1 tablespoon shortening 1 teaspoon molasses Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; add milk and well-beaten eggs; mix well and add melted shortening and molasses; mix. Bake on hot greased griddle.
A straightforward single-rise griddle batter from a baking powder company's promotional book, which explains the generous leavening. A few adjustments bring it in line with current ingredients.
- Baking powderFour teaspoons for two cups of flour is roughly double the modern rate. Today's double-acting powders are stronger and more reliably fresh; 2 to 3 teaspoons is ample, and the full amount can leave a soapy, metallic edge.
- ShorteningIn the usage of the period this means a solid fat -- lard, or the hydrogenated vegetable shortening then recently introduced. Melted butter or a neutral oil serves well here, since the fat goes in liquid.
- The molassesA single teaspoon is too little to sweeten; it most likely serves for colour and to round the slightly bitter note of whole wheat bran. Worth keeping, and blackstrap is best avoided here, being assertive enough to take over.
- Let the batter standWhole wheat flour hydrates more slowly than white. Ten to fifteen minutes of rest before baking gives a less gritty cake and a thicker batter, though the leavening means you should not hold it much longer than that.
- Griddle heatThe book says only 'hot.' A moderate griddle, in the region of 350-375F, suits these; whole wheat browns faster than white flour, so err on the cooler side and allow a moment longer per side.
- Flour weightTwo cups of whole wheat flour is about 8 to 9 oz, depending on how coarsely it is milled. If the batter seems stiff, thin it with milk to a pourable consistency.
- YieldMakes about sixteen 4-inch cakes, serving four.
The New Royal Cook Book was published by the Royal Baking Powder Company, and like many such company books its purpose was to keep a can of Royal in every pantry -- which is why the leavening is specified by brand and used liberally. Whole wheat cakes in a book of this period carry a mild reformist flavour: from the late nineteenth century onward, domestic scientists and health writers pushed "entire wheat" flour as more nourishing than bolted white, and a griddle cake was an unthreatening way to introduce it at breakfast. The molasses looks like a survival of older American griddle practice, from a time before refined sugar became the everyday sweetener.