Snow Balls
Make a batter of a tbsp. of butter, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of milk, 1 cup of flour, 1 tsp. Royal baking powder, a little salt and the whites of two eggs beaten stiff. The eggs should be added last. Fill small cups a little more than half-full of the mixture and steam the contents 3/4 of an hour. Ordinary egg cups, because their tops are large and furnish a substantial rest when the balls are turned out, are the best in which to steam the balls, but other cups may be used.
CHOCOLATE SAUCE One square of chocolate, 1 tbsp. flour, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tsp. vanilla. Cook the sauce in a double-boiler and keep it hot until it is served.
A small steamed white cake, portioned in egg cups so it turns out as a dome, served under a hot chocolate sauce. Two things need attention: the vessels and the sauce's proportions.
- The vesselsAn ordinary egg cup holds roughly 1/4 cup, so filling one "a little more than half full" means about 2 tablespoons of batter. Buttered ramekins, small custard cups or a muffin tin set on a rack all work; grease them well so the balls turn out cleanly.
- How to steamSet the filled cups on a rack in a wide pan, add boiling water to come halfway up their sides, cover tightly and keep the water at a bare simmer. Cover the cups loosely with foil or a cloth so condensation from the lid does not fall onto the batter.
- TimingThree-quarters of an hour is generous for two-tablespoon portions. Start testing at 20 minutes with a skewer; larger ramekins of 1/2 cup will want 30 to 40. Oversteaming makes them coarse and dry rather than dangerous, but the batter is small and cooks fast.
- Royal baking powderA brand name; Royal was a cream-of-tartar powder rather than the modern double-acting type, though 1 teaspoon per cup of flour of any modern baking powder will serve here. If your tin is more than six months open, replace it; there is no other leavening besides the beaten whites.
- The egg whitesBeat to soft-stiff peaks and fold in last, as directed. The batter is stiff before they go in, so lighten it with a spoonful of the whites first, then fold in the rest to keep the volume that makes the balls dome.
- One square of chocolateA baking square is 1 ounce, and in this period it means unsweetened chocolate, which is why the sauce carries a full cup of sugar.
- The sauce is very thickOne cup sugar to half a cup of milk sets up nearly as a fudge. Whisk the flour and sugar with the cold milk before heating so the flour does not lump, cook until it thickens, add the vanilla off the heat, and thin with extra milk to pouring consistency. Held over hot water it will continue to stiffen, so keep milk at hand.
Steamed cup puddings like this one need no oven and hold their shape when turned out; the name "snow balls" is often said to come simply from the batter, which uses only the whites of the eggs and so bakes white rather than yellow. The Philathea Cook Book belongs to the Philathea movement, the adult women's Bible classes that grew out of the Baraca-Philathea organisation of the 1890s and spread through American Sunday schools, and that funded themselves, as such groups generally did, by collecting members' recipes and selling the result. The naming of Royal baking powder in the ingredient list is a period signature, reflecting how thoroughly chemical leavening had displaced yeast and beaten eggs alone in ordinary American baking by then. The instruction to prefer egg cups because their wide tops "furnish a substantial rest" when inverted is a characteristically practical observation.