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Parker House Rolls

For eighteen good-sized rolls allow two scanty quarts of flour; one pint of milk; two teaspoons of salt; two tablespoons of sugar; two tablespoons of butter or lard; one-half cup of yeast, or one-half cake of compressed yeast. Boil the milk, and set it to cool. Sift the flour into a mixing-bowl, rub the butter, sugar and salt into it, make a well in the center and turn into it the cold milk and the yeast cake dissolved in a little water. Sprinkle the top of the milk with a little of the flour, cover the bowl, and leave until morning. In the morning mix the mass together with a spoon, then knead the dough for twenty minutes, return it to the bowl, cover and set it to rise in a warm place. When it has become three times as large as at first (generally in about three hours), turn it out on the bread board, and roll it to a thickness of one-half an inch. Cut the dough with a round cutter, place a round stick the size of a slate-pencil on a roll about one-third its width from one side, press with the stick until the dough under it is about one-half as thick as it was before, and fold the shorter side of the roll over; repeat this process with each roll. Half a teaspoon of butter may be spread between the folds of each roll, if liked. Place the rolls in buttered pans, cover with a cloth, and let them rise one and one-half hour; they should then be more then double their original size. Bake twenty minutes in a hot oven. In making the rolls be careful not to mix the flour with the yeast and milk until the latter have stood several hours. BRIOCHE-Dissolve one cake of compressed yeast in three tablespoons of lukewarm water. Stir till thoroughly mixed, then add enough flour to make a soft, pasty ball. Drop this ball into a pan of warm water (not hot water for that would stop fermentation). Cover the pan and set it in a warm place for about an hour, when the ball will be found on the surface of the water. Put a scant quart of flour into a bowl; make a well in the center, into which break four eggs whole, two teaspooons of sugar, onehalf teaspoon of salt, and three-quarters of a pound of soft butter. Work these together with the hand, gradually mixing in the surrounding flour and adding two more eggs, one at a time. Mix and beat for quite a long time until the dough entirely loses its stickiness. Take the leavening ball from the water with a skimmer, and work thoroughly into the mass, adding the seventh and last egg. Work and beat for a very long time, so that the texture of the dough will be very fine. Put the dough in a bowl with a cover and let it rise till double its size; this will take from four to five hours. Beat it down again, and place it in the ice-box at least twelve hours, or better, over night.

The paste must be handled quickly and lightly, when taken from the ice, as it softens if it becomes warm.

Form into small balls, glaze with egg, and bake about twenty minutes.

This noted French preparation is used in many ways. It may be served with coffee or tea, or as a dessert, with rum sauce, it goes by the name of "Baba au Rhum."

There are several ways of shaping it, besides the ones given; perhaps the ring and the twist are the best known.