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Squash Biscuit
Beat one egg and add to it one cup of milk.
Into this mixture stir three level tablespoons of sugar, two of baking powder, two cups of flour and a little salt. Add two-thirds of a cup of boiled and strained squash and a piece of butter the size of an egg. Beat all thoroughly and bake in buttered and heated gem-pans for one-half hour.
BUNS-Take one pint of bread dough; one egg; one-half cup of sugar; butter the size of an egg; one-half cup of dried currants; one-half nutmeg, grated. Mix the butter with the dough, working it in thoroughly; then add the sugar, spice, fruit and egg. When all is well mixed, roll out the dough one-half inch thick, cut it into round cakes with a biscuit-cutter, place these in a wellbuttered tin, and leave them in a warm place to rise. When doubled in size, bake; and while still hot, brush over the top with syrup, to glaze.
Two recipes run together here: a squash quick bread baked in gem pans, and a currant bun built on leftover bread dough. Neither gives an oven temperature, and the leavening in the first is heavy by modern standards.
- Baking powderTwo level tablespoons is six teaspoons for two cups of flour — roughly triple what modern double-acting powder needs. Use about 4 teaspoons at most; powders of the period were often weaker single-acting products, and large doses were in any case common in recipes of the time. Too much modern powder can leave a soapy, metallic edge.
- Gem pansA gem pan is a heavy cast-iron muffin pan, greased and preheated empty so the batter sets the instant it goes in. A standard 12-cup muffin tin works; if you want the crisp shell, heat the buttered tin in the oven for a few minutes first.
- Oven and timeNo temperature is given. Bake the squash biscuits at about 400F; in modern tins they will probably be done before the full half hour, in the region of 20-25 minutes. Test with a skewer.
- Butter the size of an eggAbout 2 ounces, or 4 tablespoons. The phrase recurs in both recipes and means the same amount each time.
- Boiled and strained squashPlain cooked winter squash pushed through a sieve — unsweetened and unspiced, and drained well. Canned pumpkin or squash purée substitutes directly, but blot it if it looks wet, or the crumb will be gummy.
- A pint of bread doughRoughly a pound of risen white bread dough. Working butter, sugar, egg and fruit into an already-risen dough slows it considerably; expect the shaped buns to take an hour or more to double in a warm room.
- Half a nutmegGrated, that is roughly one to one and a half teaspoons — assertive but correct for the style. Pre-ground nutmeg is milder, so measure generously and add it with the sugar.
- Baking the buns375F for 15-20 minutes until well browned. The glaze is simply sugar syrup brushed on hot so it dries to a shine; a spoonful of sugar dissolved in an equal spoonful of hot water is enough for a tinful.
- YieldThe squash batter fills about a dozen muffin cups. The bun dough gives eight to ten cakes from a biscuit-cutter.
Squash and pumpkin turn up throughout nineteenth-century American baking, sometimes as a way of stretching expensive wheat flour and sometimes for the moisture and colour the pur", known