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Lemon Roll Cakes
Slightly warm two ounces of butter together with two ounces of powdered sugar; dissolve one tablespoonful of dry yeast in about one-half teacupful of warm milk, then mix it and the butter in one-half pound of flour, adding as much more warm milk as will be required to make a light dough. Beat the dough thoroughly and mix with it the grated peel of one lemon, a few pieces of finely-shredded lemon-peel and two well-beaten eggs. Divide this dough into two equal-sized lots, place them on a floured paste-board and mould them into long, thin rolls. Put them on a baking-sheet, set them in a warm place until risen, then bake in a slow oven. When cooked the rolls should be of a pale yellow color. Sprinkle lightly over with powdered sugar, and serve. Lunch Cakes, Large Put into a basin two pounds of flour mixed with a half pound of moist sugar; form a hollow in the center, put in one tablespoonful of thick yeast, add a third of a breakfast cupful of warm milk not hot enough to scald the yeast, then stir in a little of the flour and let it rise for about forty-five minutes. Add another two-thirds of a breakfast cupful of milk warmed sufficiently to dissolve half a pound of butter, stir in one and a half pound of well washed currants, a small quantity of chopped peel, one teaspoonful of ground allspice, and the grated rind of a lemon. Pour the preparation into a well-buttered tin, set it to rise in a warm place, and afterward bake in a moderate oven. Turn it out when done, and serve cold.
Two yeasted cakes printed as one block: a small enriched lemon roll and a large currant lunch cake. Both are old-style sweet doughs raised entirely with yeast, so they behave more like brioche than like modern cake.
- Two recipes, one paragraphThe text runs straight from the lemon rolls into Lunch Cakes, Large without a break. Read them as separate formulas; nothing from the first carries into the second.
- The yeast quantityA tablespoonful of the dried yeast of the period is not directly comparable to a modern packet, since period dried yeast was far less active; treat any conversion as approximate. For half a pound of flour try about 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of instant or active dry yeast; the second recipe's "one tablespoonful of thick yeast" most likely means a wet barm or brewer's yeast, and 2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons of modern dry yeast should cover two pounds of flour.
- Cups and teacupsA teacupful is roughly 6 fl oz, so half a teacupful is about 1/3 cup. A breakfast cupful is larger, around 8 to 10 fl oz; treat the amounts as a starting point and add milk until the dough is soft but holds a shape.
- Powdered and moist sugar"Powdered sugar" in this period usually means granulated sugar ground fine, not cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar. "Moist sugar" is unrefined soft brown sugar; light brown sugar is the closest supermarket match.
- Oven temperaturesA slow oven for the lemon rolls is 300 to 325F, which is what keeps them pale rather than browned; 20 to 25 minutes for thin rolls. The moderate oven for the large lunch cake is 350F, though a cake built on two pounds of flour and a pound and a half of currants is better at 325F for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, covered with foil if the top colors early.
- The hinge: milk temperatureThe original warns against milk "hot enough to scald the yeast," and it matters twice, since the second recipe melts half a pound of butter into the milk. Let that mixture cool to about 110F before it meets the sponge.
- Rising the enriched doughButter, sugar and eggs slow fermentation considerably. Expect 1 to 1 1/2 hours for the first rise and a similar time after shaping, longer than a lean dough of the same size would need.
- Currants and peel"Well washed currants" refers to dried Zante currants, which then arrived gritty; modern packaged ones need only a rinse or a short soak in warm water, drained and patted dry. The "chopped peel" is candied citrus peel, about 2 to 3 oz.
- YieldThe lemon dough makes two slim rolls, roughly 12 to 16 slices between them. The lunch cake fills a large deep tin, 9 or 10 inches, and serves 16 or more; the recipe directs that it be turned out and served cold.
Oscar Tschirky, Swiss-born, in his 1896 volume, was compiling a broad culinary reference, and its baking chapters lean heavily on the British and Central European sweet-bread tradition rather than on American chemical leavening. Both of these are yeast-raised cakes, a form that was already being displaced in home kitchens by baking powder but that persisted in professional bakeshops. The "lunch cake" is a plain, heavily curranted keeping cake of the kind eaten cold with tea or at midday, and the lemon rolls are its small, delicate cousin: enriched, barely colored, sugared and served the day they are baked. The generous use of lemon peel, both grated and shredded, is characteristic of nineteenth-century baking, where citrus zest did much of the flavoring work now given to extracts.