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Fat Rascals
I/2 pint (I cup) warm milk 3 tablespoonfuls butter I yeast cake 1 egg "Bird's-Nest Cake" "Fat Rascals" Cakes Mix the flour with the salt, then rub the butter into it. Beat up the egg, add the milk, the yeast cake and stir until dissolved. Make a hollow in the center of the flour, pour in the liquid, beat in the flour from the sides until well mixed, then cover with a clean cloth and leave it in a warm place to rise. When the surface of the dough is full of cracks, divide into small, round cakes, the shape of a tiny and very plump dough bun; arrange these, with good spaces between, on a greased tin, cover with a cloth again and leave to rise. Bake in a moderate oven until ready and serve hot, split open and spread with butter. 4 eggs
The text as printed has clearly been mangled in typesetting: the flour and salt called for in the method never appear in the ingredient list, and the stray lines "Bird's-Nest Cake", "Cakes" and "4 eggs" have bled in from neighbouring entries. The method itself is a sound enriched yeast bun, and can be followed once you supply the missing quantities.
- The missing flourFor 1 cup of milk, 3 tablespoons butter and 1 egg, a soft enriched dough wants roughly 3 to 3 1/2 cups (about 1 lb) of flour and a scant teaspoon of salt. The original gives no figure, so treat this as a reconstruction and add the last of the flour by feel rather than by measure.
- Ignore the trailing "4 eggs"That line belongs to another recipe on the same page. One egg is right for this quantity of dough; four would make a brioche.
- Yeast cakeCompressed fresh yeast came in cakes of varying size; the small cake commonly meant here was in the region of 0.6 oz. Substitute one 1/4-oz packet (about 2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry or instant yeast, whisked into the warm milk rather than dissolved in it.
- Milk temperature"Warm" means blood heat, 100-110F. You can melt the butter into the milk instead of rubbing it into the flour if you prefer.
- Reading the first riseThe cue given is the cracked surface of the risen dough; in a warm kitchen this takes roughly an hour to ninety minutes.
- Shaping and second riseDivide into 12 to 14 pieces, roll each tight, and space them well apart on a greased tray. The second rise takes 30 to 45 minutes under a cloth, until they look puffed and hold a light fingerprint.
- Moderate oven350F. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until the tops are an even light brown and the bases sound hollow. These are small and enriched, so they colour faster than a loaf.
- Yield and servingAbout a dozen buns. They are meant to be eaten within the hour, split and buttered while still steaming; the next day they are only fit for toasting.
Fat rascals belong to Yorkshire, where the name is generally traced to a family of griddle- and hearth-baked cakes that also includes turf cakes and Yorkshire rock cakes. The version most people now recognise, a large scone-like cake studded with fruit, almonds and cherries, was popularised in the twentieth century by tea rooms in Harrogate; the recipe here appears to be older in character, a plain yeast-risen bun enriched with butter and egg and served hot with more butter, which would place it closer to the tea-cake and Sally Lunn end of the family than to a scone. The garbled state of the entry is itself typical of cheap early twentieth-century compilations, where recipes were reset from other books at speed and ingredient lists routinely lost lines to the column beside them.