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Quick Doughnuts

A historical recipe from Common Sense in the Household, by Marion Harland (1880).

A historical recipe

Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery, by Marion Harland (1880). Project Gutenberg eBook #48804.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

Source and licence

From Common Sense in the Household, by Marion Harland (1880). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #48804 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48804). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

Read the original Public domain in the USA

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.

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Ingredients

Method

  1. 1 cup butter.
  2. 2 cups sugar.
  3. 4 eggs.
  4. 1 cup sour milk or cream.
  5. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.
  6. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg.
  7. ½ teaspoonful cinnamon.
  8. Flour to roll out in pretty soft dough.
  9. Cut into shapes and fry in hot lard.
  10. SOFT GINGERBREAD.
  11. ✠ 1 cup butter.
  12. 1 cup molasses.
  13. 1 cup sugar.
  14. 1 cup sour or buttermilk.
  15. 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in boiling water.
  16. 1 tablespoonful ginger.
  17. 1 teaspoonful cinnamon.
  18. 2 eggs.
  19. About five cups of flour—enough to make it thick as cup-cake batter, perhaps a trifle thicker.
  20. Work in four cups first, and add very cautiously.
  21. Stir butter, sugar, molasses, and spice together to a light cream, set them on the range until slightly warm;
  22. beat the eggs light;
  23. add the milk to the warmed mixture, then the eggs, the soda, and lastly the flour.
  24. Beat very hard ten minutes, and bake at once in a loaf, or in small tins.
  25. Half a pound raisins, seeded and cut in half, will improve this excellent gingerbread.
  26. Dredge them well before putting them in.
  27. Add them at the last.
  28. SPONGE GINGERBREAD (eggless.) ✠ 5 cups flour.
  29. 1 heaping tablespoonful butter.
  30. 1 cup molasses.
  31. 1 cup sugar.
  32. 1 cup milk (sour is best).
  33. 2 teaspoonfuls saleratus, not soda, dissolved in hot water.
  34. 2 teaspoonfuls ginger.
  35. 1 teaspoonful cinnamon.
  36. Mix the molasses, sugar, butter, and spice together;
  37. warm them slightly, and beat until they are lighter in color by many degrees than when you began.
  38. Add the milk, then the saleratus, and having mixed all well, put in the flour.
  39. Beat very hard five minutes, and bake in a broad, shallow pan, or in pâté-tins.
  40. Half a pound of seeded raisins cut in pieces will be a pleasant addition.
  41. Try this gingerbread warm for tea or luncheon, with a cup of hot chocolate to accompany it, and you will soon repeat the experiment.