Hand-Book of Practical Cookery, for Ladies and Professional Cooks: Containing the Whole Science and Art of Preparing Human Food

almonds. _With Filberts or Hazel-nuts._--Add to the mixture for _biscottes_, one ounce of filberts or hazel-nuts, pounded well. _Brioche._--Mix together on the paste-board, one pound of flour, six eggs, one pound of butter, four ounces of leaven prepared as directed, and tepid water enough to make a rather soft dough, then beat well. The longer it is beaten the better, and the lighter the _brioche_ will be. By beating we mean--take hold of the dough with the right hand, raise it and then throw it with force on the board and in the same place where it was; repeat that till it comes off your hand without any of the paste sticking to it. Put the mixture in a tin vessel, set it in a warm place (about 78° Fahr.) for about two hours to rise, and then put immediately on ice to cool. When cold, put it back on the paste-board, cut off about one-fourth of it. Make a kind of crown with the larger piece, but not a very large one; let the hole in the middle be about three inches in diameter. Then give the other piece a rope-like shape, about three-quarters of an inch in diameter; place it over the crown, giving it the shape of a star, and bake in an oven at 430°. Serve warm, without sauce. [Illustration] _Baba._--Mix together and beat as for a _brioche_, one pound of flour, ten eggs, one pound and a quarter of butter, four ounces of raisins, four ounces of citron, four ounces of leaven, about half a pound of different kinds of fruits, preserved in syrup or candied, all cut fine; put to rise, let cool, shape, bake and serve as a _brioche_. A _baba_ may be baked in a mould; the cut on the previous page represents one. _Croquignolles._--Put in a bowl four ounces of flour, a teaspoonful of sugar, a pinch of salt, half a pound of butter, four whites of eggs, and a few drops of essence; mix the whole well so as to make a very stiff paste. Then put the mixture on