Page:Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats.djvu/69

 plate, and set it aside. Put the milk into a soup-plate, cut up the butter, and set it on the stove or near the fire to warm, but do not let it get too hot. When the butter is very soft, stir it all through the milk with a knife, and set it away to cool. Beat the eggs very light, and mix the milk and butter with them, all at once; then pour all into the pan of flour. Put in the spice, and the rose-water, or if you prefer it, eight drops of essence of lemon: Add the yeast, of which an increased quantity will be necessary, if it is not very strong and fresh. Stir the whole very hard with a knife. Add the sugar gradually. If the sugar is not stirred in slowly, a little at a time, the buns will be heavy. Then, by degrees, sprinkle in the remaining quarter of a pound of flour. Stir all well together; butter a square iron pan, and pour in the mixture. Cover it with a cloth, and set it near the fire to rise. It will probably not be light in less than five hours. When it is risen very high, and is covered with bubbles, bake it in a moderate oven, about a quarter of an hour or more, in proportion to its thickness.

When it is quite cool, cut it in squares, and grate loaf-sugar over them. This quantity will make twelve or fifteen buns.

They are best the day they are baked.

You may, if you choose, bake them separately in small square tins, adding to the batter half a pound of currants or chopped raisins, well floured, and stirred in at the last.

In making buns, stir the yeast well before you put it in, having first poured off the beer or thin part from the top. If your yeast is not good, do