Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen (15 page)

APEES

 

Caraway seeds have long been known as digestive aids and breath sweeteners. Combined with cinnamon and other aromatic spices in this crispy treat, the resulting cross between a cookie and a cracker will quickly become a family favorite. Apees are “good keepers,” staying delicious for weeks—assuming they last that long in your cookie jar
.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine the flour, sugar, and spices in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or 2 knives until the mixture looks like uncooked oatmeal. Stir in the wine with a fork and then knead the dough with your hands. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a ⅛-inch thickness. Cut into 1 ¼-inch rounds. Place on ungreased baking sheets and prick the tops with a fork two or three times. Bake until lightly browned, about 20 to 25 minutes. Apees shrink as they bake.

Makes about 7 dozen small cookies

ADAPTED FROM “APEES,” MISS ELIZA LESLIE, SEVENTY-FIVE RECEIPTS FOR PASTRY, CAKES, AND SWEETMEATS, 1828.

PINT CAKE

 

This cake is named for the “pint” of bread dough the baker would set aside from her normal multi-loaf batch to make the cake. Before chemical
leaveners such as baking soda, cakes were made light with beaten egg whites, which must have been touch-and-go baked in the beehive or
Dutch ovens of the day. The clever addition of sweet ingredients to already-in-progress bread dough gave the homemaker two-for-one results
.

This cake is similar to Federal-era,
yeast-raised cakes such as the “
Election Cake” from Amelia Simmons's
American Cookery,
recognized as the first American cookbook. The recipe appears in the 1796 second edition. Tradition has it that these sturdy, satisfying cakes were served to voters and those counting the ballots well into the night in Connecticut elections. Back then ballots from around the state were brought to the state capital, Hartford, for tabulation and the official announcement of results. Later cookbooks frequently called this recipe “Old Hartford Election Cake.”

This pint cake recipe appeared in the
Sangamo Journal
, the Springfield newspaper Lincoln might well have read in New Salem
.

A WORD ON YEAST:
Today bread bakers don't have to worry about keeping their supply of yeast happy and alive between bread-baking days. We can just tear open a packet of dry instant yeast. The rapid-rise variety is so reliable you don't even have to proof it by mixing it with warm water as the first step. If you are used to this method, you can certainly use it for this recipe. Call me old-fashioned, but I still like to proof my yeast. There's something about the yeasty smell as it develops that I enjoy, so I've written directions with that step in mind.

FOR THE BREAD DOUGH (JUST ENOUGH TO MAKE 1 PINT CAKE):

FOR THE CAKE BATTER:

Combine the yeast, sugar, and warm water in a glass measuring cup. Let stand for about 5 minutes. The mixture should be bubbly and smell “yeasty.” Pour the yeast mixture into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Knead lightly with your hands until you have a slightly sticky dough.

Grease two 8½ × 4½–inch loaf pans and line with parchment paper. In a mixing bowl, combine “cake” ingredients. Gradually knead the cake ingredients into the bread dough. This is a messy process. Or, use a large food processor fitted with dough blade or a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook to accomplish the mixing process. When the dough is thoroughly mixed, divide it in half and place each half in a prepared loaf pan. Set the pans aside in a warm place for about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the cakes until they just begin to pull away from the sides of the pans, about 45 to 55 minutes.

TIP FOR SUCCESS:
Don't skimp on the time it takes to mix the bread and cake ingredients. Make sure you don't have any unincorporated bits of bread dough, because it will rise to the top, bake faster, and form hard lumps in your lovely cake.

Makes 2 cakes, 8 servings each

ADAPTED FROM “PINT CAKE,” SANGAMO JOURNAL, 1832.

JUMBLES

 

Jumbles are doughnut-shaped
cookies formed by rolling little snakes of dough and joining the ends. These cookies are a lot of fun to make. You can make them without the caraway seeds
.

It was said that Lincoln
read all the available newspapers. We can connect this recipe to him as it appeared in a Springfield, Illinois, newspaper during the time he lived about twenty miles to the northwest in New Salem
.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 2 cookie sheets. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour and sugar. With a pastry cutter or 2 knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like cornmeal. Stir in the caraway seeds.

In a small mixing bowl, beat the egg lightly and then stir in the milk or cream. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir with a fork and then knead until you have dough that feels like child's play clay. If mixture is too dry, add more milk a teaspoon at a time.

Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. On a lightly floured work surface, roll 1 piece of dough into a rope about 18 inches long and the diameter of a pencil. Break off lengths about 3 inches long, slightly taper the ends, and then join them into a ring. Dip the top of this jumble into sugar and place on a prepared cookie sheet. Repeat these steps with the remaining dough. Bake until firm and just beginning to turn golden, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Makes about 6 dozen jumbles

ADAPTED FROM “JUMBLES,” SANGAMO JOURNAL, 1832.

BACON-BASTED MILITIA CHICKEN

 

This adaptation captures the flavor of the troop's campfire roasted–fried chicken. Today's well-fed and grocery store–purchased fowl is considerably more tender than the bird the soldiers in Lincoln's Black Hawk War company managed to find
.

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Split chicken along the spine. Flatten and place skin side up in a roasting pan. Gently lift skin by sliding your hands between the skin and meat. Distribute the bacon pieces evenly over the entire chicken and pat the skin back down. Slow-roast the chicken, basting with the pan juices from time to time, until the skin is slightly transparent and the meat is well done, about 1 hour and 40 minutes. (An instant-read meat thermometer inserted in a thigh will register 165°F.)

Serves 4 twenty-first-century diners (or 10 hungry men of the Black Hawk War company)

RE-CREATED FROM PERIOD SOURCES.