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Table of Contents America has one city that stands apart from its neigh bors, New Orleans. New Orleans has managed to hold on to its glamour which is the very soul of it. One finds a little Tea Shop tucked away in a narrow thoroughfare, a banquette, of the French Quarter. One is so interested in the beautiful old iron grill-work adorning an overhanging balcony that tea is forgotten for a time. Then a sudden inspiration comes. It shan't be tea, after all, but coffee. Dark amber colored coffee made by the drip method is the beverage for the occasion. New Orleans' French Quarter has always been famous for drip coffee. It is sure to be excellent. And little cakes to go with the coffee! It is delightful to find the same kind of little cakes one ate, as a child on that memorable first trip to New Orleans, when the city still had some open sewers, and some tiny shops where urchins purchased a "quartee red beans, a quartee rice, lagnappe salt pork to make it taste nice." That meant a half nickle's worth each of red beans and rice, and lagnappe was some thing for nothing, the little gift of salt pork. Sift together 1 cup flour 1 cup sugar 1 tsp. baking powder 1 cocoanut shredded 1/2 cup butter 1 egg unbeaten Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg and cocoanut and mix well. Add the flour, using more if the mixture is too soft to drop into small cakes. Bake at 450° F. for ten to fifteen minutes. Sift together cup sugar 1/2 lb. cocoanut tsp. corn starch 3 egg whites beaten stiff 1/8 tsp. salt 1 tsp. vanilla Gradually add the sugar to the eggs, beating all the time. When all is added, stir in the cocoanut and vanilla. Bake the same as Cocoanut Drop Cookies. Sift together 5 cups flour 2 cups brown sugar 1/4 tsp. nutmeg 1 cup sour cream 1 tsp. cinnamon 11/2 cups butter 1 tsp. mace 2 cups raisins chopped Dissolve in 3 egg yolks well beaten 3 egg whites beaten stiff 1 tbsp. hot water 1 tsp. soda Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg yolks and fold in the egg whites. Add the cream and then the soda. Stir in the flour and raisins and work into a smooth dough. Roll thin, cut into small cakes and bake at 350° F. for about twenty minutes. Clabber is a favorite food in New Orleans. Milk is set in a cool place to coagulate from lactic acid bacteria in the air. It is eaten just as clabber or the cream is skimmed off and the coagulated milk is put into colander-like molds and allowed to drip over night. The curd is served with thick sour cream and sugar. Clabber is much used in cookery. The whey is poured off and the thick sour milk is used, with excellent results. Sift together 2 cups flour 1 cup sugar 2 tbsp. cocoa 1 cup clabber 1 tsp. soda 1/2 cup butter 1/2 tsp. salt 1 egg well beaten Cream the butter and sugar together, add the egg, then the clabber and beat vigorously. Gradually add the flour. Spread the batter one-half inch thick in a well buttered baking pan and bake at 350° F. for about twenty minutes. Cut into small squares and ice with Mocha Icing. To make mocha icing: 1 cup unsalted butter well 2 tbsp. sugar creamed very strong coffee infusion 2 egg yolks slightly beaten Beat the egg yolks into the butter. Add the sugar gradu ally and the coffee, a few drops at a time. Spread the cakes. Allow them to stand in the refrigerator twenty-four hours before serving. Sift together 2 cups flour 1 cup butter 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1 tsp. vanilla Mix with 11/2 cups ground pecans Break the butter into small pieces and add it to the flour. Add the vanilla. Blend with the hands to a smooth dough. Form into crescent shaped cakes. Bake at 350° F. until light brown. The traveler in New Orleans has a praline to finish his afternoon coffee. The New Orleans housewife has bor rowed the French word praline and used it to name her own confection which is a candy, not a cake. 1 cocoanut grated 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup water Cook the sugar and water together in a granite pot until the syrup begins to crystalize around the edges. Scrape the sides of the pot until free from sugar, add the cocoanut and cook until the mixture boils vigorously. Drop from a des sert spoon onto a marble slab. |
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