=Nut Biscuits.=--Sift together two cupfuls flour, one-half teaspoonful of salt, and a teaspoonful and a half of baking powder.
Rub in one heaping tablespoonful of butter or vegetable shortening, and add one cupful of nuts, pecans, hickory or English walnuts chopped and a tablespoonful of sugar. Mix to a soft dough with milk or milk and water, mould with the hands into small balls, place in a greased bag, brush each biscuit over with milk or melted butter, put a pinch of chopped nuts on each, seal and bake in a hot oven.
=Raisin Biscuits.=--These are excellent for home luncheon or the children's school or picnic lunch. Sift together one quart of flour, a half teaspoonful of salt and two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Work into the sifted flour a cupful of shortening, then add a cupful each seedless raisins and milk. Mix well and roll out on the molding board. Cut in small round biscuits, bag, and bake in a quick oven.
=Hot Cross Buns.=--Sift together one quart of pastry flour, three teaspoonfuls of baking powder and a teaspoonful of salt. Rub into the flour a piece of butter the size of an egg. Mix together a cupful each of milk and water and add one cupful of sugar. Stir into the flour, add two beaten eggs, and mix soft. Cut into small biscuits, make the cross on the top of each, bag, and bake in a very hot oven. Sift powdered sugar over them as soon as taken from the bag. A half cupful chopped raisins or currants may be added to the dough if desired.
=Warmed Over Breads.=--It is a trick worth knowing that cold biscuit, rolls, gems and the like can be brushed over with water, put in a greased paper bag, sealed and set in the oven for eight minutes to emerge as fresh as though just newly baked.
CAKES baked in paper bags will be as brown as if baked without the bag and will retain their moisture infinitely better; therefore plain loaf cakes and all fruit cakes are greatly improved by the paper bag cooking. While drop cakes, oatmeal cookies and the like can be baked directly on the bottom of the bag, better results as far as form is concerned, will come from using very thin tin moulds or baking sheets or paper souffle cases. Before putting a cake in the oven, particularly if it be a fruit cake, it will be found advisable to set on the bottom of the oven, a shallow pan with a little water in it. Put in the bag, close the oven door and leave ten minutes with the gas on, then reduce the heat at least one-half. Bag cooking prevents cake crusting over and thereby permits it to rise to its full height. It also saves from burning. Midway in the baking the position of cakes can be changed, those on the grid itself set low on the broiler and vice versa so all will cook evenly. To test whether the cake is done or no, make a hole in the bag top and thrust in a clean straw or thin knife blade. If it comes out dry with no stickiness, the cake is done.