By Gaynor Maddox
We stopped for tea recently at the home of Mrs. Mark Alton in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Like most New Englander’s, she’s always prepared for any emergency. She generally has on hand a tea bread – usually made with some sort of fruit – to keep it moist and fresh, for several days. Her favorite is a recipe for an Apple Tea Bread in the family for four generations.
Another Alton specialty for tea is dressed-up baking powder biscuits. She simply puts a slit in the top of each biscuit while they’re still hot, and dabs a bit of honey, jam or marmalade in each slit. This makes for ease of handling cup and biscuit during tea-drinking sessions.
She says a good cup of tea must be properly made and insists it doesn’t matter whether you use tea bugs or loose tea. The important elements are: (1) a teapot, (2) boiling water, (3) one teaspoonful tea per cup or one tea bag per cup and, (4) uninterupted brewing time 3 to 5 minutes.
Apple Tea Bread
(Makes one loaf)
Three-fourths cup brown sugar, firmly packed.
1/2 cup butter or margarine.
2 eggs, slightly beaten.
1 cup cooking apples, chopped.
2 cups flour.
4 teaspoons baking powder.
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.
3/4 cup chopped nuts.
Cream sugar and shortening. Beat in eggs. Stir in chopped apples. Mix thoroughly. Sift together dry ingredients. Stir in chopped nuts. Combine with creamed mixture. Mix thoroughly. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake in 350-degree F. oven 45 minutes, or until done.
Note: Fruit tea breads keep well for several days.
Honey Baking Powder Biscuits
(Makes about 14 biscuits)
Two cups flour.
4 tablespoons baking powder.
1 teaspon salt.
4 tablespoons shortening.
3/4 cup milk.
Honey.
Combine and sift dry ingredients twice. Cut in shortening with pastry blender until mixture resembles corn meal. Gradually stir in milk, with a fork, until a soft dough is formed, or until all flour disappears. Turn out on floured board; knead lightly about 1/2 minute. Pat out or roll dough to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with floured biscuit cutter. Place on greased baking sheet.
Bake in hot oven (45O-degrees F.), 12-15 minutes. While still hot, with a knife, make a deep slit across top of each biscuit. Pour in about 1/4 teaspoon honey. Insert half waInut or pecan in each.
TOMORROW’S” DINNER: Pot roast with vegetables, boiled potatoes, rye bread, butter or margarine, green pepper and cabbage slaw, maple nut layer cake, coffee, tea, milk.
Taken from The Flitchburg Sentinel. Flitchburg, Massachusetts. February 11, 1951.
