Gateaux de guerre

Subject: Gateaux de guerre
From: Auxiris
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 09:51 AM

Just for a change from the stories, here's a recipe that dates from World War II and bears testimony to some of the shortages people had to deal with during the war. It doesn't require butter or eggs, but uses unpasteurised milk.

cheers,

Aux

GATEAUX DE GUERRE (WARTIME BISCUITS)

Ingredients:

Cream skimmed from at least 2 litres of raw whole milk after it has been boiled then left to stand and cool off to lukewarm and then refrigerated, preferably overnight;
An equal amount of sugar;
4 or 5 teaspoonfuls of orange flower water;
1/2 teaspoonful of sodium bicarbonate;
Enough flour to make a firm dough that can be rolled and cut out.

Mix equal amounts of skimmed cream and sugar together. Add orange flower water and sodium bicarbonate. Add flour slowly until dough can be handled without sticking to hands and knead thoroughly. Roll out to about 1/8th of an inch (or 3 mm, for those of you who are not allergic to metric) thick and cut out with small biscuit cutters. Bake at about (I say about, because the recipe that I have does not specify a temperature) 350°F or a bit hotter, depending on your oven, for about 10 to 12 minutes, or just until golden. Store in biscuit tins that close ti

Subject: RE: Gateaux de guerre
From: Auxiris
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 09:53 AM

ghtly.

Bloody machine!

Subject: RE: Gateaux de guerre
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 10:04 AM

Sounds good! Reminds me of a recipe a friend gave me, called Depression Cake. Used no butter or milk or eggs, I think, but cocoa and sugar and oil, you made it in the pan it baked in and it made an actually delicious cake. I'll find and post if anyone wants it...

Subject: RE: Gateaux de guerre
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 10:40 AM

Cake? You had cake? We had wet cardboard... (oops sorry, wandered out of a Monty Python sketch by mistake)
RtS "war baby - but look at me now!"

Subject: RE: Gateaux de guerre
From: Auxiris
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 03:28 AM

Salut, Mrrzy; comment ça va? Yes, I'd like to have the "Depression Cake" recipe if you can find it. One of the next door neighbour's children was asking people in the village if they had such recipes (ones that don't use usual ingredients because of shortages such as those encountered during the war) for a class project. Thanks in advance!

cheers,

Aux

Subject: RE: Gateaux de guerre
From: Troll
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 09:50 AM

RtS, You had wet cardboard? We'd have KILLED for wet cardboard. You could chew that.
We had a cake made of old plaster and painted with whitewash. Mum cut her thumb to get red for a cherry on top. We were the envy of the neighborhood. All the kids would look in through the window at that cake on the table.
"Course, there wasn't much else; just the table, the floor, and a bit of wall with the window in it.
Now aren't you sorry you started this? * HEH HEH HEH *

troll

Subject: RE: Gateaux de guerre
From: Greyeyes
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 05:53 PM

Luxury.

Subject: RE: Gateaux de guerre
From: Auxiris
Date: 08 Dec 00 - 02:45 AM

I am beginning to get the impression I should have stuck with the Nasreddine stories. . . anyone else want to talk about how deprived of the slightest necessities (let alone luxuries) they were during the war/the depression/ recession/etc.?

cheers,

Aux

Subject: RE: Gateaux de guerre
From: Auxiris
Date: 08 Dec 00 - 03:32 AM

And, speaking of Nasreddine Hodja, there are quite a few collections of these stories in print, so there's really no need for me to continue to translate and post them.

cheers,

Aux

Subject: RE: Gateaux de guerre
From: Troll
Date: 08 Dec 00 - 12:20 PM

Three days a week during the WWII, my mom carried a quart of milk from my grandfathers house, 500 yds. up Hiway 17 to Cousin Dick's house. She would hand him the bottle and he would give her a quarter. In this way she qualified for an extra tire ration because she was delivering milk.
It made no difference that Cousin Dick had more cows that my grandfather.

troll

Subject: RE: Gateaux de guerre
From: mousethief
Date: 08 Dec 00 - 12:33 PM

Table, floor, window, A BIT OF A WALL?!?!?! Bloody farking LUXURY that is. We had to put our plaster cake on the MUD FLOOR of our HOLE. Neighborhood kids looked down at us through the LEAKY BRACKEN ROOF and laughed when the saw how poor WE were.

I mean we called it a hole but it was really a small indentation in the MUD.

Alex