Parched Corn-Meal Cakes
Awaiting Trial Recipe version 1 · Filed by the Court (seed pool) · Adapted from 'Parched Corn-Meal Cakes' — Farmers' Bulletin 565, 'Corn Meal as a Food and Ways of Using It,' USDA, issued Jan. 22, 1914, revised Sept. 1917 (public domain, U.S. federal work). Measures and oven temperatures modernized. Conversion: the original's 1/2 cup wheat flour (63 g) is swapped straight for a gum-containing 1:1 blend at the same weight (USDA basis 125 g/cup); no other change. Distinct from the filed Parched Corn-Meal Peanut Biscuits — no peanuts, egg-white leavened, and iced, as the bulletin directs.
Cornmeal toasted in the oven until delicately brown, then beaten with butter, sugar, and milk, a little flour, and stiff egg whites, and finished under the bulletin's boiled icing. Nutty from the parching, light from the whites — a different cake entirely from the peanut biscuits that share the parching trick.
Why this complexity: Meal is parched (toasted) first; Egg whites are beaten stiff and folded in; Boiled icing is made separately.
Ingredients
- 63 g gluten-free 1:1 baking blend (with gum) (about 1/2 cup), for the original 1/2 cup wheat flour (63 g, USDA basis 125 g/cup)
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- 2 tablespoons butter, plus more for the pans
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 cup milk
- 4 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
- 2 large eggs, whites only, beaten stiff (the original uses 2 egg whites)
- For the boiled icing: 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup boiling water, 1 egg white, beaten stiff, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter muffin tins.
- Spread the cornmeal in a shallow pan and heat it in the oven, stirring frequently, until delicately brown.
- Stir the parched meal with the butter, sugar, and hot milk. Let cool slightly.
- Sift the blend with the baking powder and stir in, then fold in the beaten egg whites.
- Fill the tins about two-thirds full and make about 18 minutes, until firm and lightly browned. Makes 12 small cakes.
- For the icing: boil the sugar and water together until the syrup threads when dropped from a spoon. Pour slowly over the beaten egg white, beating until it holds its form, and add the vanilla. Spread over the warm cakes.
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