GINGERBREAD NUTS.

Rub half a pound of butter into a pound and a half of sifted flour; and
mix in half a pound of brown sugar, crushed fine with the rolling-pin.
Add two large table-spoonfuls of ginger, a tea-spoonful of powdered
cloves, and a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Stir in a pint of
molasses, and the grated peel of a large lemon, but not the juice, as
you must add at the last, a very small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash
dissolved in a little lukewarm water, and pearl-ash entirely destroys
the taste of lemon-juice and of every other acid. Stir the whole
mixture very hard with a spaddle or with a wooden spoon, and make it
into a lump of dough just stiff enough to roll out into a sheet about
half an inch thick. Cut it out into small cakes about the size of a
quarter dollar; or make it up, with your hands well floured, into
little round balls, flattening them on the top. Lay them in buttered
pans, and bake them in a moderate oven. They will keep several weeks.
