Contents
1. Introducing Family Baking Recipes Of the Signers………………….. 13
2. Food Availability in Colonial America …………………… ……… 21
3. Bread Baking in the Homes of the Signers 29
4. Sweet Breads as Made in Colonial Homes 49
5. Corn Bread Baking as Done for Our Forefathers 61
6. Sweet Rolls & Coffecakes Early American Style 81
7. Biscuit Baking as Done in Colonial Kitchens 91
8. Homemade Crackers as Made for Our Founders 109
9. Roll Baking as Done by Colonial Women 121
10. Muffin Baking from Kitchens in the Colonies 137
11. Bun Baking Secrets of Signer’s Wives and Mothers 159
12. Layer Cakes as Eaten by the Signers 171
13. Cake Varieties Baked by Our Colonial Ancestors 187
14. Cookie Favorites Before and During the Revolution 213
15. Pie Crusts and Pastries Made by Families of the Signers 243
16. Pie and Tart Fillings Prepared by Women of the House 255
Appendices
I: Old Time Measurements and Today's Counterparts 279

Baking in the American Colonies was far from an easy task. The women of the house made quite an art out of baking tasty loaves of bread, pastry, pies, cakes, cookies, and all of their other homemade goodies. In those days, homemakers couldn’t always buy good flour. Almost every sack or barrel presented new baking problems. Flour always had to be tested for quality before using.
Here’s how Mary Chew wrote it in her old receipt notes ledger in 1765. Miss Chew became the wife of William Paca (1740-1799) of Maryland in 1761. He would later sign the Declaration of Independence on August 2, 1776:
“As good a test of flour as can be had at sight, is to take up a handful and squeeze it tight; if good, when the hand is unclasped, the lines on the palm of the hand will be plainly defined on the ball of flour. Throw a little lump of dried flour against a smooth surface, if it falls like powder, it is bad.”

In those days, the wood heated oven was not nearly as efficient as those used today. The method of measuring oven heat in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was simple but effective. Baking was always a matter of guess. The homemaker relied on when it “felt” hot enough to bake in. If the heat was excessive, it scorched the inquiring hand.
Consider the fact that the first Colonial women didn’t have any sort of an oven in which to do her baking. As pointed out in the EARLY AMERICAN COOKBOOK:
“Big ovens of brick, always ready for baking, had been left behind in their old homes by the settlers. In the new land bricks were scarce. There was little known clay obtainable for brick making. Certainly none along the desolate shores of the broad Atlantic where the Pilgrims landed. And the Colonists were not at first equipped to manufacture bricks. So the Pilgrim mothers did their baking either in Dutch ovens of tin, set facing the open fire on the stone hearth with a tin shield to ward off the flames, or in an iron kettle with squat legs and a depression in the cover for hot coals to give the top heat.”
Cookbooks used in the Colonies were initially brought over from England. One of the first to be reprinted in the colonies was THE COMPLEAT HOUSEWIFE, OR ACCOMPLISHED GENTLEWWOMAN’S COMPANION written by E. Smith. William Parks in Williamsburg, Virginia, reprinted this in 1742.
THE ART OF COOKERY MADE PLAIN AND EASY by Hannah Glasse, was published in 1747 and became a favorite of Colonial homemakers for many years. It contained this recipe that is attributed to the mother of Sarah Hatfield. Sarah was but 21 when she married Abraham Clark (1726-1794) in 1749. Clark later gained a measure of fame as one of the 56 heroic signers of the Declaration of Independence. Here’s how Sarah wrote it: “Tasty Cakes of Ginger Bread. Take whole Pound Butter, three Pounds Flour, whole Pound Sugar. Beat 2 Ounces finely beaten Ginger till it is fine powder. . Grate big Nutmeg. Put with other ingredients; then take whole Pound Molasses, a Coffeecupful Cream. Heat Molasses and Cream together. Work dough for Bread till stiff. Lay on Board with little Flour. Roll to thin Cookies. Cut in rounds with small glass turned over or Teacup. Or roll to ball in hands the size of Hickory Nut. Lay on Bake Pan. Bake in slack Oven.”
Then in 1772, Susannah Carter’s THE FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE OR FEMALE COMPANION was reprinted in Boston. Paul Revere made the printing plates for her cookbook. This was most popular with, and could be found in the homes of, many of the wives and mothers of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.