Home Baking

With the coming of independence from Britain, American sweet making increasingly began to branch out from its English roots. In England, pies tended to be savory, whereas tarts were sweet. In the United States, pies were not only invariably sweetened, but their varieties proliferated. Hitherto obscure regional specialties such as Hertfordshire’s “dough nuts” multiplied in shape, variety, and technique. Cakes became noticeably daintier than the heavy, fruitcake-type confections of the past—though this was, admittedly, happening across the Atlantic as well. Distinctly American drop cookies, made with oats, peanut butter, and chocolate chips, were developed around the turn of the twentieth century. See drop cookies. Ice cream became relatively commonplace, at least if we are to believe Frederick Marryat, a captain in the British Royal Navy, who, while visiting St. Louis in 1837, noted the universal availability of ice with the consequence that “ice-creams [were] universal and very cheap.” See doughnuts; ice cream; and pie.