Jelly Roll

Recipe No. 73 from the U.S. Army’s WWII cookbook — Cakes and Cookies. Quantities are exactly as printed, for 100 servings; a scaled-down 8-serving version is in the notes.

Ingredients

• Eggs — 32 eggs (1½ No. 56 dippers)
• Sugar, granulated — 2 pounds (1 No. 56 dipper)
• Water, hot — ¾ pint (½ No. 56 dipper)
• Vanilla — ½ ounce (1 mess kit spoon)
• Flour, sifted — 2 pounds (2 No. 56 dippers)
• Baking powder — 2 ounces (5⅓ mess kit spoons)
• Salt — 1 ounce (2 mess kit spoons)

Directions

Key ingredients

Baking Soda & Baking Powder

1. Mix eggs and sugar; heat over hot water until warm (110° F.), stirring constantly.
2. Beat rapidly 15 to 20 minutes or until mixture is fluffy and thick.
3. Mix water and vanilla; add to egg mixture.
4. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together twice; fold carefully into egg mixture, mixing only enough to combine ingredients.
5. Spread on greased baking sheets lined with greased paper. Bake in hot oven (400° F.) 5 to 6 minutes.
6. Turn at once from pans onto cloth covered with powdered sugar.
7. Remove paper; spread with jelly * and roll.

Notes

SCALED TO 8 SERVINGS (the original is ÷12.5): Eggs — 2½ eggs Sugar, granulated — 2½ oz Water, hot — 2 tbsp Vanilla — a pinch Flour, sifted — 2½ oz Baking powder — about 1 tsp Salt — about ½ tsp

A cream filling such as vanilla or chocolate (recipes Nos. 112, 114) may be used instead of jelly. This recipe makes four sheet pans (18 by 26 by 1 inches).

⚠ As printed, the manual is inconsistent here — “Water, hot: ¾ pint (½ No. 56 dipper)”: ¾ pint = 3/8 qt, but gloss says ½ dippers = 1/2 qt. Transcribed exactly as printed; the parenthetical Army measure is usually the safer one to follow.

— TM 10-412, Army Recipes (War Department, 15 August 1944), recipe No. 73, Cakes and Cookies. Army measures: 1 No. 56 dipper = 1 qt; 1 No. 55 dipper = 1¾ qt; 1 mess kit cup = 1½ pints.