White Gingerbread & Chicken Croquettes

Third day of Christmas.  I revisited some Victorian receipts earlier this month: Beeton's white gingerbread (1861) from my first-ever HFF challenge, and my now go-to savory dish of  Miss Leslie's chicken croquettes (1851).

White gingerbread and chicken croquettes.

Using a modern oven with closer temperature control really helped the gingerbread--I did the first pan in the wood-burning oven, and they got just as crumbly as the first time (not to mention the whole 'not cooking, underdone, burnt at the edges' progression). In the electric oven, they baked up just fine.  I realized after they were baked that I forgot to add the soda; the texture was a bit more like shortbread than gingerbread, but they still tasted fine.

The croquettes turned out nicely--this time they were sans parsley, since my plants died, but the other flavors of marjoram, lemon peel, and nutmeg make for a very complex and savory treat all the same.  I still prefer baking them to frying. And, as of now, they have actually been mistaken for pears.