Luncheons: A Cook's Picture Book

by Mary Ronald

COLD DESSERTS

APPLES RICHELIEU

Take out the cores of well-flavored apples and cut them crosswise into halves. Simmer them in sugar and water until tender. Let them cool. Lay several pieces of sliced blanched almonds straight, at regular intervals, upon the flat sides of the apples. Sprinkle them with powdered sugar and set them in the oven a minute to brown the sugar. Place candied cherries cut in halves upon the apples between the almonds. Just before serving put spoonfuls of whipped cream at intervals on a flat dish and place the cold apples upon the cream; or press the cream through a pastry-bag in circles around the apples.

STEWED APPLES, No. 1

Select apples of uniform size and shape. Remove the cores and peel them carefully. Put them into hot water with sugar and lemon juice. Cook them slowly until tender, but not so long that they lose shape. When they are cold fill the centers with sweetened and flavored boiled rice and cover them with apricot or any jam. Sprinkle them with blanched almonds cut in strips.

STEWED APPLES, No. 2

Prepare the apples as for No. 1. Fill the centers with well-flavored apple purée, or with apple jelly mixed with chopped raisins. Sprinkle them with granulated sugar and stick into them blanched almonds cut into strips and slightly browned.

Serve with cream, if convenient.

Apple purée and apple jelly can be made from the parings and cores of the apples. Put these trimmings in a saucepan with a little water and cook them to a pulp. Press the pulp through a sieve for the purée, or strain it through a cloth for the juice. Return the juice to the fire, let it boil a minute, then add half a pound of hot sugar to a cupful of juice. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, and boil until a few drops put on a cold plate jelly. Turn it into glasses to set.

BAKED APPLES

Peel and core good-flavored, tart apples. Put a small piece of butter in each one and sprinkle them with sugar so they will brown well. Put them in a pan with a little water and bake until tender, then remove and put on each one two drops of almond extract. Add a little sugar to the water in the pan and cook it down to a thick syrup, then strain it slowly over the apples to glaze them; or stick three cloves into each apple before baking them, and omit the almond extract; or fill the centers with the sugar, lemon peel, and stick cinnamon before baking, or with blanched almonds and raisins after baking.

NO. 119. COMPOTE OF FIGS.

COMPOTE OF FIGS

Put a pound of pulled figs in a bowl and cover them with water. Let them soak for several hours, or until they are softened and expanded, then press each one into natural shape and pile them on a dish. Take the water in which they were soaked, add enough sugar to sweeten it, and a thick slice of lemon. Boil it until it is a good syrup, then pour it over the figs. Let the figs cool before serving. Or to each cupful of fig water add a cupful of sugar and boil it to the crack, then pour it slowly over the figs. This will give them a coating of sugar. Serve with whipped cream flavored with kirsch.

The figs, being very sweet, are improved by using a flavoring which is sharp like lemon or kirsch. If lemon is used, pour the juice over the figs, as it will curdle the cream if mixed with it.

NO. 120. COMPOTE OF APRICOTS.

COMPOTE OF APRICOTS

Prepare dried apricots the same as directed for compote of pears. Place half a blanched almond in the center of each piece to imitate a pit.

NO. 121. COMPOTE OF PEARS.

COMPOTE OF PEARS

Soak dried California pears in water overnight, or for several hours until they swell to natural shape. Arrange them symmetrically on a dish, or around a form of rice, as in illustration. To the water in which the pears were soaked add enough sugar to make it sweet, and boil it down to a syrup, then add a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Pour the hot syrup over the fruit. Serve cold.

NO. 122. BANANAS AND CREAM.

BANANAS AND CREAM

Cut bananas into slices one quarter of an inch thick. Arrange them in a pile in the center of the dish and place around them spoonfuls of whipped cream. The cream may be flavored with sherry or vanilla, but use no sugar, as the fruit is sweet enough without it.

STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM

Mix enough sugar with cream to sweeten it thoroughly, and then whip it until it is stiff and dry. A half pint of cream is enough for a quart of berries. When ready to serve, mix the berries in the cream and serve them piled on a flat dish.

PEACHES AND CREAM

Cut peeled peaches into slices and put them in the ice-box. Add as much sugar to a half pint of cream as will be needed to sweeten the peaches. Whip the cream to a stiff froth. At the moment of serving, mix together lightly the peaches and cream; or an hour or more before serving, mix the cream and fruit, put it in a covered mold, and pack in ice and salt. Use but little salt, for the object is to make the peaches very cold, but not to freeze them.

NO. 123. BREAD AND JAM TARTLETS.

BREAD AND JAM TARTLETS

Cut very light bread into slices one quarter of an inch thick. Stamp these pieces into rounds with a biscuit-cutter. Put them in a sauté-pan with a little butter, and brown them on both sides. When they are cool, spread them with any kind of jam or preserved fruit, and just before serving ornament them with whipped cream pressed through a pastry-bag and star tube.

NO. 124. PINE CONES.

PINE CONES

Cut quarter-inch slices of bread into rounds and moisten them with sherry or maraschino. Pile chopped pineapple in cone shape on each round of bread. Canned, fresh, or stewed pineapple may be used. Dilute the juice strained from the fruit with a little water, and sweeten it to taste. Add a teaspoonful of arrowroot moistened with cold water to a cupful of pineapple liquor. Boil it until thickened, then with a spoon pour it slowly over the cones. Serve hot or cold.

NO. 125. INDIVIDUAL CORNSTARCH PUDDINGS WITH CURRANT JELLY.

NO. 126. CORNSTARCH PUDDING IN RING MOLD, ORNAMENTED WITH RAISINS.
GARNISHED WITH WHIPPED CREAM.

NO. 127. CORNSTARCH PUDDING ORNAMENTED WITH CANDIED
CHERRIES AND ANGELICA.

NO. 128. CHOCOLATE CORNSTARCH PUDDING.

CORNSTARCH PUDDINGS

Dissolve two heaping tablespoonfuls of cornstarch in a little cold water or milk and turn it slowly, stirring all the time, into a pint of scalding milk in a double boiler; add three tablespoonfuls of sugar and a dash of salt. Stir until it is thickened, then let it cook for half an hour, or until it has lost the raw taste of the starch, then add the whipped whites of two eggs and a half teaspoonful of vanilla, and cook it a few minutes longer to set the eggs.

No. 1. The cornstarch is molded in cups; when unmolded a piece is taken out of the top of each one, and the holes are filled with currant jelly, and jelly is placed on the dish around the individual puddings. This gives a good sauce as well as a nice effect of color. Any jelly, jam, or preserved fruits may be used in place of the currant jelly.

No. 2. Lay a line of seeded raisins on the bottom of a ring-mold before turning in the cornstarch; or mix with the cornstarch some chopped citron, currants, and raisins. Fill the center of the ring with whipped cream, or with plain boiled custard.

No. 3. Mold the cornstarch in a bowl. Decorate it with candied cherries and angelica. Serve with it cream, sweetened milk, custard, or preserved fruit.

No. 4. Add to the cornstarch two squares of melted chocolate and a tablespoonful of sugar. Decorate the mold with split blanched almonds. Dip the almonds in a little half-set gelatine to make them adhere to the mold. Put the mold into hot water for a second to soften the gelatine before unmolding the pudding. Serve with whipped cream or sweetened milk.

PEACH PUDDING

Cover the bottom of a pudding-dish with canned peaches. Take half the juice from the can, add to it two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and boil it to a thick syrup.

Make a custard, using two cupfuls of milk, the yolks of two eggs, and a heaping tablespoonful of cornstarch. Cook in a double boiler for half an hour, or until it is quite thick and the raw taste of the cornstarch is gone, then add a little of the peach syrup to sweeten it, and a few drops of almond extract. Sprinkle the peaches with blanched almonds cut in pieces, pour over them the syrup, then the custard. Cover the top with meringue made of the whites of two eggs and three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Brown the meringue. Serve the pudding hot or cold.

TAPIOCA PUDDING

1 quart of milk,

½ cupful of tapioca,

4-5 eggs,

½ pint of cream,

4-5 tablespoonfuls of sugar,

½ cupful of sherry.

Soak the tapioca in cold water for several hours or overnight. Boil the soaked tapioca in the milk until it is soft, then add the beaten yolks of the eggs, the sugar, cream, and wine, and lastly the whipped whites of the eggs.

Turn the mixture into a pudding-dish. Set the dish in a pan of water and bake twenty to twenty-five minutes. Serve cold.

NO. 129. RICE PRUNE PUDDING.

NO. 130. RICE PRUNE PUDDING.

RICE PRUNE PUDDING

Spread stewed prunes over the bottom of a basin or mold, then fill the mold with boiled rice. Press the rice in just hard enough to make it hold its shape. Turn it out of the mold and serve it hot or cold, with the sweetened juice of the prunes as sauce; or press the rice into a bowl or mold, and arrange the prunes around the form after it is unmolded, as in illustration [No. 129]; or arrange it as in illustration [No. 130].

JELLIED APPLE PUDDING

Add to one and a half cupfuls of strained stewed apples the juice of an orange, the grated rind and juice of half a lemon, three tablespoonfuls of sherry, three quarters of a cupful of sugar, and two tablespoonfuls of granulated gelatine which has been soaked for an hour in half a cupful of cold water and then dissolved in half a cupful of hot water. Stir the mixture until it begins to thicken, then fold in the whites of three eggs whipped to a stiff froth, or a half-pint of whipped cream. Turn it into a mold.

Serve it with whipped cream.

PINEAPPLE PUDDING

Grate a pineapple fine. Mix well together a cupful of sugar and four eggs, then mix them with the pineapple pulp. Turn the mixture into a mold, set the mold into a pan of water and bake it slowly until stiffened like a baked custard. When cold unmold it and decorate it with whipped cream.

NO. 131. SAVARINS.

SAVARINS

Take some brioche dough (page [209]) and add enough milk to make it almost soft enough to drop from the spoon. Add sugar, raisins, chopped citron, and a little lemon juice. Work all well together.

Butter some earthen cups, sprinkle them with sliced blanched almonds, half fill the cups with the savarin dough, and let it rise to double in size. Bake in a hot oven.

Turn them out of the molds, and while they are warm dip them in a syrup made of one cupful of sugar syrup, three tablespoonfuls each of kirsch, maraschino, and curaçao, or flavor with any other liqueurs preferred. When the savarins are well soaked place them on a sieve to drain.

NO. 132. BABAS.

BABAS

Take brioche dough prepared as for savarins, and mix with it candied fruits cut into small dice. Butter baba-molds, fill them half full of the mixture, let them rise to double in size, and bake in a hot oven.

Soak the babas in sugar syrup flavored with rum and drain. Place a candied cherry on each one.

Baba-molds are like large individual timbale cups.

COFFEE MOUSSE

½ ounce gelatine,

¼ cupful of cold water,

½ cupful of hot water,

1 cupful of coffee,

½ cupful of sugar,

1 cupful of cream, whipped.

Soak the gelatine in the cold water for an hour, then dissolve it in the hot water and add the sugar. When the sugar is dissolved add a cupful of cold, strong, clear coffee. Put the mixture on ice and whip it until it becomes light and frothy and has begun to stiffen, then add the whipped cream and turn it into a mold. The gelatine must be thoroughly whipped, as for snow pudding, and the liquid drained from the whipped cream must not go in. This will make about one and one half quarts of mousse.

NO. 133. PEACH MOUSSE GARNISHED WITH WHIPPED CREAM.

PEACH MOUSSE

Use fresh or canned peaches. Mash and rub them through a colander. Add to a cupful of peach pulp half a teaspoonful of lemon juice, a few drops of almond extract, and enough sugar to sweeten it. Dissolve in quarter of a cupful of hot peach juice one and three quarter tablespoonfuls of granulated gelatine which has been soaked for an hour in half a cupful of cold water. Add the gelatine to the peach mixture. When it begins to set, mix it until smooth, then fold in a half pint of cream whipped to a stiff froth, and turn it into a mold. Serve with whipped cream. The cream can be used to decorate the dish by pressing it through a pastry-bag.

NO. 137. CHESTNUT PURÉE.

CHESTNUT PURÉE

Boil for five minutes a pound of French chestnuts, drain off the water and remove the shells and skins. Return the chestnuts to the fire and boil them until tender. Put the boiled chestnuts in a mortar, and pound them to a paste, then add a teaspoonful of vanilla and a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Make a thick sugar syrup, and beat it into the paste, using enough to sweeten to taste. Grease a ring-mold with oil, and put into it a lining half an inch thick of the chestnut paste pressed through a pastry-bag with a tube of small opening so it will come out vermicelli-like in form. Fill the rest of the mold with plain paste. Turn it on to a layer of sponge-cake. Just before serving fill the center of the ring with whipped cream flavored with almond.

NO. 135. CHESTNUT BAVARIAN.

CHESTNUT BAVARIAN

Prepare chestnuts as directed for chestnut purée. To two cupfuls of the purée add one ounce of gelatine which has been soaked for an hour in half a cupful of cold water and then dissolved in half a cupful of hot water. Mix well, and when it begins to stiffen add a pint of cream whipped to a stiff froth, and turn the mixture into a ring-mold to harden. Fill the center with whipped cream, or with chestnuts boiled in sugar and water until they look clear.

CHARLOTTE RUSSE

1 pint of milk,

1 pint of cream,

Yolks of four eggs,

½ cupful of sugar,

¼ boxful of gelatine,

1 teaspoonful of vanilla.

Mix the sugar with the yolks of the eggs. Scald the milk and pour it over them. Place it on the fire and stir until the eggs are cooked, but not thickened like a custard, then add the gelatine, which has been soaked for an hour in half a cupful of cold water. When the gelatine is dissolved remove it from the fire, add the vanilla, and let it get cold. When the mixture begins to thicken add the cream whipped to a stiff froth, and turn it into a mold lined with lady-fingers or with slices of sponge-cake.

NO. 136. STRAWBERRY CHARLOTTE RUSSE GARNISHED WITH STRAWBERRIES.

STRAWBERRY CHARLOTTE RUSSE, No. 1

⅓ box of gelatine,

¼ cupful of cold water,

1½ cupfuls of powdered sugar,

1½ teaspoonfuls of lemon juice,

1 quart of berries, crushed and pressed

through a purée sieve,

½ pint of cream, whipped.

Soak the gelatine in the water for an hour, then set it in a pan of hot water to dissolve. Add to the crushed berries the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and gelatine. Put it aside for a while. When it begins to stiffen, beat it until it is light and spongy, then mix in the whipped cream, being careful not to pour in any of the liquid cream that may have drained to the bottom of the dish. Turn the mixture into a charlotte-mold lined with lady-fingers. When it is unmolded garnish it with whole strawberries.

NO. 134. STRAWBERRY CHARLOTTE RUSSE, No. 2.

STRAWBERRY CHARLOTTE RUSSE, No. 2

Line a china or earthen bowl or mold with strawberries cut in halves, and with the flat side of the berries placed close together against the mold. Arrange one or two rows at a time, and then turn in the mixture to keep them in place. Fill the mold with the same mixture used in No. 1; or fill the mold with plain charlotte-russe filling, or with Bavarian cream.

HOW TO MAKE MERINGUES

Put a dash of salt into the whites of five or six eggs and whip them until very stiff and dry, then add slowly a quarter of a cupful of sifted powdered sugar for each egg. The sugar should be placed, a little at a time, at the end of the platter, and gradually whipped in. Continue to whip until the mixture is firm enough to stand without spreading, and any little point left by the beater remains erect. Success depends on the eggs being sufficiently beaten.

The mixture can be made into various shapes with a spoon, but is better molded by being pressed through a pastry-bag. The tops can be smoothed and any irregularities effaced with a clean wet knife. The shapes should be arranged on paper placed on inverted baking-tins, and set in a moderate oven to form a thin crust, and to color lightly the tops, and then placed on the hot shelf of the range to dry. If the meringues stick to the paper, they can be easily removed by wetting the paper slightly.

NO. 138. MERINGUE RING WITH WHIPPED CREAM.

NO. 139. MERINGUE CROWN.

MERINGUE RING

Place meringue mixture (see above) in a pastry-bag with star-tube. Draw on heavy paper two rings four to six inches in diameter, according to size desired. Any round utensil of right size can be used for guide. Press the meringue through the tube, following the circles marked on the paper. One of the rings—the top one—should be made more ornamental than the other. This is easily done by moving the tube while the mixture is passing through it. With a wet knife make a narrow, smooth, flat surface on the top of the under ring. Lay the papers holding the rings on inverted baking-tins, and put them in a moderate oven for a few minutes to color them and form a crust. Watch carefully that they do not get too brown. When lightly colored, remove them to the hot shelf to dry. When they are sufficiently firm take them carefully off the paper, turn them over, break in the bottoms, then return them to the shelf to continue the drying. Place one ring on top of the other, and just before serving fill the center with whipped cream.

Meringues may be kept for some time, but in that case should be freshened by heating before being used.

If preferred, the upper piece can be made into a cover as in illustration [No. 139].

NO. 140. MERINGUE CREAM TART, NO. 1.

MERINGUE CREAM TART, No. 1

Make meringues (see page [150]) of oblong shape, three inches long and two inches wide. After the tops are firm, break in the bottoms in order to dry the insides.

Trim the edges of a round layer of sponge-cake, spread it with jam of any kind, arrange the meringues around it, and at the moment of serving fill the center of the tart with whipped cream. Flavor the cream, if desired. It will take a dozen meringues to make the crown.

Arrange the crown as follows: Put half a cupful of sugar and a quarter cupful of hot water into a saucepan and stir until the sugar dissolves, then let it cook, without stirring, until a little dropped into cold water is brittle; it is then boiled to the crack. Draw the saucepan to the side of the range, so the sugar will be kept hot without cooking any more.

Dip the end of a meringue into the sugar and place it on the cake; hold it in place while you dip a second meringue and place it under the first one. Proceed in this way until all are placed, then put a drop of the boiled sugar on the top of each one where it touches the next one. The whole will then be held firmly in place.

NO. 141. MERINGUE CREAM TART, NO. 2.

MERINGUE CREAM TART, No. 2

Make meringue mixture into small kisses, leaving the point left by the tube erect.

Spread a layer of cake with jam as in No. 1. Stick a candied cherry on the point of each kiss and arrange them as shown in illustration. Fill the center with whipped cream.

NO. 142. MERINGUES FILLED WITH WHIPPED CREAM OR WITH ICE CREAM.

MERINGUES FILLED WITH WHIPPED CREAM OR WITH ICE CREAM

Make oblong-shaped meringues, as for cream tart No. 1. Just before serving, fill them with whipped cream, or with ice cream, and press two together. If necessary, use a little white of egg on the edges to make them adhere.

CHOCOLATE CREAM

Scald two cupfuls of milk. Melt on a dry pan two squares of unsweetened chocolate, add the hot milk slowly to the chocolate, stirring all the time. Let it come to the boiling-point. Beat two whole eggs and two yolks with four tablespoonfuls of sugar, stir the milk and chocolate into the eggs, add half a teaspoonful of vanilla and a dash of salt. Turn the mixture into a mold, set it into a pan of hot water, and cook in a slow oven until it is firm. In order to have it smooth and solid it must bake slowly. Test it by running in the point of a knife; if it is not cooked, it will coat the knife with milk.

Unmold when cold and serve with whipped cream.

CHOCOLATE SPONGE

Make the same mixture as for chocolate cream. Instead of cooking it slowly, put it into a hot oven and cook it until the whey appears. By cooking in a hot oven it will be full of holes and have a sponge-like appearance. When cold, unmold it and let the whey escape. Serve with whipped cream.

NO. 143. BAVARIAN CREAM GARNISHED WITH CREAM CAKES.

BAVARIAN CREAM GARNISHED WITH CREAM-CAKES

Make a Bavarian cream (see “Century Cook Book,” page 400), and turn it into a flat tin to harden. Have it about half an inch thick. When it is set, cut it into pieces two and a half to three inches square, and arrange them, overlapping, in the center of a dish. Place around them small cream-cakes of one inch in diameter.

Cornstarch pudding, jelly, or any mixture firm enough to be sliced can be served in this way. Left-over jelly can be melted and molded again in a layer, or it may be combined with custard, cream, crumbed cake, or anything suitable that may be at hand, and turned into a layer-tin to stiffen; then cut and serve as above. Any small cakes or sliced cake cut into rounds may be substituted for the cream-cakes.

Chocolate Bavarian garnished with small cakes covered with white icing makes a good combination.