Luncheons: A Cook's Picture Book

by Mary Ronald

HOT DESSERTS

FARINA CROQUETTES

Put two cupfuls of milk and half a teaspoonful of salt into a double boiler. When the milk is hot add half a cupful of farina, and moisten with a little milk to make it smooth. Cook about twenty minutes, or until it is well thickened, then add the yolk of an egg. When it is cold mold it into small croquettes. Roll the croquettes in egg and white bread crumbs, or cracker dust, and fry in smoking-hot fat to a bright yellow color.

Serve with maple sugar scraped from the cake.

HUCKLEBERRY PUDDING

2 cupfuls of flour,

½ cupful of granulated sugar,

2 cupfuls of berries,

1 heaping teaspoonful of baking powder,

½ saltspoonful of salt,

1 teaspoonful of butter,

Milk.

Mix well the sugar, salt, and baking powder with the flour, then rub in a teaspoonful of butter, and stir in quickly enough milk to make a batter which will drop from the spoon. Add the berries well floured, and turn the mixture into a greased quart pudding-mold. Steam or boil it for half an hour.

It should be mixed quickly and the water should not be allowed to fall below the boiling-point while the pudding is cooking. Serve with any pudding sauce.

CHOCOLATE BREAD PUDDING

1 cupful of stale crumb of bread,

2 cupfuls of milk,

½ cupful of sugar,

3 squares of unsweetened chocolate,

½ teaspoonful of vanilla,

1 egg.

Scald the milk and turn it over the bread, broken into small pieces. Let it soak until the bread is soft, then beat it with a fork to a smooth pulp and add the chocolate, melted, the sugar, vanilla, and yolk of the egg, also a dash of salt. Lastly fold in the white of the egg whipped to a stiff froth.

Bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes.

COCOANUT BREAD PUDDING

Pour a cupful of scalded milk over a cupful of broken bits of crumb of bread. Let the bread soak until softened, then beat it to smoothness. Add a cupful of grated cocoanut, half a cupful of sugar, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, and the yolks of two eggs. Mix well, and then add the whites of the eggs whipped to a stiff froth. Bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes. Serve hot or cold.

FIG PUDDING

Weigh three eggs; take the same weight of butter, sugar, figs, and of crumb of bread. Chop the figs, put a little hot water on them, and cook them to a pulp. Grate the bread to very fine crumbs. Mix together the butter and sugar, add the yolks of the eggs, then the figs and the crumbs, and lastly the whites of the eggs whipped to a stiff froth. Turn the mixture into a covered quart mold, and steam for two and a half hours; or put it into individual timbale molds, set them into a pan of water, cover them with a greased paper, and cook in an oven for thirty minutes, or until firm to the touch. At the moment of serving pour over them a little rum or brandy and light it with a taper.

Serve with wine sauce, or with any other pudding sauce.

GREEN-GAGE PUDDING

Butter well a quart granite-ware basin. Arrange on the bottom a layer of green-gage plums (California canned plums), then fill the dish heaping full of the crumb of stale bread cut into dice. Beat two eggs enough to break them, and mix them with two cupfuls of milk. Pour the egg and milk mixture slowly over the bread with a spoon, so the bread will soak up the liquid. Set the pudding-dish in a pan of water and bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes. Let it stand a few minutes, then invert it on a dish and do not lift it off the tin for a few minutes longer. Serve with a sauce made of a cupful of juice from the can, with a heaping tablespoonful of sugar added to it and then boiled until clear.

TAPIOCA PUDDING WITH PRUNES

Soak three tablespoonfuls of tapioca in cold water for two hours. Use two and a half cupfuls of water. Stew dried prunes until they begin to swell. Add to the soaked tapioca (there should be four heaping tablespoonfuls of it) three tablespoonfuls of sugar, one teaspoonful of butter, and two cupfuls of milk or water. Spread a layer of prunes over the bottom of a quart pudding-dish, then fill the dish with the tapioca mixture and bake it twenty-five to thirty-five minutes in a slow oven.

SAUTÉD BANANAS

Select bananas that are not quite ripe. Peel and cut them in two lengthwise. Put a tablespoonful of butter in a sauté-pan; when it bubbles add a tablespoonful of sugar and lay in the bananas. When the bananas are tender take them out carefully and lay them in an even row on a hot dish. Add half a cupful of cream to the pan and mix it well with the butter and sugar. The sugar should be cooked enough to give a caramel flavor. Add two or three tablespoonfuls of sherry, or just enough to take away the very sweet taste. Pour this sauce over the bananas.

BAKED BANANAS, No. 1

Select bananas that are not quite ripe, detach the skins. Bake the bananas in the skins for twenty to thirty minutes, or until tender but not soft. Turn them out of the skins, lay them in an even row on a hot dish, and pour over them some melted currant jelly.

BAKED BANANAS, No. 2

Mix two tablespoonfuls of butter with three tablespoonfuls of sugar and two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice, and place it on the fire to melt the butter. Peel bananas and lay them uncut in a baking-pan; pour over them the buttered mixture and bake them until tender, basting them frequently. Place them in an even row on a flat dish and pour over them the liquor from the pan.

BAKED QUINCES

Peel and core the quinces, then cut them in halves and bake them in a pan with a very little water until tender.

NO. 116. GREEN-GAGE PUDDING.

NO. 117. BAKED QUINCES.

NO. 118. STEWED APPLES, NO. 1, WITH JAM AND ALMONDS.

When they are cooked, spread the tops with butter and a plentiful amount of sugar. Serve hot. Pass butter and sugar.

SOUFFLÉS

Soufflés are one of the most elegant dessert dishes. They are esteemed for their delicacy rather than their richness, and the difficulty in making them gives them distinction, as they are usually presented only from the hand of an expert cook. There is no reason, however, that any one should not succeed in making a perfect soufflé, though it is one of the popular delusions that they are very difficult to make. With intelligent care about the heat of the oven, a soufflé can be made with less trouble than is given to many other simple desserts. The whites of eggs must be beaten until filled with air. They are then placed in a moderate oven, where the heated air expands and puffs up the whole mass. The baking is continued until the air-cells are enough hardened to support the weight, and the dish must be served at once and before the imprisoned air cools and the mass collapses.

STRAWBERRY SOUFFLÉ

Beat to a stiff, dry froth the whites of as many eggs as needed, allowing one white for each person and one for the dish, then fold in lightly enough strawberry jam to sweeten it; or use strawberry pulp and sugar. Turn it into a pudding-dish and bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. Serve at once. The soufflé must go directly from the oven to the table.

FRUIT AND OTHER SOUFFLÉS

To the whipped whites of eggs may be added half the number of yolks and powdered sugar enough to sweeten, or chocolate, or any jam, or softened jelly, or fruit juice, or the pulp of any fruit with the juice drained off. Fruit must be pressed through a purée sieve to make the pulp fine and soft.

BURNING PEACHES

Place California canned whole peaches and the juice in a deep dish. Just before serving pour over them some brandy or rum and light it with a taper.

BURNING CHERRIES

Serve California white cherries in the same way as directed above for peaches.