Breadstuffs.—Cake and sponge cake, bread crumbs and sliced bread, are valuable in desserts. Bread pudding may be made a very delicious dish. Bread may be combined with fruit in the shape of an escalloped dish. Baking-powder biscuits, crust, and shortcake are also used.
Other starchy substances.—These are cornstarch, arrowroot, sago, tapioca and manioca.
Fruits.—Raw and cooked fruits of every possible kind. A few fruits like the lemon, orange, grapefruit, and melon are not cooked. For preparing fruit served alone, see Chapter VI.
Gelatin.—This material has been mentioned in the chapter on meat. It is prepared for use in desserts in a number of forms, the granular being the most convenient. Gelatin has the property, first, of absorbing water, then of dissolving at the boiling temperature of water and becoming stiff again when cool. After dissolving, as it is cooling and just as it begins to thicken slightly, it can be beaten like white of egg. If beating is attempted while the liquid is warm, or again if it becomes too stiff, the result is not successful. This property makes it useful in the sponges and other fancy desserts where the light spongy texture is desirable.
Fig. 69.—A gelatin mold. Courtesy of Dept. of Foods and Cookery, Teachers College.
Making desserts attractive.—This is done by serving hot desserts in a dish around which a napkin may be folded; and cold desserts, especially those made with gelatin, may be molded in some attractive form and garnished. Figure 69 shows a very simple gelatin dessert garnished with candied cherries and a little angelica, the stem of a plant which has been sugared, and the whole surrounded with whipped cream.
Whipping the cream and putting it around the base takes only a few minutes. As in salad, the garnish should be eatable and easily prepared.
1. Boiled custard.