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.