Biscuit Charlotte.—Line a basin closely with some thin finger biscuits, so as to form a complete case. Peel, slice, and core 12 apples, and stew with them a few cherries in butter. Fill the case with the fruit, but leaving a hole in the centre, in which place a small glass, which may contain any jam or preserved fruits; boil 1 hour and turn out. Pour over or serve with clotted cream or custard.
Bishop Pudding.—Butter some thin slices of bread, without crust, and over the butter spread a good layer of jam. Cut the slices into convenient pieces. Line and border a deep pie-dish with puff paste, arrange the slices of bread and butter in the dish until half full. Make an ordinary, rather milky ground rice pudding, flavour the milk with which it is made with the rind of a lemon. Sweeten to taste, and add to it 2 or 3 beaten-up eggs, according to the size of the pudding. Pour this mixture into the pie-dish, and bake in a brisk oven.
Blackberry Mould.—Put 1 lb. ripe blackberries into a pudding basin, place this in a larger one of hot water, put a plate on the top, and let it remain in the oven until the fruit is soft. Press out all the juice and mix it with rather more than 1 lb. apples, previously pared, cored, and cut into quarters; put both together into a preserving pan; let them boil for ½ hour, and then add ¾ lb. powdered loaf sugar; let it boil for 10 minutes more, stirring with a silver spoon, when it will be ready to put into the mould, which should be of earthenware. A little grated lemon peel should be added.
Blackberry Puddings and Tarts.—Both are better for having a small quantity of any good cooking apple mixed with the berries; the apples should be sliced as thinly as possible, and should be at once stirred in with the other fruit and with sugar.
Blancmange.—Take 6 bitter almonds and 8-9 oz. sweet almonds blanched and peeled, pound them in a mortar with a little orange-flower water; when reduced to a paste add rather less than 1 pint milk, pounded loaf sugar to taste, a little more orange-flower water. Strain the mixture through a cloth, squeezing it well, into a basin containing 8 or 9 sheets best French gelatine dissolved in 1 pint water; mix well, put into a mould set on ice, turn it out just before serving.
Bombay Pudding.—(a) Soojee is only the native name for semolina. Cut slices of bread without crust, ½ in. thick, and toast them a light brown on both sides. Then boil brown sugar to a syrup, and pour it over the bread, which become saturated with it.
(b) Half roast 2 lb. soojee, then boil it in water until it becomes very thick; butter a soup plate, and pour the boiled soojee into it; when it has cooled and congealed cut it into 8 cakes; rub the cakes over with the yolk of an egg, dredge with finely sifted flour, and fry in butter until they acquire a rich brown colour. Arrange them in a dish, and pour over them a thick syrup flavoured with lemon juice.
Boston Pudding.—Rub 6 oz. butter or nice beef dripping into 1 lb. flour; add 6 oz. currants or sultana raisins, 6 oz. moist sugar, ½ teaspoonful powdered cinnamon, and ¼ nutmeg, grated. Dissolve 2 teaspoonfuls soda carbonate in ½ pint milk, being careful to mix the soda perfectly smooth and free from lumps in a tablespoonful of the milk first, and then add the rest of the half pint, stirring it well before mixing it with the other ingredients, so that the soda does not settle to the bottom of the milk. Beat all together for a minute, and put the mixture into a buttered mould, which should not be quite full. The pudding cloth should be allowed room for the pudding to swell, which it does considerably. Plunge into fast-boiling water, and keep boiling for 2½ hours. This makes a very light pudding, and, if properly made, no trace of the soda—which many people object to—can be detected.
Bread Pudding.—(a) Put all scraps of bread into the oven until they become a nice brown, roll them while hot quite fine. For a good-sized pudding take ½ lb. crumbs ¼ lb. brown sugar or golden syrup, ¼ lb. currants or raisins, 1 pint milk, 1 teaspoonful allspice, and 1 pint boiling water. Pour the boiling water over the crumbs, stir them well, and let them soak until soft; then add all the ingredients, mix well, rub the pie-dish with dripping, fill it, put some more dripping on the top of the pudding, and bake ½ hour. This pudding is a general favourite with children and servants.
(b) Cut a roll in thin slices, well butter a mould, and stick it all round with raisins stoned and opened; put the bread lightly in; make a sweet batter with 3 or 4 eggs, flavour it with vanilla: pour it over, and leave it to soak well; bake or steam for an hour. Any flavouring may be used.