SPONGE CAKE PUDDING. No. 1.
Bake a common sponge cake in a flat-bottomed pudding-dish; when ready to use, cut in six or eight pieces, split and spread with b.u.t.ter and return them to the dish. Make a custard with four eggs to a quart of milk; flavor and sweeten to taste; pour over the cake and bake one-half hour. The cake will swell and fill the custard. Serve with or without sauce.
SPONGE CAKE PUDDING. No. 2.
b.u.t.ter pudding-mold; fill the mold with small sponge cakes or slices of stale plain cake that have been soaked in a liquid made by dissolving one-half pint of jelly in a pint of hot water. This will be of as fine a flavor and much better for all than if the cake had been soaked in wine. Make a sufficient quant.i.ty of custard to fill the mold and leave as much more to be boiled in a dish by itself. Set the mold, after being tightly covered, into a kettle and boil one hour. Turn out of the mold and serve with some of the other custard poured over it.
GRAHAM PUDDING.
Mix well together one-half a coffeecupful of mola.s.ses, one-quarter of a cupful of b.u.t.ter, one egg, one-half a cupful of milk, one-half a teaspoonful of pure soda, one and one-half cupfuls of good Graham flour, one small teacupful of raisins, spices to taste. Steam four hours and serve with brandy or wine sauce, or any sauce that may be preferred. This makes a showy as well as a light and wholesome dessert, and has the merit of simplicity and cheapness.
BANANA PUDDING.
Cut sponge cake in-slices, and, in a gla.s.s dish, put alternately a layer of cake and a layer of bananas sliced. Make a soft custard, flavor with a little wine, and pour over it. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth and heap over the whole.
Peaches cut up, left a few hours in sugar and then scalded, and added when cold to thick boiled custard, made rather sweet, are a delicious dessert.
DRIED PEACH PUDDING.
Boil one pint of milk and while hot turn it over a pint of bread-crumbs. Stir into it a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, one pint of dried peaches stewed soft. When all is cool, add two well-beaten eggs, half a cupful of sugar and a pinch of salt; flavor to taste. Put into a well-b.u.t.tered pudding-dish and bake half an hour.
SUET PUDDING, PLAIN.
One cupful of chopped suet, one cupful of milk, two eggs beaten, half a teaspoonful of salt and enough flour to make a stiff batter, but thin enough to pour from a spoon. Put into a bowl, cover with a cloth and boil three hours. The same, made a little thinner, with a few raisins added and baked in a well-greased dish is excellent. Two teaspoonfuls of baking powder in the flour improves this pudding. Or if made with sour milk and soda it is equally as good.
SUET PLUM PUDDING.
One cupful of suet chopped fine, one cupful of cooking mola.s.ses, one cupful of milk, one cupful of raisins, three and one-half cupfuls of flour, one egg, one teaspoonful of cloves, two of cinnamon and one of nutmeg, a little salt, one teaspoonful of soda; boil three hours in a pudding-mold set into a kettle of water; eat with common sweet sauce.
If sour milk is used in place of sweet, the pudding will be much lighter.
PEACH COBBLER.
Line a deep dish with rich thick crust; pare and cut into halves or quarters some juicy, rather tart peaches; put in sugar, spices and flavoring to taste; stew it slightly and put it in the lined dish; cover with thick crust of rich puff paste and bake a rich brown; when done, break up the top crust into small pieces and stir it into the fruit; serve hot or cold; very palatable without sauce, but more so with plain rich cream or cream sauce, or with a rich brandy or wine.
Other fruits can be used in place of peaches. Currants are best made in this manner:--
Press the currants through a sieve to free it from pips; to each pint of the pulp put two ounces of crumbed bread and four ounces of sugar; bake with a rim of puff paste; serve with cream. White currants may be used instead of red.
HOMINY PUDDING.
Two-thirds of a cupful of hominy, one and a half pints of milk, two eggs, one tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, one teaspoonful of extract of lemon or vanilla, one cupful of sugar. Boil hominy in milk one hour; then pour it on the eggs, extract and sugar beaten together; add b.u.t.ter, pour in b.u.t.tered pudding-dish, bake in hot oven for twenty minutes.
BAKED BERRY ROLLS.
Roll rich biscuit dough thin, cut it into little squares four inches wide and seven inches long. Spread over with berries. Roll up the crust, and put the rolls in a dripping-pan just a little apart; put a piece of b.u.t.ter on each roll, spices if you like. Strew over a large handful of sugar, a little hot water. Set in the oven and bake like dumplings. Served with sweet sauce.
GREEN CORN PUDDING.
Take two dozen full ears of sweet green corn, score the kernels and cut them from the cob. Sc.r.a.pe off what remains on the cob with a knife. Add a pint and a half or one quart of milk, according to the youngness and juiciness of the corn. Add four eggs well beaten, a half teacupful of flour, a half teacupful b.u.t.ter, a tablespoonful of sugar, and salt to taste. Bake in a well-greased earthen dish, in hot oven two hours. Place it on the table browned and smoking hot, eat it with plenty of fresh b.u.t.ter. This can be used as a dessert by serving a sweet sauce with it. If eaten plainly with b.u.t.ter, it answers as a side vegetable.
GENEVA WAFERS.
Two eggs, three ounces of b.u.t.ter, three ounces of flour, three ounces of pounded sugar. Well whisk the eggs, put them into a basin and stir to them the b.u.t.ter, which should be beaten to a cream; add the flour and sifted sugar gradually, and then mix all well together. b.u.t.ter a baking sheet, and drop on it a teaspoonful of the mixture at a time, leaving a s.p.a.ce between each. Bake in a cool oven; watch the pieces of paste, and, when half done, roll them up like wafers and put in a small wedge of bread or piece of wood, to keep them in shape. Return them to the oven until crisp. Before serving, remove the bread, put a spoonful of preserve in the widest end, and fill up with whipped cream. This is a very pretty and ornamental dish for the supper-table, and is very nice and very easily made.
[Ill.u.s.tration: STIRRING THE CRANBERRY SAUCE.]
MINUTE PUDDING. No. 1.
Set saucepan or deep frying pan on the stove, the bottom and sides well b.u.t.tered, put into it a quart of sweet milk, a pinch of salt and a piece of b.u.t.ter as large as half an egg; when it boils have ready a dish of sifted flour, stir it into the boiling milk, sifting it through your fingers, a handful at a time, until it becomes smooth and quite thick. Turn it into a dish that has been dipped in water.
Make a sauce very sweet to serve with it. Maple mola.s.ses is _fine_ with it. This pudding is much improved by adding canned berries or fresh ones just before taking from the stove.
MINUTE PUDDING. No. 2.
One quart of milk, salt, two eggs, about a pint of flour. Beat the eggs well; add the flour and enough milk to make it smooth. b.u.t.ter the saucepan and put in the remainder of the milk well salted; when it boils, stir in the flour, eggs, etc., lightly; let it cook well. It should be of the consistency of thick corn mush. Serve immediately with the following simple sauce, _viz_: Rich milk or cream sweetened to taste and flavored with grated nutmeg.
SUNDERLAND PUDDING.
One cupful of sugar, half a cupful of cold b.u.t.ter, a pint of milk, two cupfuls of sifted flour and five eggs. Make the milk hot; stir in the b.u.t.ter and let it cool before the other ingredients are added to it; then stir in the sugar, flour and eggs, which should be well whisked and omit the whites of two; flavor with a little grated lemon rind and beat the mixture well. b.u.t.ter some small cups, rather more than half fill them; bake from twenty minutes to half an hour, according to the size of the puddings, and serve with fruit, custard or wine sauce, a little of which may be poured over them. They may be dropped by spoonfuls on b.u.t.tered tins and baked, if cups are not convenient.
JELLY PUDDINGS.
Two cupfuls of _very_ fine stale biscuit or bread crumbs, one cupful of rich milk--half cream, if you can get it; five eggs beaten very light, half a teaspoonful of soda stirred in boiling water, one cupful of sweet jelly, jam or marmalade. Scald the milk and pour over the crumbs. Beat until half cold and stir in the beaten yolks, then whites, finally the soda. Fill large cups half full with the batter, set in a quick oven and bake half an hour. When done, turn out quickly and dexterously; with a sharp knife make an incision in the side of each; pull partly open, and put a liberal spoonful of the conserve within. Close the slit by pinching the edges with your fingers. Eat warm with sweetened cream.
QUICK PUDDING.
Soak and split some crackers; lay the surface over with raisins and citron; put the halves together, tie them in a bag, and boil fifteen minutes in milk and water; delicious with rich sauce.
READY PUDDING.
Make a batter of one quart of milk and about one pound of flour; add six eggs, the yolks and whites separately beaten, a teaspoonful of salt and four tablespoonfuls of sugar. It should be as stiff as can possibly be stirred with a spoon. Dip a spoonful at a time into quick boiling water, boil from five to ten minutes, take out. Serve hot with sauce or syrup.