A Little Cook Book for a Little Girl

Chapter 15

Cocoanut Corn-starch Pudding

Make the first rule; before you put in the eggs, stir in a cup of grated cocoanut, with an extra spoonful of sugar, or a cup of that which comes in packages without more sugar, as it is already sweetened.

Serve in a large mould, or in small ones, with cream.

Baked Custard

2 cups milk.

Yolks of two eggs.

2 tablespoonfuls of sugar.

A little nutmeg.

Beat the eggs till they are light; mix the milk and sugar till the sugar melts; put the two together, and put it into a nice baking-dish, or into small cups, and dust the nutmeg over the tops.

Bake till the top is brown, and till when you put a knife-blade into the custard it comes out clean.

Cocoanut Custard

Add a cup of cocoanut to this rule and bake it in one dish, stirring it up two or three times from the bottom, but, after it begins to brown, leaving it alone to finish. Do not put any nutmeg on it.

Tapioca Pudding

2 tablespoonfuls tapioca.

Yolks of two eggs.

1/2 cup of sugar.

1 quart of milk.

Put the tapioca into a small half-cup of water and let it stand one hour. Then drain it and put it in the milk in the double boiler, and cook and stir it till the tapioca looks clear, like gla.s.s.

Beat the eggs and mix the sugar with them, and beat again till both are light, and put them with the milk and tapioca and cook three minutes, stirring all the time. Then take it off the fire and add a saltspoonful of salt and a half-teaspoonful of vanilla, and let it get perfectly cold.

Floating Island

1 pint milk.

3 eggs.

One-third cup of sugar.

Put the milk on the stove to heat in a good-sized pan. Beat the whites of the eggs very stiff, and as soon as the milk scalds,--that is, gets a little wrinkled on top,--drop spoonfuls of the egg on to it in little islands; let them stand there to cook just one minute, and then with the skimmer take them off and lay them on a plate. Put the milk where it will keep hot but not boil while you beat the yolks of the eggs stiff, mixing in the sugar and beating that, too. Pour the milk into the bowl of egg, a little at a time, beating all the while, and then put it in the double boiler and cook till it is as thick as cream. Take it off the fire, stir in a saltspoonful of salt and half a teaspoonful of vanilla, and set it away to cool. When it is dinner-time, strain the custard into a pretty dish and slip the whites off the top, one by one. If you like, you can dot them over with very tiny specks of red jelly.

Cake and Custard

Make a plain boiled custard, just as before, with--

1 pint of milk.

Yolks of three eggs.

One-third cup of sugar.

1 saltspoonful of salt.

1/2 teaspoonful of vanilla.

Beat the eggs and sugar, add the hot milk, and cook till creamy, put in the salt and vanilla, and cool. Then cut stale cake into strips, or split lady-fingers into halves, and spread with jam.

Put them on the sides and bottom of a flat gla.s.s dish, and gently pour the custard over.

Brown Betty

Peel, core, and slice six apples. b.u.t.ter a baking-dish and sprinkle the inside all over with fine bread-crumbs. Then take six very thin slices of b.u.t.tered bread and line the sides and bottom of the dish. Put a layer of apples an inch thick, a thin layer of brown sugar, six bits of b.u.t.ter, and a dusting of cinnamon, another layer of crumbs, another of apples and sugar, and so on till the dish is full, with crumbs and b.u.t.ter on top, and three tablespoonfuls of mola.s.ses poured over.

Bake this one hour, and have hard sauce to eat with it.

Lemon Pudding

1 cup of sugar.

4 eggs.

2 lemons.

1 pint of milk.

1 tablespoonful of sugar.

2 tablespoonfuls of corn-starch.

1 pinch of salt.

Wet the corn-starch with half a cup of the milk, and heat what is left. Stir up the corn-starch well, and when the milk is hot put it in and stir; then boil five minutes, stirring all the time.

Melt the b.u.t.ter, and put that in with a pinch of salt, and cool it.

Beat the yolks of the eggs, and add the sugar, the juice of both lemons, and the grated rind of one, pour into the milk, and stir well; put in a b.u.t.tered baking-dish and bake till slightly brown. Take it out of the oven; beat the whites of two eggs with a tablespoonful of granulated sugar, and pile lightly on top, and put in the oven again till it is just brown. This is a very nice rule.

Rice Pudding with Raisins

1 quart of milk.

2 tablespoonfuls of rice.

One-third cup of sugar.

1/2 cup seeded raisins.

Wash the rice and the raisins and stir everything together till the sugar dissolves. Then put it in a baking-dish in the oven.

Every little while open the door and see if a light brown crust is forming on top, and, if it is, stir the pudding all up from the bottom and push down the crust. Keep on doing this till the rice swells and makes the milk all thick and creamy, which it will after about an hour. Then let the pudding cook, and when it is a nice deep brown take it out and let it get very cold.

Bread Pudding

2 cups of milk.

1 cup soft bread-crumbs.

1 tablespoonful of sugar.

2 egg yolks.

1 egg white.

1/2 teaspoonful vanilla.

1 saltspoonful of salt.

Crumb the bread evenly and soak in the milk till soft. Beat it till smooth, and put in the beaten yolks of the eggs, the sugar, vanilla, and salt, and last the beaten white of the egg. Put it in a b.u.t.tered pudding-dish, and stand this in a pan of hot water in the oven for fifteen minutes. Take it out and spread its top with jam, and cover with the beaten white of the other egg, with one tablespoonful of granulated sugar put in it, and brown in the oven. You can eat this as it is, or with cream, and you may serve it either hot or cold.