1 saltspoonful of salt.

Soak the bread in the milk until softened; then beat it until smooth and add the rest of the ingredients excepting the white of egg. Turn it into a pudding-dish, place this in a pan of hot water, and bake in a slow oven fifteen to twenty minutes, or only long enough to set the custard without its separating. Cover the top with a layer of jam or with tart jelly, and place in the center a ball of meringue made with the white of one egg; dust with sugar, place in the oven a moment to brown the meringue, and then put a piece of jelly on the top of the meringue.

Serve hot or cold. The jelly and meringue answers as a sauce.

=BREAD AND b.u.t.tER PUDDING=

Cut stale bread into thin slices; remove the crusts, dip them in melted b.u.t.ter, and arrange them in a small bread or square cake-tin in even layers, alternating with layers of stoned raisins. When the mold is full, pour over it a mixture made of one pint of milk, the yolks of two eggs, and two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Use only as much as the bread will absorb. Bake in a moderate oven twenty to thirty minutes. Turn it onto a flat dish and serve with it a plain pudding sauce. The bread should be dry and crisp and hold the form of the mold.

=BREAD TARTS=

Cut bread into slices a quarter of an inch thick, then with a biscuit-cutter about three inches in diameter stamp it into circles.

Moisten the circles of bread with milk, but do not use enough to cause them to fall apart; then spread them with any jam or preserve and place two together like a sandwich. Place them in a frying-pan with a little b.u.t.ter, and saute them on both sides to a delicate color. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve very hot. A sabayon or other sauce can be served with them if convenient, but it is not essential.

For other bread puddings see Blueberry Pudding and Cherry Bread, page 241.

CAKE PUDDINGS

=COTTAGE PUDDING=

1 cupful of flour.

1 heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder.

1 tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter.

1/2 cupful of sugar.

1/2 cupful of milk.

1 saltspoonful of salt.

1 egg.

Mix the baking-powder with the flour and sift them. Rub the b.u.t.ter and sugar together to a cream and beat into it the egg; then add the milk, in which the salt has been dissolved. Add the flour; beat well together and turn into a cake-tin having a tube in the center. Bake about twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven. Turn it onto a flat dish, leaving it bottom side up. The chocolate sauce given below is recommended, but any other sauce may be served with it.

Chocolate sauce: Melt three ounces or squares of Baker"s chocolate on a dry pan (see page 388); add one half cupful of sugar and one half cupful of boiling water. Stir until well dissolved and smooth, then add one quarter teaspoonful of vanilla.

=CANARY PUDDING=

Take the mixture for Genoese cake, which is three eggs, and their weight respectively of sugar, b.u.t.ter, and flour; cream the b.u.t.ter and sugar; then beat in, one at a time, the three eggs; add lightly the sifted flour. b.u.t.ter a covered pudding-mold; decorate it with raisins, or sprinkle it all over with currants; fill it half full of the mixture; cover and steam for one hour, or put it in individual timbale-molds and bake for twenty minutes. Serve with wine or fruit or Richelieu sauce.

=SUET PUDDING=

1 cupful of mola.s.ses.

1 teaspoonful of soda.

1 cupful of milk 3-1/2 cupfuls of flour.

1 cupful of stoned raisins.

1 cupful of suet, chopped fine.

1 teaspoonful of salt.

Mix the salt, flour, and suet together. Mix the mola.s.ses and milk; add the soda and then as much of the flour mixture as will make a stiff batter (not dough), then add the raisins floured, and fill a covered pudding-mold half full; steam for three hours. Serve with foamy, wine, or brandy sauce.

=FARINA PUDDING (Boiled)=

Stir into three cupfuls of boiling milk one cupful of farina, and cook for ten minutes. Rub together one tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter and two tablespoonfuls of sugar; add the yolks of three eggs, the grated rind of one lemon and twenty-five chopped blanched almonds. Stir this mixture into the farina after it is a little cooled; lastly add the whites of three eggs beaten to stiff froth. Boil this pudding in a covered mold for one and a half hours. Serve with any pudding sauce.

=CHRISTMAS PLUM PUDDING=

3/4 pound of suet chopped very fine; mix with it, while chopping, a tablespoonful of flour.

3/4 pound of raisins seeded.

3/4 pound of currants.

3/4 pound of sugar.

3/4 pound of fresh bread-crumbs.

Grated zest of one lemon.

1/4 pound candied orange-peel and citron cut into thin shavings.

1/2 teaspoonful each of ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice.

Mix the dry materials together thoroughly, and then add six eggs, one at a time, and one half cupful of brandy; add another egg if too stiff, and more crumbs if too soft. Wet a strong cloth in cold water, wring it dry, b.u.t.ter it, and dredge it well with flour; turn the mixture into the center and draw the cloth together over the top, leaving room for the pudding to swell a little, and tie it firmly; give it a good round shape. Put it into a pot of boiling water, having it completely covered with water; cover the pot and boil four to five hours. Do not let the water fall below the pudding, and in adding more let it be hot, so as to not arrest the boiling. After it is removed from the water let it rest in the bag for ten minutes to harden a little, then cut the string and turn it carefully onto a dish. Cut a small hole in the top of the pudding and insert a paper bonbon case (see page 386); trim it so it does not show. Pour rum or brandy onto the dish and also into the paper box on top; place it on the table and touch it with a lighted taper.

Serve with a brandy sauce. The amount given will serve twelve to fourteen persons. The mixture may be divided and boiled in small puddings if it is too much to use at one time. It will keep for a long time, and the puddings can be warmed when used. Slices of cold plum pudding may be steamed and served with a sauce; or they may be rolled in egg and crumbs and fried in hot fat, and be served as fruit croquettes.

=FIG PUDDING=

1/2 cupful of chopped figs.

1/2 cupful of chopped suet.

2 cupfuls of white bread-crumbs.

1/2 cupful of sugar.

1 cupful of milk.

1/4 cupful of flour.

1/2 cupful of chopped almonds.

4 eggs.

1 teaspoonful of baking-powder.

3 tablespoonfuls of noyau or other flavor.

Flour the figs and suet. Soak the bread-crumbs in the milk, add the sugar, then the egg-yolks, and beat it well; then add slowly, stirring all the time, the figs, suet, almonds, flour mixed with the baking-powder, flavoring, and lastly the whites of the eggs beaten very stiff. Turn it into a covered pudding-mold, filling it three quarters full; steam for three hours. This mixture will fill twelve individual molds. If the small molds are used, place a star of angelica in the bottom of each one and cover it with a thin layer of boiled rice; then fill three quarters full with the pudding mixture; place them in a pan of hot water, cover with a greased paper, and poach on top of the range for one and one half hours. This pudding can have brandy poured over and lighted the same as the plum pudding. Serve with a syrup sauce flavored the same as the pudding.

=CABINET PUDDING No. 1=

Ornament the bottom of a well-b.u.t.tered mold with citron and raisins.

Cover them with slices of cake; then fill the mold nearly full with alternate layers of fruit and cake, arranging the fruit on the edges of the fruit layers so it will be even and symmetrical. Make a custard mixture of a pint of milk, three egg-yolks, and three tablespoonfuls of sugar. Pour it slowly into the mold, so the cake will be thoroughly soaked, and set it in a pan of water. Bake it in a slow oven for an hour, or until the custard is set. Unmold the pudding, and serve with it a wine sauce.

=CABINET PUDDING No. 2=

Cut a half pound of candied fruits into dice, using cherries, apricots, plums, limes, etc.; also some candied orange-peel shredded. b.u.t.ter well a plain cylindrical mold; sprinkle over the bottom a thin layer of the fruit, then a layer of cake (genoese, or sponge layer cake, see page 466). Fill the mold to within an inch of the top with alternate layers of fruit and cake, using also some macaroons. Leave always some fruit on the sides of the mold. Then turn in slowly a custard mixture made of one pint of milk, the yolks of five eggs, and two and one half tablespoonfuls of sugar. Let it stand a few minutes for the cake to absorb the liquid; then place the mold in a pan of hot water, and poach in a slow oven for one hour. This pudding is usually served hot, but may be served cold. Serve with Sabayon, Richelieu, or Bischoff sauces. (See pudding sauces.)