Dr. Allinson's cookery book Part 24

ORANGE CUSTARD.

The juice of 6 oranges and of 1/2 a lemon, 6 eggs, 6 oz. of sugar, and 1 dessertspoonful of Allinson cornflour. Add enough water to the fruit juices to make 1-1/2 pints of liquid. Set this over the fire with the sugar; meanwhile smooth the cornflour with a little cold water, and thicken the liquid with it when boiling. Set aside the saucepan, (which should be an enamelled one) so as to cool the contents a little. Beat up the eggs, gradually stir into them the thickened liquid, and then proceed with the custard as in the previous recipe.

This is a German sweet, and very delicious.

RASPBERRY CUSTARD.

1-1/2 pints of raspberries, 1/2 pint of red currants, 6 oz. of sugar, 7 eggs, 1 dessertspoonful of Allinson cornflour. Mix the fruit, and let it cook from 5 to 10 minutes with 1 pint of water; strain the juice well through a piece of muslin or a fine hair-sieve. There should be 1 quart of juice; if necessary add a little more water; return the juice to the saucepan, add the sugar and reheat the liquid; when it boils thicken it with the cornflour, then set it aside to cool. Beat up the eggs, add them carefully after the fruit juice has somewhat cooled; stir the custard over the fire until it thickens, but do not allow it to boil, as the eggs would curdle. Serve cold in custard gla.s.ses, or in a gla.s.s dish poured over macaroons or sponge cakes. You can make a fruit custard in this way, with strawberries, cherries, red currants, or any juicy summer fruit.

STRAWBERRY CUSTARD.

Remove the stalks from 1 lb. of fresh strawberries, place them in a gla.s.s dish and scatter over 2 tablespoonfuls of pounded sugar; prepare 1 pint of custard with Allinson custard powder according to recipe given above, and while still hot pour carefully over the fruit, set aside to cool, and just before serving (which must not be until the custard has become quite cold) garnish the top with a few fine strawberries.

APPLE COOKERY

APPLES (b.u.t.tERED).

1 lb. of apples, 2 oz. of b.u.t.ter, ground cinnamon and sugar to taste.

Pare, core, and slice the apples; heat the b.u.t.ter in a frying-pan, when it boils turn in the apples and fry them until cooked; sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon, and serve on b.u.t.tered toast.

APPLE CAKE

6 oz. each of Allinson fine wheatmeal and white flour, 4-1/2 oz. of b.u.t.ter, 1 egg, a little cold water, 1-1/2 lbs. of apples, 1 heaped-up teaspoonful of cinnamon, and 3 oz. of castor sugar. Rub the b.u.t.ter into the meal and flour, beat up the egg and add it, and as much cold water as is required to make a smooth paste; roll out the greater part of it 1/4 inch thick, and line a flat b.u.t.tered tin with it. Pare, core, and cut the apples into thin divisions, arrange them in close rows on the paste point down, leaving 1 inch of edge uncovered; sift the sugar and cinnamon over the apples; roll out thinly the rest of the paste, cover the apples with it, turn up the edges of the bottom crust over the edges of the top crust, make 2 incisions in the crust, and bake the cake until brown in a moderately hot oven; when cold sift castor sugar over it, slip the cake off the tin, cut into pieces, and serve.

APPLE CHARLOTTE.

2 lbs. of good cooking apples, 2 oz. of chopped almonds, 4 oz. of currants and sultanas mixed, 1 stick of cinnamon about 3 inches long, sugar to taste, the juice of 1/2 a lemon, and Allinson bread and b.u.t.ter cut very thinly. Pare, core, and cut up the apples, and stew them with a teacupful of water and the cinnamon, until the apples have become a pulp; remove the cinnamon, and add sugar, lemon juice, the almonds, and the currants and sultanas, previously picked, washed, and dried; mix all well and allow the mixture to cool; b.u.t.ter a pie-dish and line it with thin slices of bread and b.u.t.ter, then place on it a layer of apple mixture, repeat the layers, finishing with slices of bread and b.u.t.ter; bake for 3/4 hour in a moderate oven.

APPLES (DRYING).

Those who have apple-trees are often at a loss to know what to do with the windfalls. The apples come down on some days by the bushel, and it is impossible to use them all up for apple pie, puddings, or jelly. An excellent way to keep them for winter use is to dry them. It gives a little trouble, but one is well repaid for it, for the home-dried apples are superior in flavour to any bought apple-rings or pippins.

Peel your apples, cut away the cores and all the worm-eaten parts--for nearly the whole of the windfalls are more or less worm-eaten. The good parts cut into thin pieces, spread them on large sheets of paper in the sun. In the evening (before the dew falls), they should be taken indoors and spread on tins (but with paper underneath), on the cool kitchen stove, and if the oven is only just warm, placed in the oven well spread out; of course they require frequent turning about, both in the sun and on the stove. Next day they may again be spread in the sun, and will probably be quite dry in the course of the day.

Should the weather be rainy, the apples must be dried indoors only, and extra care must then be taken that they are neither scorched nor cooked on the stove. Whilst cooking is going on they will dry nicely on sheets of paper on the plate-rack. When the apples are quite dry, which is when the outside is not moist at all, fill them into brown paper bags and hang them up in an airy, dry place. The apples will be found delicious in flavour when stewed, and most acceptable when fresh fruit is scarce. I have dried several bushels of apples in this way every year.

APPLE DUMPLINGS.

Core as many apples as may be required. Fill the holes with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon; make a paste for a short crust, roll it out, and wrap each apple in it. Bake the dumplings about 30 or 40 minutes in the oven, or boil them the same time in plenty of water, placing the dumplings in the water when it boils fast. Serve with cream or sweet white sauce.

APPLE FOOL.

2 lbs. of apples, 1/2 lb. of dates, 3/4 pint of milk, 1/4 pint of cream, 6 cloves tied in muslin, and a little sugar. Pare, core, and cut up the apples, stone the dates, and gently stew the fruit with a teacupful of water and the cloves until quite tender; when sufficiently cooked, remove the cloves, and rub the fruit through a sieve; gradually mix in the milk, which should be boiling, then the cream; serve cold with sponge-cake fingers.

APPLE FRITTERS.

3 good juicy cooking apples, 3 eggs, 6 oz. of Allinson fine wheatmeal, 1/2 pint of milk, and sugar to taste. Pare and core the apples, and cut them into rounds 1/4 inch thick; make a batter with the milk, meal, and the eggs well beaten, adding sugar to taste. Have a frying-pan ready on the fire with boiling oil, vege-b.u.t.ter, or b.u.t.ter, dip the apple slices into the batter and fry the fritters until golden brown; drain them on blotting paper, and keep them hot in the oven until all are done.

APPLE JELLY.

1 pint of water to each 1 lb. of apples. Wash and cut up the apples, and boil them in the water until tender; then pour them into a jelly bag and let drain well; take 1 lb. of loaf sugar to each pint of juice, and the juice of 1 lemon to each quart of liquid. Boil the liquid, skimming carefully, until the jelly sets when cold if a drop is tried on a plate. It may take from 2 hours to 3 hours in boiling.

APPLE PANCAKES.

Make the batter as directed in the recipe for "Apple Fritters," peel 2 apples, and cut them in thin slices, mix them with the batter, add sugar and cinnamon to taste, a little lemon juice if liked, and fry the pancakes in the usual way.

APPLE PUDDING.

1-1/2 lbs. of apples, 1 teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, sugar to taste, 1/2 lb. of Allinson fine wheatmeal, and 2-1/2 oz. of b.u.t.ter or vege-b.u.t.ter. Pare, core, and cut up the apples; make a paste of the meal, b.u.t.ter and a little cold water; roll the paste out, line a pudding basin with the greater part of it, put in the apples, and sprinkle over them the cinnamon and 4 oz. of sugar--a little more should the apples be very sour; cover the apples with the rest of the paste, and press the edges together round the sides; tie a cloth over the basin and boil the pudding for 2-1/2 to 3 hours in a saucepan with boiling water.

APPLE PUDDING (Nottingham).

6 baking apples, 2 oz. of sugar, 1 heaped up teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, 3/4 pint of milk, 3 eggs, 6 oz. of Allinson wholemeal, and 1 oz. of b.u.t.ter. Core the apples, mix the sugar and cinnamon, and fill the hole where the core was with it; put the apples into a b.u.t.tered pie-dish; make a batter of the milk, eggs, and meal, melt the b.u.t.ter and mix it into the batter; pour it over the apples, and bake the pudding for 2 hours in a moderate oven.

APPLE SAGO.

5 oz. of sago, 1-1/2 lbs. of apples, the juice of a lemon, a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, and sugar to taste. Wash the sago and cook it in 1-1/2 pints of water, to which the cinnamon is added; meanwhile have the apples ready, pared, cored, and cut up; cook them in very little water, just enough to keep the apples from burning; when they are quite soft rub them through a sieve and mix them with the cooking sago, adding sugar and lemon juice; let all cook gently for a few minutes or until the sago is quite soft; put the mixture into a wetted mould, and turn out when cold.

APPLE SAUCE.

1 lb. of good cooking apples, sugar to taste. Pare, core, and cut in pieces the apples, cook them in a few spoonfuls of water to prevent them burning; when quite soft rub the apple through a sieve, and sweeten the sauce to taste. Rubbing the sauce through a sieve ensures the sauce being free from pieces should the apple not pulp evenly.

APPLE TART (OPEN).

2 lbs. of apples, 1 cupful of currants and sultanas, 2 oz. of chopped almonds, sugar to taste, 1 teaspoonful of ground cinnamon or the rind of 1/2 lemon (which latter should be removed after cooking with the apples), 12 oz. or Allinson fine wheatmeal, and 4-1/2 oz. of b.u.t.ter.

Pare, core, and cut up the apples; stew them in very little water, only just enough to keep from burning; when nearly done add the currants, sultanas, almonds, cinnamon, and sugar; let all simmer together until the apples have become a pulp; let the fruit cool; make a paste of the meal, b.u.t.ter, and a little water; roll it out and line a round, flat dish with it, and brush the paste over with white of eggs; turn the apple mixture on the paste; cut the rest of the paste into strips 3/8 of an inch wide, and lay them over the apples in diamond shape, each 1 inch from the other, so as to make a kind of trellis arrangement of the pastry. If enough paste is left, lay a thin strip right round the dish to finish off the edge, mark it nicely with a fork or spoon, and bake the tart for 3/4 hour. Serve with white sauce or custard.

APPLES (RICE)

2 lbs. of apples, 1/2 lb. of rice, the rind of 1/2 lemon (or a piece of stick cinnamon if preferred), 4 oz. of sultanas, sugar to taste, 1 oz. of b.u.t.ter, and, if the apples are not sour, the juice of a lemon.

Boil the rice in 3 pints of water with the lemon rind, then add the apples, pared, cored, and sliced, the sultanas, b.u.t.ter, lemon juice, and sugar; let all simmer gently for 1/2 hour, or until quite tender; if too dry add a little more water; remove the lemon rind before serving.