Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1040

924 and bake gently until tender. Lift carefully on to a hot dish, remove the apple parings, fill the cavity with jam, and pour the custard round. (See Custard Sauce, No. 332.)

Time.—About 40 minutes. Average Cost, 8d. or 9d. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons.

Ingredients.—6 sour cooking apples, 4 ozs. of sugar, or to taste, yolks of 4 eggs, 2 whites of eggs, the grated rind of ½ a lemon, vanilla pod, ½ a pint of milk, 1 tablespoonful of cream.

Method.—Pare, core and slice the apples, put them into a stewpan with the lemon-rind, 2 ozs. of sugar and a little water. Cook until tender, rub them through a fine sieve, let the purée cool, then stir in the cream. Simmer the milk and vanilla pod together until sufficiently flavoured, then remove the pod (dry it and place in castor sugar for future use), add sugar to taste, stir in the well-beaten yolks of eggs, and cook by the side of the fire until they thicken, stirring meanwhile. Now put the apple purée into a buttered piedish, pour the custard on the top, and cover with the stiffly whisked whites of eggs. Dredge liberally with castor sugar, and bake in a moderate oven until the surface hardens and acquires a little colour. Serve hot or cold. Time.—About 1 hour. Average Cost, 1s. 1d. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons.

Ingredients.—1 tin or bottle of apricots, ¾ of a pint of fresh breadcrumbs, 3 tablespoonfuls of moist sugar, 1 pint of milk, 3 eggs, the juice of 1 lemon, and, if liked, a glass of sherry, pastry No. 1667, or No. 1668.

Method.—Boil the milk, pour it on the breadcrumbs, and let them soak for ½ an hour. Rub the apricots through a hair sieve, add to them the lemon-juice, sugar, sherry, 3 yolks and 1 white of egg, and mix well together. Have ready a piedish with the edges lined, as directed in the recipe for Apple Amber, No. 1676, add the milk and breadcrumbs to the rest of the ingredients, pour into the piedish, and bake in a steady oven until set. Whip the whites to a stiff froth, add to them 1 tablespoonful of castor sugar, and when the pastry is three-quarters baked, and the apricot mixture set, pile them on the top of the pudding. The surface should be liberally sprinkled with castor sugar; and it may also be decorated with strips of crystallized apricots. Return to the oven, and bake until the meringue acquires a pale fawn colour. Serve either hot or cold.

Time.—From 1¼ to 1½ hours. Average Cost, 1s. 3d. to 1s. 6d., without the sherry. Sufficient for 6 or 7 persons.