Apricots A La Neige

Boil one cup of rice fifteen minutes, or steam till tender (see page 307). Wring small pudding-cloths (one third of a yard square) out of hot water, and lay them over a small half-pint bowl. Spread the rice one third of an inch thick over the cloth. Put an apricot in the centre, filling the cavity in each half-apricot with rice. Draw the cloth around till the apricot is covered smoothly with the rice. Tie tightly, and steam ten minutes. Remove the cloth carefully, and turn the balls out on a platter, and serve with apricot sauce. This amount of rice will make four or five balls. Apples, cored and pared, may be substituted for apricots. They should be steamed half an hour. These are more wholesome than apple or fruit dumplings, made with a flour crust. They are called Apple Snowballs.

Fig. 44. Apple Snowballs.

Plain Rice Pudding

Half a cup of well-washed rice, half a cup of sugar, a little salt, and one quart of milk. Soak half an hour. Bake about two hours, slowly at first till the rice has softened and thickened the milk; then let it brown slightly. This is creamy and delicious, though it is often called Poor Man's Pudding. Serve hot or cold.

No. 2. - Three tablespoonfuls of rice, a little salt, three tablespoonfuls of sugar, one quart of milk, and three sour apples, pared and quartered, or one cup of small, whole raisins. Put all into a deep pudding-dish, well buttered. Cover, and bake slowly four or five hours, till the milk is all absorbed and the rice is red or colored. Serve hot with butter.

Rice And Fruit Pudding

Steam one scant cup of rice in two cups of boiling water, in the double boiler, thirty minutes. Add, while hot, one tablespoonful of butter, one scant teaspoonful of salt, one beaten egg, and half a cup of sugar. Cook five minutes. Butter a plain pudding-mould, sprinkle it with bread crumbs, or line with macaroons. Put in a layer of rice half an inch thick, then a layer of apricots or peaches or pineapple, then rice, fruit, etc., till the mould is full, having crumbs on the top. Bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Turn out on a platter, and serve with boiled custard flavored with vanilla, or with an apricot sauce.

Rice Souffle

Boil half a cup of rice in one quart of boiling salted water fifteen or twenty minutes, and drain it. Put the rice in the double boiler with one pint of milk, cook ten minutes; add the yolks of four or six eggs beaten with four or six tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and one tablespoonful of butter. Cook five minutes, and set away to cool; add half a teaspoonful of vanilla or lemon. Half an hour before serving, beat the whites of the eggs stiff, and cut them lightly into the cooked mixture. Bake in a well-buttered pudding-dish half an hour. Serve immediately with creamy sauce.

Rice Custard

Soak half a cup of cold cooked rice in one pint of hot milk till every grain is distinct. Add the yolks of two eggs, beaten with a quarter of a cup of sugar and a pinch of salt, and cook like soft custard. While still hot, stir in the whites, beaten stiff, and set away to cool. Or turn the hot custard into a dish, and when cool cover with a meringue of the whites. Brown slightly, and serve cold.

Custard Souffle. (Miss Parloa.)

Rub two scant tablespoonfuls of butter to a cream; add two tablespoonfuls of flour, and pour on gradually one cup of hot milk. Cook eight minutes in the double boiler, stirring often. Separate the yolks and whites of four eggs, and put the whites away in the ice-chest. Beat the yolks, add two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and add to the milk, and set away to cool. Half an hour before serving, beat the whites stiff, and cut them in lightly. Bake in a buttered pudding-dish in a moderate oven thirty minutes, and serve at once with creamy sauce. This mixture may be put into buttered paper cases, and baked ten or fifteen minutes. Serve in the papers.

Sponge Pudding. (Miss Alice Walcott.)

¼ cup sugar.

½ cup flour.

1 pint milk, boiled.

¼ cup butter. Yolks of 5 eggs. Whites of 5 eggs.

Mix the sugar and flour, wet with a little cold milk, and stir into the boiling milk. Cook until it thickens and is smooth; add the butter, and when well mixed stir it into the well-beaten yolks of the eggs, then add the whites beaten stiff. Bake in cups, or in a shallow dish, or in paper cases, in a hot oven. Place the dish in a pan of hot water while in the oven. Serve with creamy sauce.