Prune Souffle

This is a delicious dessert, simple of ingredients and quickly prepared.

Pick over and wash 10 or 12 prunes; soak several hours in cold water to cover; cook in same water until soft, then remove stones and either chop or beat into tiny fragments or rub through a sieve. If the souffle is to serve six people, take the whites of 4 eggs, which will be sufficient; beat until the eggs fly from the whipper, then add 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar, 1 for each egg; beat again and add the prunes; pile lightly in a baking dish and bake until light brown in a moderate oven. This pudding falls easily unless the baking pan is set in a heavy "spider" containing a couple of inches of hot water. With this precaution it may even stand for a short time after baking, provided it is left in an open oven.

The same foundation of eggs and sugar can be used in compounding other souffles, adding dried apricots which have been cooked according to the method for prunes and beaten into small fragments. Raspberries in season make a delicious souffle; stewed figs can be acceptably utilized, and, in fact, almost any fruit can be thus pressed into service, unless it is very juicy, like pineapple.