Just A Word About Prunes

The right prunes cooked right are delicious. They are more than fruit; they make the best breakfast food in the world. Santa Clara Valley residents, of all communities, have absolutely the best deciduous green fruits, berries and melons at their command; yet a large proportion eat prunes with cream every morning in the year. In pies, cakes, souffles, and fifty other ways, prunes make a tooth-some article of diet. A cook book from Santa Clara Valley would be incomplete without a prune department.

Baby's Evening Meal

Press through a sieve six or eight prunes with juice. Add to pulp a couple of tablespoons of cream. Serve with a slice of toasted whole wheat bread or unsweetened graham or other wafer and a glass of milk.

Baked Prune Dumplings

2 cups sifted flour

2 tablespoons crisco

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

Walnuts Water to mix Stewed prunes

Make paste, roll out, and cut in five-inch squares, one-fourth inch thick. Pit prunes, stuff with half walnuts. Place six in each square of paste. Sprinkle with sugar, dot with butter. Pinch squares together, brush with white of egg and cover with granulated sugar. Bake in moderate oven. Serve with cream or hot sauce.

Baked Prunes

Cover a quart of prunes with boiling water and bring to a boil quickly in a covered kettle. Boil steadily for twenty minutes. Then remove cover and simmer till about one-half cup of liquid is left. Add lemon juice to flavor and simmer a little longer. Turn the contents of the kettle on a large granite pie plate; it should hold the prunes in one compact layer; cover with another plate and bake in a moderate oven until nearly all the juice has disappeared. Turn each prune with the tine of a fork and return uncovered to a slow oven, if too hot the door may be left open. Allow to remain a few minutes until they are glossy but not dry. The prunes should be rather firm when done but not hard, care being taken not to blister them. Put away in a covered dish and serve with cream or crisp walnuts.

Eden Vale Prune Whip

1 pint stewed prunes 1/3 pint thick cream

6 egg whites Raspberry or loganberry jelly

Drain prunes thoroughly, pit them and rub through colander; avoid rubbing the skins through as much as possible. Beat the whites of eggs to a stiff froth; then by degrees beat this into sifted prunes. If not sweet enough to suit taste, add a tablespoon of sugar. The delicacy of this dish depends largely upon the thoroughness with which the ingredients are beaten together. When well beaten, pour into glass dish. Whip cream and spread evenly over top of pudding. Then fleck the whipped cream with bits of jelly. Serve with cream or if preferred with a custard made from the yolks of six eggs.

Prune Bread

1 1/2 cups white flour

1 1/2 cups fine graham flour

2 rounding tablespoons white or brown sugar 1 level tablespoon salt

1 3/4 cups thick sour milk

1/2 cup molasses

1 teaspoon soda, a trifle more than level 1 heaping cup stewed prunes

Remove pits from prunes and cut them up in the cup with a knife. Mix them thoroughly into the milk, soda and molasses. Add dry ingredients, which have been mixed together; beat well. Bake in two or three round loaves in moderate oven about forty minutes, watching carefully towards the last as it burns easily. The bread is improved by baking in small heavy earthenware pudding dishes or in small steel skillets.