WINTER PUDDINGS WITHOUT EGGS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 159, 10 July 1942, Page 15

WINTER PUDDINGS WITHOUT EGGS

OST home-makers find that winter time aggravates the "Pudding Problem." Whether the family consists of. little children or of bigger ones the chief interest of the dinner in many cases centres in the pudding-and very often the most interested "child" of all is Father! Of course, Father always appreciates Apple Pie and Plum Pudding, and when in doubt the busy mother can fall back on either of these and be sure of hearty approval. But fresh suggestions for puddings are always eagerly sought after, and many a good idea for a variation of an old pudding recipe is passed on at afternoon gatherings of the Women’s Institutes and sewing guilds, and knitting circles, and papier-maché workers, and the like. Eggs are always scarce in the winter, even though the thrifty housekeepers have preserved as many as they could, so here are some recipes to help you out, Apple Gingerbread Upside-Down Cake This one is American — from an Illinois Women’s Club. Slice up thinly sufficient apples, and arrange them in a buttered baking dish. Mix together two teaspoons of cinnamon and one-third cup of sugar, and spread over thé apples, then pour over this the following gingerbread mixture: Melt % cup butter in 1%4 cup of boiling water, add 1 cup molasses (we must use treacle or golden syrup), then add 2% cups of flour sifted well with 2 teaspoons of ground ginger, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 42 teaspoon salt. Beat well. Bake in a moderate oven for approximately 45 minutes. Turn out the gingerbread carefully, upside down, and serve with hard sauce or cream or custard sauce. Hawaiian Apple Pie This is a wonderful pie, but being Hawaiian, needs pineapple juice, which in ordinary times we can buy easily enough in tins. However, our homemakers are nothing if not resourceful, so I leave it to you to substitute some other fruit juice for the pineapple. You may have plum juice or peach juice from your summer preserving, or you might bake some rhubarb in a covered casserole with some sugar and a little water, and use the juice from that, flavoured with pineapple essence, Anyhow, here is the recipe. One cup of pineapple juice, 42 cup of sugar, 6 to 8 medium sized apples, 2% teaspoons cornflour, pinch salt, 1 tablespoon butter, Put sugar and pineapple juice on to boil. Add apples, peeled, cored, and quartered. Cook slowly with the lid off till the fruit is tender. Keep the apples moved about so that they are covered with the syrup. Lift out and lay in pie-dish lined with uncooked pastry. Dissolve the cornflour in a little water, and thicken the syrup; cook about four minutes. Add the butter, a little vanilla, and pour over the apples. Cut strips of pastry about half an inch

wide, brush with milk, and put crisscross over the apples. Bake’ about ten minutes in an oven at temperature 450 degrees, and then reduce to 350 degrees for about half an hour, Short Pastry Cream well 4% Ib. of good beef dripping, or half butter and half dripping, then add 2 teaspoons of vinegar, and work it in well. Sift a large cup of flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, together, into the creamed fat, and mix with milk to a pliable dough. Many people like to mix in a teaspoon of sugar. Roll out once, and use for tarts and pies. Banana and Treacle Tart This is an Australian one. Line a tart plate with short pastry, spread with a layer of golden syrup, then sprinkle a generous layer of breadcrumbs, either baked crisp or soft. Now put a layer of thinly sliced bananas, then another spreading of golden syrup, finishing with another layer of breadcrumbs dotted over with knobs of butter. A little lemon juice squeezed over the banana slices is very good, Fruit Slices Make short pastry, roll out fairly thin, and put half on a cold floured oven slide. Spread pastry with currants, sultanas, or raisins, or a mixture of all three; sprinkle with a little sugar, and drop small dabs of butter here and there over fruit and sugar. When putting the fruit on to the pastry, leave a margin of about half an inch round the edge so

that the edges can be neatly pressed together when covered. Sprinkle with a little water to moisten the sugar, roll out the remaining pastry, and place over all. Press the edges together, glaze with a little sweetened milk, and bake in a fairly quick oven for about 30 minutes. Slide off the oven shelf on to a wire rack to cool, and cut into fingers,