FRUITS.
=Baked Apples.=--WASH, but do not peel; cut out specks and bruises,
core, fill the bottom of the core-space with a bit of butter, over which
pile sugar and add a dusting of cinnamon. A clove stuck in the side may
take the place of the cinnamon. Seal inside a well-greased bag and bake
eighteen to twenty minutes in a fairly hot oven. Serve hot with sugar
and cream or a hard sauce.
=Baked Apple Dumplings.=--Make a regular shortcake crust, using one pint
of flour, two teaspoonfuls baking powder and a saltspoonful of salt,
sifted together three times, one-quarter cup butter rubbed in with the
tips of the fingers, and one egg beaten and mixed with three-quarters
cup milk. Roll out and cut in five-inch squares. Have ready three large
apples, peeled, cored and halved and lay each piece on a square of the
paste. Fold the pastry over each apple like a blanket, lapping the four
corners at the top and pressing them down firmly. Turn the dumplings
upside down in a well-buttered bag, dot with bits of butter and sprinkle
with sugar. Set the bag in a quick oven and bake to a russet brown. This
will take about half an hour. Serve with any sweet sauce, or rich, sweet
cream.
=Cold Baked Apples With Rum.=--Peel, core and bake the apples in a
buttered bag, with a teaspoonful of sugar to each apple. Put in the
serving dish, and while still very hot pour over each a dessertspoonful
of rum. Let cool and serve with cake or crisped water biscuit.
=Cinnamon Apples.=--Peel, core and quarter six good cooking apples,
preferably greenings. Melt a tablespoonful of butter in a warm bowl and
stir the apples in it until coated with the butter. Mix a teaspoonful of
ground cinnamon with a half cup of granulated sugar, and stir into the
apples. Have a paper bag thoroughly buttered and put the apples in it.
Rinse out the bowl with a cup of hot water, add it to the apples, seal
carefully, place on a broiler which rests on a pie plate and bake in a
hot oven fifteen minutes. Half a pint of whipped cream over the apples
when served is an addition, but they are delicious, cooked in this way,
without it.
=Apples Stuffed With Figs.=--Steam tender as many figs as you desire,
chop into dice and roll each piece in powdered sugar seasoned with
cinnamon. Core large, tart apples and fill the cavities with the figs.
Bag and bake in a hot oven, adding a little hot water. When tender,
remove carefully to the serving dish and pour over them a syrup made by
boiling a half cup of sugar with an equal quantity of water. Flavor to
taste and pour over the apples. Serve cold with whipped or plain cream.
=Baked Apples and Nuts.=--For a half dozen large apples a good
three-fourths cup of nut meats, butternuts, black walnuts or hickory
nuts--will be required. Chop the meats fine and add a half cup of sugar.
Core the apples and fill the centres with the nuts and sugar. Put in a
rather deep pan, with a cupful of boiling water added, bag and bake.
When tender remove carefully, place in a pretty dish, pour the juice
over the apples, and crown with whipped cream or a meringue made from
the whites of two eggs.
=Raisin Apples.=--A simple dessert enjoyed by the children consists of
apples, cored and each cavity filled with sugar, nutmeg, a bit of butter
and two or three raisins. Add one cupful of hot water, put in bag and
bake in a slow oven. This may be varied occasionally by placing a
meringue on the top of each apple when done, and cooking in a slow oven
for seven minutes longer. Serve cold.
=Baked Apple Sauce.=--Peel and core firm apples of good flavor. Stick
three cloves in each and put bits of mace and cinnamon in the core
spaces. Put them in a well-buttered bag with two heaping cupfuls of
sugar and a half cupful of water. Cook thirty minutes. Have the oven
very hot at first, but slack heat after seven minutes. Lemon juice
instead of water makes a richer flavored sauce. In that case add a half
cupful more sugar at the outset.
=Baked Bananas.=--Peel and remove coarse threads, cut the pulp in halves
lengthwise, dust with sugar and sprinkle with lemon juice, put in
buttered bag and bake fifteen minutes, or roll the bananas in hot
marmalade, then bake.
=Stuffed Dates.=--Select large, fine fruit, wash quickly and remove the
pit. Put into the cavity a bit of crystallized ginger or citron, a nut
or little candied peel, roll in confectioner's sugar and lay in lightly
buttered bag left open at one end. Put in coolish oven to harden.
=Baked Gooseberries.=--Put into a greased bag a pint of "topped and
tailed" gooseberries, add a cupful each sugar and water, seal and cook
twenty minutes.
=Baked Peaches.=--Pour boiling water over the fruit, then rub off the
skins and place in buttered bag without removing the pits. Add a
teaspoonful of water for each peach, seal and bake about twenty minutes
in a hot oven. When done, sweeten to taste and set aside to chill before
using. Serve with sweet cream.
=Baked Pears.=--Select ripe, fine-flavored fruit, snip out the blossom
end and stick in a clove. If the skin is thin, do not peel, but if
tough, remove, put in buttered bag with a little water, seal and cook
from fifteen to thirty minutes according to the quality of the fruit.
=Baked Plums.=--Put in buttered bag with a little water and cook twenty
or twenty-five minutes. Sweeten to taste when done.
=Baked Quinces.=--Wash, core and peel, fill the centers with sugar and
put in greased bag with two tablespoonfuls of water allowed for each
quince. Seal and bake slowly for an hour, until the quince is tender but
not mushy. Serve with the quince syrup and a spoonful of whipped cream
on top of each quince.
=Baked Raisins.=--Remove stems, clean well, put in a colander and wash
thoroughly. Put in buttered bag with a cupful of water for each cupful
of raisins. Seal and cook slowly for half an hour. A mixture of dried
apricots, prunes and cherries is nice with the raisins, but these fruits
need long soaking in cold water before adding to the raisins and
cooking.
=Chestnut Patties.=--Beat together, until smooth, one egg and one cupful
of pulverized sugar. Add one cupful of chestnut meats that have been put
through a nut grinder, five tablespoonfuls of flour and one teaspoonful
of baking powder. Beat lightly, then drop by spoonfuls on buttered tins.
Dust with pulverized sugar and cinnamon. Put in bag and bake in a quick
oven.