Refrigerator Bread Pudding

© Can Stock Photo/ kozzi
from Rosie’s Riveting Recipes

 

This classic dessert from the pages of the Rosie’s Riveting Recipes historic cookbook is one many of your grandmothers may have made. I tried it, and it’s delicious. What I really like about many of these historic dessert recipes is that they’re sweet, but not sugar-laden.

Gayle Martin

REFRIGERATOR BREAD PUDDING

  • 1 envelope plain gelatin
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup light or dark corn syrup or 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4 slices white bread (2 1/2 cups cubed)
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • nutmeg, if desired

Soften gelatin in 1/4 cup cold milk. Scald remaining milk with corn syrup (or sugar) and salt in double boiler. Add gelatin and stir until dissolved. Remove crusts and cut slices of bread into cubes. Pour hot milk slowly over beaten eggs, stirring constantly. Return to double boiler. Add bread cubes and cook until custard consistency, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and beat with rotary beater until frothy. Turn into one large (or individual molds) that have been rinsed in cold water first. Chill. When firm, un-mold and serve with cream or any sauce. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

Modern adaptation: Be careful not boil the milk. The beaten eggs can be slowly added to the milk mixture in the double boiler, stirring constantly as directed in the original recipe, until they are well blended. To give the pudding a bolder flavor add 1/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 nutmeg with the vanilla. The pudding can also be poured into ramekins and served with whipped cream, cinnamon, or nutmeg on top, as suggested in the original historic recipe.

Cover photo by Robert Resetar.

Rosie’s Riveting Recipes is available on Amazon and Barnes&noble.com.

Eggless Chocolate Cake

© Can Stock Photo / NewIllustrations

Food was scarce back in Rosie’s day. Many common items on grocery shelves were hard to come by, even with rationing. Food companies had to come up with new recipes to make scarce ingredients go further, or even eliminate them completely. This delicious historic recipe, from Rosie’s Riveting Recipes cookbook, omits eggs.

By the way, a rotary beater was another term for an eggbeater, although most of us today use whisks.

Gayle Martin

EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE

2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 cup milk
1 3/4 cups sifted flour
3/4 teaspoon soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine chocolate and milk in top of double boiler and cook over rapidly boiling water 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Blend with rotary egg beater; cool.

Sift flour once, measure, add soda, salt, and sugar, and sift together three times. Cream shortening, add flour, vanilla, and chocolate mixture. Stir until all flour is dampened. Then beat vigorously 1 minute. Bake in two greased and lightly floured 8-inch layer pans in moderate oven (375 F) 20 minutes, or until done. Spread frosting between layers and on top of cake.

Cocoa Cake: Substitute 1/3 cup cocoa for chocolate. Sift it with the dry ingredients; add cold milk with vanilla.

 

Rosie’s Riveting Recipes is available on Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com and with other online booksellers.