pudding | Rosie's Riveting Recipes

Eggless Upside-Down Cake

In many ways it seems like post pandemic supply chain issues we are experiencing today are reminiscent of WWII supply chain issues. Back in the nineteen-forties many shoppers found empty store shelves and had to improvise to create healthy, tasty meals. To help ease the shortages, food producers reformulated recipes to use less of those ingredients which were in short supply. Eggs were among those items in short supply.

Adding to today’s supply chain issues is avian flu. It’s creating egg shortages in our own time. Thankfully, those eggless recipes from Rosie’s day are as helpful today as they were in her time.

Gayle Martin

EGGLESS UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/3 to ½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 ½ cups canned pineapple wedges, peach slices, or cooked prunes
½ cup broken pecan meats, if desired
1 recipe Delicious Cottage Pudding (below)

Melt butter in 8 x 8 x 2-inch pan or 8-inch skillet over low flame. Add brown sugar and cook and stir until thoroughly mixed. On this arrange fruit; sprinkle nuts over top.

Mix Delicious Cottage Pudding batter below as directed and pour over contents of pan. Bake in moderate oven (350º F) 50 to 60 minutes, or until done. Loosen cake from sides of pan with spatula. Turn upside down on dish with fruit on top.

DELICIOUS COTTAGE PUDDING

2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder*
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
½ teaspoon vanilla

Sift flour once, add baking powder and salt, and sift again. Cream shortening, add sugar gradually, and cream together well. Add flour, alternately with milk, a small amount at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. Add vanilla. Bake in greased pan, 8 x 8 x 2 inches, in moderate oven, (350F), 50 to 60 minutes, or until done.

*Note: At the time this recipe was written not all baking powders were double-acting. Less baking powder may be needed.

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Imagine the government telling you how much meat or chicken you could buy, or how much sugar or flour you could have. Strange as it may seem, at one time it actually happened. During WWII, the United States government devised a food rationing program to help insure that every family would have enough to eat. Rosie’s Riveting Recipes gives a glimpse into life on the WW II home front. A cookbook and a history lesson in one with more than 180 economical, back-to-basics World WarII ration recipes with short tales of life on the American home front interspersed throughout.

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

Corn Pudding

from the pages of Rosie’s Riveting Recipes

This recipe is such a classic, and so simple I’m surprised neither my mother, nor any of my grandmothers, ever prepared it. It is, however, included in the Rosie’s Riveting Recipes historic cookbook, and it’s one of the easiest recipes in the entire book. The results are delicious. The pudding has a rich, buttery flavor, making it the perfect, flavorful side dish. Enjoy.

Gayle Martin

CORN PUDDING

3 eggs
2 cups fresh or canned corn
2 tablespoons melted margarine
salt and pepper
2 cups milk

Beat the eggs. Add all the other ingredients and salt and pepper to taste. Pour into a greased baking dish, place in a pan of hot water, and bake in a moderate oven, (350F) for about 1 hour or until set in the center. Yields 6 servings.

Note: A 15.5 ounce can of corn works nicely for this recipe.

Book Cover for Rosies Riveting Recipes — Cover photo by Rob Resetar

Imagine the government telling you how much meat or chicken you could buy, or how much sugar or flour you could have. Strange as it may seem, at one time it actually happened. During WWII, the United States government devised a food rationing program to help insure that every family would have enough to eat. Rosie’s Riveting Recipes gives readers a glimpse into life on the WWII home front. A cookbook and a history lesson in one Rosies’s Riveting Recipes includes more than 180 economical, back-to-basics World War II ration recipes and short tales of life on the American home front interspersed throughout.

Rosie’s Riveting Recipes is available on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.

Chocolate Cornstarch Pudding

I had a ton of leftover cornstarch from a video project. We needed to recreate snow, and cornstarch works well as a snow substitute. However, once the video was in the can, I had to figure out what to do with all unused cornstarch. I gave a box to a friend, and I’ve been using it as a flour substitute in some of my cooking recipes. It’s worked well. I also prefer cornstarch over flour for sauces and gravies. All of this helped, but I still have a bunch of leftover cornstarch.

I soon found a pudding recipe that wasn’t bad, but of course I had to go in and make a few changes to make it better. It’s easy to prepare and it makes a tasty dessert. Best of all, you probably already have the ingredients in your pantries.

Gayle Martin

chocolate cornstarch pudding

1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 3/4 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract*

Stir sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt together in a 2-quart saucepan. Stir in milk and turn heat to medium, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened enough to coat the spoon. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Let cool briefly, stirring occasionally as the pudding cools to avoid a skin forming on the top. Serve warm or chilled. A pat of butter may be added if serving warm.

*Almond or coconut extract may be used instead of vanilla.

Imagine the government telling you how much meat or chicken you could buy, or how much sugar or flour you could have. Strange as it may seem, at one time it actually happened. During WWII, the United States government devised a food rationing program to help insure that every family would have enough to eat. Rosie’s Riveting Recipes gives readers a glimpse into life on the WWII home front. A cookbook and a history lesson in one Rosies’s Riveting Recipes includes more than 180 economical, back-to-basics World War II ration recipes and short tales of life on the American home front interspersed throughout.

Rosie’s Riveting Recipes is available on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.

Refrigerator Bread Pudding

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.

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