A Sweet Change: Novel Desserts.

A Sweet Change: Novel Desserts.

After the last few days of heavy-going siege and prison food, I thought we needed something sweet and delicious. I have searched Australian newspaper archives for “novel desserts” and here are some of the treats that I have found:

Baked Bananas, with orange or lemon sauce, make a novel dessert and one easy to prepare. Peel the skin from one side of the bananas, and loosen it all around, but do not remove, and lay the fruit in a long baking dish. Dust each one with sugar, and bake 20 minutes at a moderate heat. To make the sauce, mix a teaspoonful of corn-starch with a fourth of a cup of sugar. Heat the juice of three large oranges; add the sugar and corn starch, and cook until it thickens slightly.

The Week (Brisbane, Qld.) 31 October 1902.

Blanc Mange Surprise.—Make a single layer of plain white cake. In a similarly sized tin have ready a layer of blanc mange. In a third layer the same size, have a thick meringue, making this by filling the tin partly full of water, arranging the uncooked meringue on this, and baking the same as if it were a pie. To serve, spread the cake with a thick layer of fruit jelly; reverse the blanc mange on the jelly spread cake, and carefully remove the meringue, using two cake turners. When cut this novel dessert will be a complete surprise to all at table, and few will understand how the meringue was baked on the blanc mange.

Warwick Daily News (Qld,) 5 November 1919

Oranges may be used in many delicious dishes from the fruit cocktail to the dessert course. For a novel dessert to serve six, cut a slice from the top of six large oranges and cut the pulp. Remove stones from eighteen dates and chop the dates fine. Mix this with the orange pulp and add two tablespoons cocoanut and one-quarter pound broken walnut meats. Fill the orange shells with the mixture and top each orange with a marshmallow. Place the prepared oranges on a baking sheet and bake in a slow oven until the fruit is heated through and the marshmallow a golden brown.

Chronicle (Adelaide) 16 May 1929

Novel Dessert with Quinces.

Porcupine Quinces.

Pare and core four quinces and cook them until tender in one cupful of water and one cupful of sugar. Keep tightly covered while cooking on a slow fire until they become deep pink. As soon as they are done, fill the centres with chopped nuts and pierce the outside with blanched almonds, cut lengthwise in strips. Add one teaspoonful of powdered gelatine to the syrup and pour over the quinces.

News (Adelaide) 25^th April 1932

Fritters are Appetising

Dessert Recipes

(By "Rosa Beeton")

The Winner of This Week's Recipe Prize of 10/- is Mrs. M. Scandrett, of Leader

street, Goodwood, who forwarded a recipe for novel dessert fritters. Her recipe

which is simply made, appears below with other entries from readers.

Sweet Fritters

Take three tablespoonfuls of rice; boil until swollen, then drain well. Mix four ounces of cleaned currants with the rice,add a little grated lemon peel and sugar to taste. Stir into the mixture three beaten eggsand make into a good batter with sufficient flour. Fry in hot fat a tablespoonful at a time until a golden brown. Dust over with sugar and serve.

News (Adelaide) 26 August 1933.

Crisp and Delicious

Fruit Crusties Make Novel Dessert For Table.

Second prize of 10/- is awarded to Miss Merle Collet, Cyprus-street, North Ipswich, for a novel and delicious sweet— fruit crusties.

Fruit Pastry.

Chop ½ cup shortening into 2 even cups well sifted flour, to which ½ teaspoon salt has been added. Then add 4 tablespoons juice of whatever fruit is to be served with crusties. When thoroughly mixed, roll out on a floured board and cut into the desired shapes.

Use fruit juices for thinning, as this gives crusties the advantage over ordinary piecrusts mixed with water. The colder the fruit juices and the firmer the shortening the crisper the crust will be.

Orange Crusties.

Use orange juice for thinning the pastry. After cutting the dough, which should be rolled to the thickness of 1 in., spread with the orange juice, allowing 1 dessertspoon for the top of each crustie. The orange sauce is madeby mixing the chopped pulp of 2 oranges, free from any white, with 2 tablespoons powdered sugar and 1 tea spoon ground cinnamon. After the crusties have been spread with the sauce sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on them, and on top of this a little grated rind of the  orange. Bake in a quick oven and serve cold.

Pineapple Crusties.

Make the sauce with a small size tin of shredded pineapple or, an equal amount of fresh pineapple, minced fine and mixed with 3 tablespoons powdered sugar and the smallest size bottle of cherries, chopped fine. Allow 1 dessertspoon for each crustie. Before slipping into the oven sprinkle each with a little extra sugar and lemon Juice. For thinning the crust either the liquid from the cherries or pineapple can be used.

Apple Crusties.

The pastry foundation for apple crusties should be mixed with orange juice and a little nutmeg for extra flavoring. The sauce for the top of the crusties is made of 1 cup of chopped apples, 1 saltspoon ground nutmeg, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons minced raisins, the whole moistened w:th ⅓ cup orange juice. Cook ingredients until the apple is soft. When cold spread on the crusties, adding a tiny bit of butter, extra sugar, and the grated rind of the orange. Apple crusties are delicious with cheese for the afternoon tea. Arrange the cheese four strips on each plate, crossing them in log fashion.

Prune Crusties.

To one cup stewed prunes, free from skin and stones, add 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Let these ingredients simmer together for 10 minutes. When cold spread on the individual crusties cut in oblong strips. The prune-water is used to moisten the piecrust. Half a blanched

almond can be added to the top of each crustie.

Truth (Brisbane, Qld.) Sunday 11 November 1934