DESSERTS AND CAKES

well together with the butter for four or five min- utes. Add another egg, which also beat five min- utes, and then another, and beat all together the same length of time, and mix with the foregoing half a pound of flour, four ounces of currants, and the same of raisins, which you have stoned. Butter a mold, put a piece of paper in the bottom, and also around the sides, pour your mixture into the mold, and send it to a moderate oven for about an hour. Pass the point of a knife into your cake, and, if it comes out dry, it is sufficiently done.

575. Charlotte-Russe. Butter a tin mold, the bottom and sides of which line with lady fingers. Whip a pint of cream until quite firm, and put it on the ice. Dissolve half an ounce of gelatine in about a sherry-glass of hot water, then add four ounces of sugar. Boil a sherry-glass of milk, remove it from the fire, and mix with it four eggs, stirring rapidly. Strain your gelatine and sugar, and add them, with a teaspoonful of vanilla, to your other ingredients, and mix all well together. When beginning to stiffen, add your whipped cream, which remove from the bowl with a skimmer, so as to drain off all moist- ure. Fill your mold with the cream, put it on ice for an hour, take it out of the mold, and serve.

576. Bavarian Strawberry Cream. Dissolve a quarter of an ounce of gelatine in three or four tablespoonfuls of hot water, then add to it four ounces of powdered sugar, and put it through a sieve. Whip a pint of cream, and, when firm, put it on ice for a quarter of an hour. Press four ounces

200 FRENCH DISHES.

of strawberries through a sieve, which put in a bowl with your gelatine and sugar. When beginning to stiffen slightly, add your whipped cream, which re- move from the bowl with a skimmer, so as to drain off all moisture. Mix all well together, and pour into a mold, which put on ice for about an hour. Then turn your cream out of the mold, and serve.

577. Bavarian Chocolate Cream. Prepare exactly as for the foregoing, adding two ounces of chocolate which you have previously melted.

578. Bavarian Vanilla Cream. Proceed as for Bavarian strawberry cream (Art. 576), except that instead of adding strawberries, flavor with a tea- spoonful of vanilla.

579. Bavarian Coffee Cream. Proceed as for Bavarian strawberry cream (Art. 576), but, instead of strawberries, flavor with a tablespoonful of essence of coffee.

580. Jelly of Rum. Dissolve two ounces of gelatine in a pint and a half of very hot water on the fire, and, when melted, add ten ounces of sugar. Beat three whites of eggs with half a glass of water, which mix with your gelatine, stirring quickly with an egg-beater. Then put all on the fire until boil- ing, then remove to the back of the range to sim- mer gently for half an hour. Strain your jelly through a flannel until perfectly clear, and add three sherry-glasses of rum. Pour it into a mold, which put on the ice until sufficiently stiff to turn out.

581. Wine Jelly. Proceed as for the forego- ing, adding a pint and a quarter of water (instead of

DESSERTS AND CAKES. 2oi

a pint and a half), the juice of a lemon, a very small piece of cinnamon stick, a gill of sherry, and a sherry-glass of brandy. Finish as the preceding.

582. Meringues. Beat the whites of eight eggs as stiff as possible, then mix with them lightly three quarters of a pound of sugar ; but do not beat them after adding the sugar. Fill a tablespoon with your beaten eggs, which place in oval form on a board slightly moistened and covered with a sheet of white paper ; continue until your eggs are all used, and place each spoonful about an inch apart from the other. Send to a very gentle oven, with the door shut, for about ten minutes, and, if sufficiently firm, remove them, turn them over on a pan, which put in a very gentle oven for about three quarters of an hour ; take them out, press them in the middle with your thumb, so as to render them hollow, and, when cold, fill them with whipped cream to which you have added two ounces of sugar and a teaspoonful of vanilla. When the weather is very hot, and it is sometimes difficult to whip cream, put it in a bowl, which place in a larger one, and surround the small- er with cracked ice, mixed with a little rock salt.

583. Jelly of Mixed Fruits. Dissolve on the fire two ounces of gelatine in three or four table- spoonfuls of water, add ten ounces of sugar, and, when melted, remove from the fire. Mix the whites of three eggs in half a glass of water, add to your gelatine, stirring quickly with an egg-beater. Then put all on the fire until boiling, then remove to the back of the range to simmer gently for half an hour.

202 FRENCH DISHES.

Strain your jelly through a flannel until perfectly clear ; pour a little of it into a mold, and, when the jelly is sufficiently stiff, place on top of it two dozen very red cherries from which you have removed the stones, an ounce of white currants, the same of red, two ounces of pineapple, and the same of raspber- ries, or strawberries if in season. Pour the rest of your jelly into the mold, which put on the ice until sufficiently stiff to turn out of the mold.

584. French Chestnuts with Coffee Sauce. Remove the shells from three dozen French chest- nuts, boil the chestnuts five minutes in water, then peel off the skin which covers them, put them in a saucepan on the fire, with enough water to cover them, and two ounces of sugar ; boil them until soft, without breaking, and drain them. Put in a sauce- pan on the fire four yolks of eggs, three ounces of sugar, a teacupful of black coffee, and half a glass of cream. Stir until just before boiling, then strain it, allow it to become cold, pour it over your marrons, and serve.

585. Nougat. Put half a pound of almonds in boiling water for two or three minutes, remove the skins, wash the almonds, and cut them each in seven or eight long strips, then put them in the oven to dry. Put in a copper or well-enameled saucepan, on the fire, five ounces of powdered sugar, which be care- ful to stir very gently until colored brown, then add your almonds, which should be slightly browned and very hot. Mix all together, rub a little oil lightly over a pan, into which pour your nougat, cut it im-