I found another baked Indian pudding recipe to try this week. If you missed my previous post about baked Indian pudding, you can catch up here. I found today’s recipe in the 1944 edition of The Good Housekeeping Cook Book, and it was not adjusted for rationing or shortages. We whipped this up this afternoon to compare to our previous pudding.

Indian Pudding De Luxe

• 2 c bottled milk or 1 c evaporated milk and 1 c water
• 6 tbsp corn meal
• 2 tbsp molasses
• 1/4 c brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 tbsp butter or margarine
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 c sour milk or sour cream

Scald milk over low heat, then stir in the corn meal very slowly. Remove from heat and add next 8 ingredients. Just before turning into a 1 1/2 qt casserole, add the sour milk or sour cream gradually. Bake in a slow oven of 275°F for 2 hours or until a silver knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Stir once during baking. Serve warm with cream or with Vanilla Sauce. Serves 4-5.

Results

This Indian pudding recipe was much better than the previous one. We ate it warm with cream and also tried it plain. It reminded me of a rather bland pumpkin pie filling. If you like pumpkin pie, this might be something you would enjoy, but you should consider increasing some of the spices. It was less lumpy than the first pudding we made, but it still had some unwanted lumps from the corn meal. When you mix the corn meal into the milk, really take care to mix it well. Eating this with ice cream is definately a great suggestion.

I don’t think we will make any more Indian pudding. This was more edible than the one we made a few days ago, but it still isn’t a favorite. It says it serves 4-5, but I’m not sure we’ll finish it and there are quite a few of us. I’m glad I decided to try a different recipe, though. The addition of things like eggs made a big difference in the taste and the texture of the pudding. I’d only recommend this recipe if you are a huge fan of Indian pudding or if you are curious about 1940s wartime recipes.

I do want to mention that I found some other recipes that included ingredients like chopped apples and raisins, but I think I’m ready to move on from Indian pudding. I can’t imagine they would taste all that much different. If you’d like me to go ahead and test another recipe, let me know.

Hopefully the next post will be about something a bit tastier.

This has been a bad week for recipes. Monday’s brownies were probably the worst brownies I’ve ever eaten. Wednesday I was snowed in and decided to try a butter extending recipe. That didn’t work out and will have to wait for another February day. Today we made a baked Indian pudding and didn’t fare much better. I want to include even the recipes that aren’t great, so today I present to you Baked Indian Pudding.

This recipe is from the February 1943 issue of Woman’s Day. It was in an article called “Purse String Recipes”. The recipes were adapted from old favorites to keep costs down for the home front housewife. To do this, they made substitutions and cut back on certain ingredients. I picked baked Indian pudding because it sounded like it would be a comforting treat on a cold evening.

Baked Indian Pudding

• 1/3 c corn meal
• 1 quart milk
• 1/2 c molasses
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ginger

Scald 2 1/2 cups of the milk in upper part of double boiler. Combine corn meal with 1/2 cup of the remaining milk and stir gradually into the scalded milk. Cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add molasses, sugar, salt, and ginger. Pour into buttered baking dish. Bake in slow oven at 300°F for about 1 hour. Stir in remaining cup of milk and continue baking for 2 hours. Serve warm with top milk.

Results

Baked Indian pudding was runnier than most bread puddings I’ve had. It tasted a bit like gingerbread, but had an aftertaste that was off-putting. There were clumps in the pudding despite thorough stirring. None of the testers enjoyed this recipe even though this type of dish is usually well liked at my house. I don’t think that adding my usual scoop of ice cream would have helped this pudding. It wasn’t good, but it was better than Monday’s brownies!

I hate to think that families had to resort to eating foods that were so changed from their original recipes that they became unappealing shadows of themselves. How often did they have to make do with meals based on recipes that made barely edible dishes? Were there recipes that used substitutions that were tasty? What were the flavorful wartime dishes in a home front housewife’s arsenal of recipes? That’s something I hope to explore this month.

As for this pudding today–I wonder if the regular, non-adapted dish was any better. I found several more early 1940s Indian pudding recipes and I think I’ll try them this week. Then we can compare. Perhaps we don’t like Indian pudding no matter what the recipe is. I’m looking forward to finding out.

Does your family have a similar pudding recipe? I’d love to hear about it.

To celebrate National Peanut Butter Day, here is a tasty recipe from “Peter Pan Peanut Butter in your Daily Diet,” a booklet the home front housewife could have sent for in 1945. I found out about this collection of peanut butter recipes from a Peter Pan peanut butter advertisement I used in my peanut butter frosting post. I managed to find a copy so I could share some more peanut butter goodness with you.

My 13 year old son made this apple crumble. It was his first attempt at making something other than cookies and pancakes. I am really proud of how well he did. I’m sure he’ll join me here again in the future.

Peter Pan Apple Crumble

• 3 tbsp Peter Pan peanut butter
• 1/2 c sifted flour
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 3 tbsp butter or margarine
• 1/3 c finely chopped peanuts
• 6 medium sized cooking apples

Sift flour with sugar, salt, and nutmeg. Cut in peanut butter and butter until mixture is crumbly. Add peanuts. Peel apples and slice thin. Place in well greased baking dish. Sprinkle peanut butter mixture evenly over the top of the apples. Bake in moderate oven (350°F) for 40 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 425°F and bake 10 minutes longer or until brown. Serve hot with cream. 6 servings.

Results

I love a good apple crumble. I’ve never had one with peanut butter, so I was definitely intrigued. This didn’t disappoint. I think I prefer a classic crumble, but the addition of peanut butter and peanuts was an interesting change. The crumble wasn’t as sweet as a classic crumble. The peanut butter was the leading flavor, and the chopped nuts added a bit more crunchiness than you usually get from similar dishes. I didn’t have any cream to use, but I think that would have been lovely. A large scoop of vanilla ice cream would be an ideal addition to a bowl of peanut butter apple crumble, but then again, I think most things are greatly improved with a scoop or two of ice cream.

Forgive my lack of pictures. We inhaled the entire dish before I realized I needed more pictures of it. I wanted to make sure the recipe was posted before the day was over, though. After all, National Peanut Butter Day only comes once a year. Enjoy!

In January 1945, Betty Crocker was touting a New Method of cake baking that would save the home front housewife half of her batter mixing time. Using Gold Medal flour, the folks at General Mills’ Home Service Department created a one bowl method of cake batter mixing that was to revolutionize baking. This Starlight Cake recipe is straight from a Betty Crocker advertisement from that month.

Results

This was a nice cake. It was moist and tasted the way a white cake should. We used a plain white buttercream frosting. When I was growing up, my mother made a fluffy anise flavored white frosting that would be perfect on this cake. I need to find that recipe! Gum drops were an interesting addition that added a bit of color. Definitely try this when you need a basic cake recipe to fix up with your favorite tasty frostings. If you have a great frosting recipe, I’d love to hear about it.

Did you know that tomorrow is National Peanut Butter Day? Remember that Peter Pan recipe booklet I mentioned a few posts ago? It’s here and I’m going to test a recipe from it to celebrate the day.