Desserts - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Desserts

28
Sep
2022

Lime Pie with Creme De Menthe – Pieathalon 9!

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Cook A Long, Desserts, Pastry Desserts, Pieathalon

Greetings Pie lovers! Welcome to a special midweek edition of Retro Food For Modern Foods. Today we are celebrating that best of best days of the year – Pieathalon Day. This is the day, where lead by the lovely Yinzerella, bloggers worldwide swap and cook vintage pie recipes.

This year I got a recipe for Lime Pie with Creme de Menthe sent to me by Dr Bobb. Now, call me biased but how pretty are these? I made lots of little pies because I could not find a large already baked pie crust and at the time I made these I was suffering from double ear infections and a bad back so I was not really up for shopping about. The one shop I went to had no large pie crusts so I bought two packs of medium. I’m kind of glad. I think the little pies look adorable.

Lime Pie with Creme de Menthe?

To be honest, though, I was not initially enamoured with the recipe. Lime yes! It was the Creme de Menthe I was struggling with. I have never really tasted Creme de Menthe, all I knew about it was that it was a mint-flavoured liqueur that Poirot sometimes sips. Hmm…I wonder if that is why Yinzerella sent it to me! I have a love/hate relationship with mint-flavoured things. I hate mint tea and mint choc chip ice cream but I love a mint slice biscuit and I love the combo of mint and lime in a mojito.

Looking at the bottle of Creme de Menthe though I couldn’t help feeling I was going to be flavouring my pies with something that looked suspiciously like the mouthwash I use!

I had to keep reminding myself Mojito, not Listerine!

Mojito! Mojito…And given that I always like to have a song to celebrate Pieathalon, I was singing that “Mojito, mojito” to the tune of the bit in Despacito that goes “Pasito a pasito, suave suavecito”.

(How many of you are not humming despacito now?

However the real sticking point was not the Creme de Menthe but came when I was half way through making the recipe. At the exact point when I realised that the original recipe contained egg yolks that were not going to be cooked.

Hard no for me on the raw yolks.

Not the least of which was that I now had 12 little pies. These were going to last us for days. And if the idea of fresh raw yolks was bad, the idea of 4 day old raw yolks was putrid. Plus the mixture was quite runny. I was sure if I left it uncooked, we would have soggy bottoms in no time. And as anyone who watches the Great British Bake Off will know, no one likes a soggy bottom!

So, I popped my little pies into the oven for about 15 minutes.

Despite my misgivings, these pies were delicious!

Lime Pie with Creme De Menthe – The Recipe

Doctor Bobb, I raise my glass to you and your recipe!

Why not check out what Dr Bobb and all the other pieathletes made per the links below:

(please note some of the links may not be live at the time of posting. I will update as they become live).

Yinzerella	Candy Apple Cheese Pie	www.dinnerisserved1972.com
Dr. Bobb	praline pumpkin pie	http://dbkitschen.blogspot.com/2022/09/pieathalon-9-praline-pumpkin-pie.html
Battenburgbelle	Zucchini Pie	https://www.kitchenconfidence.co.uk/all-recipes/pieathalon-2022/
S S	Yul Brenner’s Pie	http://abookofcookrye.blogspot.com/2022/09/pieathlon-ninth-walnut-pie-from-stars.html
Jenny	Sagittarius Hamburger Pie	www.silverscreensuppers.com
Surly	poohs summer pie	www.vintagerecipecards.com
Kari	Ham Tongue Pie	www.thenostalgiccook.com
Poppy Crocker	apricot mallow pie	https://granniepantries.blogspot.com/
Camilla	Chocolate Angel Pie	http://culinary-adventures-with-cam.blogspot.com/

If you are wondering who got the pie I submitted, it was Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers! Good luck Jenny, I hope you enjoyed your hamburger pie!

Thanks as always to Yinzerella for organising this brilliant event!

25
Sep
2022

Lemon Soufflé – The Incredible Theft

categories: Desserts, Dining With The Dame, Eggs, Soufflé

Hello crime readers and food lovers! Today we are reading (and eating) our way through another short story from the Murder in The Mews collection. On the menu is a lovely and light lemon soufflé. Also, an apology for the long break between posts – we had a lovely week away but pretty soon after we got home, I fell ill. I had an old-school non-covid flu that lasted nearly two weeks and left me with infections in both ears! A lingering cough from that same flu also lead me to putting my back out! All up, September has been a month of me either being ill or in pain, neither of which has left me with much energy for cooking or writing. However, I read this Poirot short story when away and in the small gap of time between my return home and getting ill, I cooked the soufflés.

The Incredible Theft- The Plot

.Air Marshal Sir George Carrington calls Poirot to come to the country house of Sir Charles Mayhew where some plans for a new bomber have been stolen. The bomber will give Britain unparalleled power in the air should war eventuate. The theft of the plans is a great blow to Britain’s military power. Attending a house party on the night of the theft was Mrs Vanderlyn, a much-married vamp who is described as being “a very useful person to….a European power – and perhaps to more than one European power”. Given her marriages have been to an Italian, a German and a Russian, we are not only given the start of a joke where three men walk into a bar but the possible European powers to which Mrs Vanderlyn might be useful!

Pefect Poolside Reading — Perfect Poolside Reading!

Apart from the seductive Mrs Vanderlyn we have

A mysterious figure in the shadows
A screaming maid
A woman with gambling debts
A spoiled son in need of some cash
Britain’s likely next Prime Minister with something to hide from the populace

Good thing we have Poirot to sort it all out. Only…do we? This story is somewhat of an anomaly because only after the denouement do we realise that Poirot actually does very little – all the work is done by….ah…that would be telling! 🙊

The Incredible Theft- The Covers

I could only find two covers for The Incredible Theft – neither of which are very exciting:

Instead, I thought we could all crush on the divine country manor that features in the Poirot version of The Incredible Theft

And, whilst we are in full drool mode, how about we take a look at Mrs Vanderlyn (and also some more house porn)

That same dress also does not disappoint from the back!

Here is another very glam outfit!

No wonder half of Europe seems to be gaga for Mrs V!

Lady Carrington also knows how to rock a sparkle and lace combo!

As much as I could dote on the fashions and locations of Poirot all day, we need to move on to another gorgeous little number, my lemon soufflé!

The Recipe – Lemon Soufflé

Lemon Soufflé – The Incredible Theft

Print Recipe

A lovely light dessert, given a retro twist by serving it in the lemons.

Author: Taryn Nicole

Ingredients

Scale

8 medium-sized lemons
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 tbsp plain flour
Pinch of salt
2 Tbsp icing sugar for dusting

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Line an oven tray with baking paper.
Trim the base of the lemon so they sit flat. Cut off the top third of each lemon and, using a teaspoon, remove the pulp from the lemons (this takes a while) over a bowl lined with a sieve.
Squeeze the juice from the pulp and reserve. Discard the pulp.
Place the lemon shells on the prepared tray.
Preheat your oven to 180C
Combine the yolks, half the sugar, 1/4 cup of lemon juice and the flour in a heatproof bowl. Beat until thick and pale.
Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and beat for another 8-10 minutes until the mixture is the thickness of a thick custard. Remove from the heat but continue to beat until the mixture is cool – about another 2-3 minutes.
Beat the egg whites to soft peaks, add the remaining salt and the remaining sugar and beat until the mixture is thick and glossy.
Whisk one-third of the egg white mixture into the yolk mixture. Fold the egg white mixture into the yolk mixture with a large metal spoon. Be as gentle as you can here. You want to preserve as much of the lightness and air from the whipped whites as possible.
Spoon the mixture into the lemon shells, filling to the rims.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until the soufflés have risen 2-3 centimetres above the rim of the lemons and are golden.
Transfer to serving plates, dust with icing sugar and serve immediately.

Notes

Leftover lemon juice can be frozen into ice cube trays to use as you need.
Or seeing as life has given you lemons, make lemonade!
If you accidentally poke your spoon through the bottom of the lemon as you are removing the pulp, never mind. Wrap the base of the lemon tightly in aluminium foil for cooking and remove it for serving. This will prevent any souffle mixture oozing out the bottom!

As the butler handed round the souffle, Lord Mayfield leaned confidentially towards his neighbour on the right, Lady Julia Carrington. Known as the perfect host, Lord Mayfield took trouble to live up to his reputation. Although unmarried, he was always charming to women.”

– Agatha Christie, The Incredible Theft

Links to The Christieverse

Nothing that I could find.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in The Incredible Theft

Dessert
Port
Breakfast

October’s read will be another short story from Murder in the Mews. Get out your sunblock and get ready for some fun and murder in the sun with Triangle at Rhodes.

Happy reading and cooking!

14
Feb
2022

Chocolate Mousse Hearts

categories: 1980's recipes, Desserts, Magazines, Meringue, Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day friends! Love is in the air are we are celebrating with some Chocolate Mousse Hearts largely inspired by a recipe in the Autumn 1986 issue of the Vogue Entertaining Guide. Before we continue though, I need to be totally honest with you. The recipe requires several instances of piping using an icing bag and this is not one of my strong suits. Hopefully, you will find my less than perfect hearts endearingly wonky rather than downright comical. And as we all know…love means never having to say you’re sorry so let’s get to it!

Okay, deep breath, here we go…

Now, these babies might not look perfect but, I gave one to The Fussiest Eater in the World earlier.

He took his first bite. “Wow”.

Second bite “Oh my God!”

The overall vote was “Delicious”.

So, they might not be the prettiest things in the world. But they are definitely a sweet treat!

Just a little shout out before I continue though, that beautiful plate my heart is on comes from Yael Gronner Ceramics on Etsy.I bought some of her wares late last year and have been dying to feature them!

Chocolate Mousse Hearts – The Breakdown

We start off with a meringue base – the first lot of piping. And it really sets the tone for the rest of the dish. If you can do this bit perfectly, the rest of the dish will be a doddle. When you are doing the piping try to build up the outside of the hearts as much as possible.

Then those little depressions in the middle of the hearts are filled with jam. The recipe said berry jam but I used cherry. I LOVE the combination of cherry and chocolate plus I don’t like how the seeds in strawberry and raspberry jam can get stuck in your teeth.

Those little hearts? I had some of the meringue mixture left over and I thought they might be cute as garnishes or as taste testers.

So, right about now, you might be thinking where’s that chocolate mousse I was promised? Well, it’s coming right up. Along with our second bit of piping:

I topped my mousse with some crumbled up Flake and a little gold lustre powder.

And a cherry on the top!

Chocolate Mousse Hearts – The Recipe

So, I was halfway through making this when I came to the sentence that said the chocolate mousse needed to set overnight. I needed to get them made and take my pictures on Sunday 13th to have any hope of being able to ost this today. Normally I am a bit more organised but life has got in the way this month!

It’s also the reason I garnished with a flake and not chocolate leaves and curls.

So, I found this mousse recipe online that did not have to chill overnight and used that instead. I chilled it for 2 hours then piped it onto my hearts.

Whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day, Galentine’s Day or nothing at all, these decadent chocolate hearts are a good addition to your dessert repertoire. They are very sweet though so for future making I would make them a little smaller (The widest part of my hearts was probably about 10cm across). Or keep them big and share with someone you love!

Have a great week!

26
Dec
2021

Saratoga Torte

categories: 1980's Food, Australasia, Desserts

You may be thinking that the recipe for Saratoga Totre comes from the American chapter of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery. It does not. I found this recipe in the October 1986 issue of the Vogue Entertaining Guide I had never heard of Saratoga Torte and assumed it was an American dish. I was very surprised to learn that it is actually an Australian recipe. There is a small town called Saratoga on the Central Coast of New South Wales so it may have originated there.

Madelaine’s Saratoga Torte

Technically this recipe is called Madelaine’s Saratoga Torte however, as there is no mention of who Madelaine is or how her Saratoga Torte differs from anyone else’s, I am taking the liberty of dropping her name. The recipe comes from an article entitled “Anyone for Tennis?” focussing on mother and daughter entertainers Maria and Helena Law.

This is also the same edition of Vogue Entertaining that gave us this recipe for crumbed lamb cutlets.

Sao Biscuits

Sao (Say-O) biscuits are key to making Saratoga Torte. These are a savoury cracker biscuit that have been made by Arnott’s biscuits since 1906. Sao is possibly an acronym for Salvation Army Officer as one of the Arnott’s Brothers was indeed an officer in the Salvation Army.

If you are not in Australia and you want to make a Saratoga torte I would suggest substituting water crackers. However Sao’s are quite large so I would use double the number of water crackers.

Also, if you happen to be researching Sao biscuits stay away from any mentions of the soggy Sao. This is a practice apparently indulged in by groups of teenage boys. As with most things done by groups of teenage boys it is highly unsavoury.

You have been warned. Proceed down that path and anything that comes at you is on you. Which is potentially a very bad choice of words.

Let’s swiftly move on!

What is Saratoga Torte?

Imagine if you made a meringue mixture and you added crushed-up crackers and crumbled walnuts to the mixture. Then you baked that and topped it with whipped cream and flaked chocolate.

That, in essence is Saratoga Torte.

And it is delicious!!!

The nutty meringue with a little hit of salt every now and again from the crackers is so good! And the cream and little hints of chocolate are the perfect foil. A little hit of Amaretto or Frangelico in the cream would also not be entirely out of keeping.

This was a bit sweet, the next time I make this I will drop the sugar down to 3/4 of a cup and not a whole cup. The key to a lovely thick and glossy meringue is to add the sugar quite slowly and to make sure that each spoonful melts before you add the next one.

The Recipe – Saratoga Torte

Saratoga Torte is utterly delicious, very easy to make and also a little bit out of the ordinary. Why not make it as part of your New Year’s festivities?

Also, if anyone knows the origin of Saratoga torte or who Madelaine might be, please drop me a note in the comments!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

I’m on holiday from work so hope to have another post for you before the new year. Whatever you are up to, I hope you have a wonderful week!

19
Dec
2021

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

categories: Christmas, Dining With The Dame, Poirot, Pudding

Season’s Greetings crime readers and food lovers! Today we are reading the Poirot short story, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and eating that exact thing! This is the first time I have ever made plum or Christmas pudding. I chose this recipe, which comes from an October 1993 issue of Home Beautiful because it had apricots and no fruit peel in it. I further tweaked the recipe to remove the raisins and figs which I am not fond of and replaced them with dried strawberries and blueberries. The fruit was then soaked for two weeks in a combination of Pedro Ximenez sherry and brandy!!!

The Adventure of The Christmas Pudding – The Plot

As mentioned, this is a short story – it is only 44 pages in the edition that I read so it is something that can easily be read in around an hour. However, for such a short story there is a LOT going on!

We open with someone called Mr Jesamond, trying to persuade Poirot to take on a case. Poirot is not so keen.

Mr Jesamond interrupted “Christmas time,” he said, persuasively. “An old fashioned Christmas in the English countryside.”

Hercule Poirot shivered. The thought of the English countryside at this season of the year did not attract him…he had suffered too often in the historic country houses of England”

Eventually, Poirot agrees to take the case. A young potentate from an unnamed country has been visiting England to have some of the family jewels re-set by Cartier in order to give them to his bride to be. However, the young man, away from his conservative homeland, has done what young men away from their conservative homelands are wont to do. Even worse, he allowed his new lady friend to wear the family ruby one night. Needless to say, she and the ruby vanish.

In order to avoid a scandal, Poirot is called to visit Kings Lacey, home of the Lacey family to find the thief and the ruby!

We have:

Sarah, the granddaughter of the Lacey’s who has taken up with a bounder whom she has brought home for Christmas, along with his sister who is recovering from an operation and is confined to bed
Several mentions of the bounder’s tight black jeans! (Ooh Aggie!!!)
Someone sneaking about Poirot’s bedroom at night
Drugs in the coffee
Some delightful snarkiness about Poirot’s nightcap (sadly missing from the adaptation)
Something that is definitely not a sixpence in the Christmas pudding!

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding – The Covers

The covers here nearly all show a Christmas Pudding. I do like the one where Poirot’s hat takes the place of the pudding and I also very much like the one where the Creme Anglaise on the pudding takes on the skull and crossbones. There is a very stylish French cover, except you can’t tell because apparently there is no French translation for Christmas Pudding (hint, it is the black and yellow on).

There is also a Spanish cover that does Poirot no favours! I mean at no point do we ever hear that Poirot is particularly handsome but oof..too cruel, Spain, too cruel!

Unflattering depictions from Spain aside, I am saving my most, my worst level of scorn for the cover on the bottom right. I mean. WTAF unknown publisher? The book is called the Adventure of the Christmas Pudding not The Adventure of the Blueberry Layer Cake!!!

The Recipe – Christmas Pudding

On a silver dish the Christmas pudding resposed in its glory. A large football of a pudding, a piece of holly stuck in it like a triumpant flag and glorious flames of blue and red rising around it. There was a cheer and cries of “ooh – ah:.

Hercule Poirot merely surveyed the portion on his plate with a rather curious expression on his face. A result, no doubt of finding a cryptic note in his bedroom which had read,

“DON’T EAT NONE OF THE PLUM PUDDING.

– ONE WHO WISHES YOU WELL

Agatha Christie, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

Other Food Mentioned in The Adventure of The Christmas Pudding

For such a short story, there is a HEAP of food mentioned here:

Oyster Soup
Two turkeys – one boiled, one roast
Elvas Plums, Carlsbad Plums, almonds, raisins, crystallised fruit and ginger
Scones, crumpets, sandwiches and three kinds of cake
Tea
Hard Sauce
Brandy
Mince Pies
Christmas dessert
Christmas cake
Cold supper
Chestnut Stuffing
Eggs and bacon (ALWAYS)
Coffee
A tisane

We usually have brandy butter and custard with our Christmas pudding but this year I am going to give hard sauce a go! It sounds delicious!

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding is not much of a mystery. It is very obvious who the wrong ‘un is. Having said that, it is an absolutely delightful and charming Christmas story so well worth a read! It is one of the few Poirot adaptations that is not available on Youtube but the Audiobook, which is read by Hugh Fraser who plays Hastings in the series is available.

Dear friends, I hope Santa brings you everything you want and you have a merry, happy and safe holiday season!