Apple Pudding

By west757

A CENTURY OLD AND STILL GREAT
Scanning the cookbooks popular in the 1920s and 1930s shows how much American tastes have changed in the last half century. Many of today's recipes are both lighter and more sophisticated than those that came before. We use fewer eggs, less cream, and less butter than did cooks of two generations ago.
Some well-known dishes of that era are almost extinct. It came as a shock to me, for example, to learn that not one of the young cooks in the kitchens of THE PLEASURES OF COOKING had ever heard of Roast Beef Hash, a great favorite when I was growing up. And what college girl nowadays has heard of Shrimp Wiggle - a smash hit in the 1920s? Then any young woman, living in a college dormitory whose room boasted a chafing dish, made it of canned shrimp, canned green peas, and canned milk. Quite a contrast to our present generation's preference for fresh food.

Ingredients

• 5 slices dry firm white bread, untrimmed
• 1 medium lemon
• 1 ⅓ cup sugar
• 3 medium apples, such as Yellow Delicious or Granny Smith
• Freshly grated nutmeg
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure, vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream
• Confectioners' sugar

Preparation

Step 1

1. Generously butter the bottom and side of a 9 by 2-inch round pie plate or baking dish. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350°F. [175°C].
2. Tear the bread slices into quarters. Chop them medium fine with the metal blade of a food processor; pulse 4 times then process for about 10 seconds. There should be about 1 1/3 cups crumbs. Reserve.
3. Remove the yellow peel from half the lemon with a vegetable peeler. Reserve the rest of the lemon for another use.
4. Process the peel and sugar with the metal blade until the peel is fmely chopped, about 1 minute. Reserve.
5. Core and peel the apples and process them, cored end down, with the medium [3mm] slicing disc.
6. To assemble the pudding, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the bread crumbs over the bottom of the buttered pie dish. Layer one-third of the apple slices over the crumbs and sprinkle with one-third of the sugar-lemon mixture, nutmeg and 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs. Repeat the layering twice more, and use the remaining crumbs to make a thick layer on top.
7. Process the eggs and vanilla with the metal blade for 5 seconds. With the motor running, pour 1 cup of the cream through the feed tube. Pour the egg & cream mixture slowly over the apples, letting it seep through the layers.
8. Bake in the center of the preheated oven for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 300°F. [150°C.] and continue baking until the apples are tender, about 15 minutes more.
9. Cool in the baking dish set on a wire rack. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature, sprinkled with confectioners' sugar.
10. Just before serving, whip the remaining 1/2 cup cream, and serve in a separate bowl, sprinkled with nutmeg.