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Swiss Cream
Crumble a quarter of a pound of macaroons and 2 or 3 penny sponge cakes, or use a mixture of macaroons and ratafias. Lay the crumbs in a glass dish. Pour over them a glassful of sherry, and spread a spoonful or two of jam upon them. If a plain dish is required, the sherry or the jam, or both, may be omitted. Simmer the thin rind of half a lemon, or a little piece of vanilla, in half a cupful of milk till it is pleasantly flavored. Add a pint of cream and as much sugar as will sweeten it pleasantly. Mix a tablespoonful of corn flour smoothly with a little cold milk, and add this gradually to the rest. Stir the mixture over a gentle fire till it boils; pour it out, and stir it again till it is almost cold. Add the juice of a lemon, and pour the cream over the cakes in the dish. Ornament the top with bright-colored jelly or jam, or with strips of angelica. If liked, 2 tablespoonfuls of arrowroot may be substituted for the corn flour, or a tablespoonful of flour even may be used. The cream should stand in a cool place three or four hours before it is wanted.
An uncooked trifle thickened with starch rather than eggs, set over crumbled almond biscuits. Despite its place under Baked Puddings, nothing goes into the oven.
- Add the lemon juice coldThe juice goes in only after the thickened cream is almost cool. Acid stirred into hot dairy will curdle it, and the starch will not rescue the texture once it breaks.
- Corn flour means cornstarchThe book is reprinting British usage: corn flour is cornstarch, not maize flour. A tablespoon per pint of cream gives a soft, spoonable set rather than a firm mould.
- Ratafias and penny sponge cakesRatafias are small crisp almond macaroons; amaretti are the closest thing now sold. Penny sponge cakes were small individual sponges sold for a penny, generally about the size of a modern sponge finger; two or three of them is roughly a couple of ounces of ladyfingers or trimmed sponge cake.
- A glassful of sherryProbably a wineglassful, conventionally reckoned at about 2 to 2 1/2 fl oz. A medium or cream sherry will suit the sweetness better than a dry fino.
- Which pintThe original is British in origin, so the pint may be the Imperial 20 fl oz rather than the American 16. Two cups of cream works with the stated tablespoon of starch; if you use 20 oz, expect a looser cream.
- Cooking the baseBring it to a boil over low heat while stirring so the starch gelatinizes fully, then stir off the heat as it cools to stop a skin forming. Undercooked cornstarch tastes chalky and will not hold.
- AngelicaCandied angelica stem, once a standard green garnish, is now hard to find. Candied citrus peel, toasted almonds or fresh berries serve the same decorative purpose.
- Resting and yieldResting -- Three or four hours of chilling lets the biscuits soften into the cream; overnight is better still. A pint of cream plus the soaked crumbs will roughly fill a medium glass serving dish.
Swiss Cream is a trifle built without custard: instead of eggs, a spoonful of cornstarch or arrowroot thickens sweetened cream. Its connection to Switzerland is not demonstrable, and vaguely continental names were commonly attached to genteel cold sweets in the period, alongside Bavarian cream and Spanish cream. American household compilations of this kind often drew on British sources, which would account for an ingredient list that still speaks of corn flour, ratafias and penny sponge cakes.