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Date Fluff-Duff
Stew one cupful of dates, stoned, until tender, then put through a colander and mix with one cup of sugar in which has been sifted a teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Beat thoroughly the whites of five eggs with a pinch of salt and when perfectly stiff add the yolks of two and whip again. Now mix lightly, a little at a time, with the dates and sugar and place in a buttered baking-dish. Sprinkle over the top one-half cup of fine-chopped nuts and bake for fifteen minutes. Serve this with cream, plain or whipped.
A soufflé-style baked pudding built on stewed dates and beaten egg whites. The original gives no oven temperature and no dish size, so both need supplying.
- The hinge: fold, do not stirThe whole dish rises on the beaten whites. The recipe adds the mixture to the dates and sugar a little at a time; work with a spatula, cutting down and over, and stop the moment no streaks remain. Overworked, it bakes flat and dense.
- Oven temperatureSet the oven to 350F. Fifteen minutes at that heat gives a puffed, just-set centre in a shallow dish; it will sink somewhat as it cools, which is expected of this kind of pudding.
- Stewing the datesCover the stoned dates with about half a cup of water and simmer 10-15 minutes until they collapse. Press through a sieve rather than a colander — modern colander holes are far too large — and let the purée cool to lukewarm before it meets the eggs, or it will cook them.
- Cream of tartar in the sugarSifting it with the sugar rather than into the whites is unusual; because it goes in only after the whites are beaten it cannot help the foam form, whatever it may do to keep the set foam from weeping. A teaspoonful to five whites is on the generous side and may read faintly tart against the dates.
- The egg proportionsFive whites, only two yolks. Save the other three yolks for custard. Beat the whites to firm, glossy peaks before the yolks go in, and whip only briefly after — the mixture will slacken a little and should.
- Dish and yieldA buttered 8-inch round or 1-quart shallow baking dish suits the volume. It serves four to six, and should go to the table straight from the oven.
- The nut toppingHalf a cup of finely chopped walnuts or pecans, scattered over the surface, will toast lightly in fifteen minutes. Chop them fine as directed; large pieces sink through the foam.
"Fluff-duff" is an uncommon term of unclear pedigree, though it sits near a family of homely late-Victorian and Edwardian pudding names such as sponge — used for anything lifted by beaten egg white rather than by butter and flour. Note that there is no flour at all here: the dish is meringue-thickened fruit purée, a type that filled a great many American cookery pages between roughly 1890 and 1920, when eggbeaters were widely available and cream of tartar was sold cheaply as a leavening staple. Dates arrived in quantity through the same period, shipped dried and pressed from North Africa and the Persian Gulf and later from new plantings in California's Coachella Valley, and cookbook writers pushed them hard.