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Quick Puff Pudding
Stir one pint flour, two tea-spoons baking-powder, and a little salt into milk until very soft; place in steamer well-greased cups, put in each a spoonful of batter, then one of berries, steamed apples, or any sauce convenient, cover with another spoonful of batter and steam twenty minutes, This pudding is delicious made with fresh strawberries, and eaten with a sauce made of two eggs, half cup butter and cup of sugar, beaten thoroughly with a cup boiling milk and one of strawberries. - Mrs. B. T. Skinner, Battle Creek, Mich.
A steamed individual pudding built on a baking-powder batter, essentially a soft biscuit dough with fruit hidden in the middle. The batter's consistency is the whole recipe, and the original leaves the milk to your judgment.
- A pint of flourFlour was measured by volume: one pint is 2 cups, roughly 8 1/2 to 9 oz of all-purpose flour. Two teaspoons baking powder for that quantity sits at about the usual modern ratio of a teaspoon per cup.
- The milk is unmeasured, deliberatelyThe milk is unmeasured -- "Into milk until very soft" means a thick drop batter that just falls from the spoon, not a pourable one. Expect about 1 cup for 2 cups of flour, added gradually. If it slumps flat in the cup, it is too wet and the fruit will sink through it.
- Cups and steamerUse 6-oz ramekins or custard cups, greased well, filled no more than two-thirds. Set them in a covered steamer basket or on a rack in a wide pan with an inch of boiling water; cover each cup loosely with foil so condensation does not pool on top.
- Twenty minutes is realisticKeep the water at a steady boil and do not lift the lid for the first fifteen minutes. A skewer into the batter, not the fruit, should come out clean. Larger cups need 30-35 minutes.
- The fillingRaw berries, cooked apple, jam, or any thick preserve all work. Very juicy raw fruit will leak into the batter; a spoonful is enough, and tossing fresh berries in a little flour helps.
- The strawberry sauceTwo eggs, half a cup butter, a cup of sugar, then a cup of boiling milk beaten in makes a foamy pouring custard. Beat the eggs, sugar and softened butter first, add the hot milk in a thin stream while whisking, then stir over low heat until it reaches 170F and thickens slightly; the crushed strawberries go in off the heat so they keep their color.
- YieldAbout six puddings, with sauce enough for all of them. Turn them out and serve hot; steamed baking-powder batter stiffens as it cools.
Steamed puddings in individual cups suited kitchens once chemical leavening became reliable and cheap in the 1860s and 70s: no oven needed to be heated, and the same batter that made biscuits could be turned into a pudding with whatever fruit or preserve was open. The Dixie Cook-Book, like the Buckeye books it was assembled from, ran on signed contributions from readers, and Mrs. Skinner's note from Battle Creek, Michigan, is typical of the form: a method rather than a formula, assuming the cook already knows what a soft batter feels like. The "quick" in the title may well be read as distinguishing it from the older class of boiled puddings tied in a floured cloth and simmered for two or three hours.