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Pudding Saxonne
Two ounces sifted flour, two ounces butter, two ounces fine sugar, half pint milk, four egg yolks, the white of three eggs and half vanilla bean. Place the milk and vanilla in a small saucepan and let come to a boil, then let stand on the corner of the range. Place the flour in another saucepan, pour in the milk, little by little, continually stirring with the wooden spoon meanwhile, add half the sugar and half the butter; stir well while cooking for five minutes, or until it thickens well. Transfer it to a large bowl and let cool off. Lift up the vanilla bean, add the rest of the sugar and butter, as well as the egg yolks, one by one, briskly mixing with the wooden spoon meanwhile. Briskly beat up the white of three eggs to a froth and add them to the rest. Lightly mix the whole for one minute. Then fill six well-cleaned individual pudding moulds with the preparation. Place them on a tin pan; pour in hot water up to one-half the height of the moulds. Place in the hot oven to steam for twenty-five minutes. Remove, unmould on a deep dish, pour a Sabayon sauce over them and serve hot.
This is a pudding soufflé: a thick flour-and-milk panade enriched with yolks, lightened with whites, and steamed in moulds in a water bath. It is closer to a soufflé than to a boiled pudding, and the handling of the whites is what decides whether it rises.
- Weights in cupsTwo ounces flour is a scant 1/2 cup, two ounces butter is 4 tablespoons, two ounces sugar is 1/4 cup plus a little. Half a pint of milk is 1 cup.
- The oven"Hot oven" is given no temperature here; in period usage it generally means something in the 400F range, but a yolk-rich custard batter in a bain-marie is better at 350-375F, since at higher heat the outsides set and crack before the centres cook. Twenty-five minutes suits small moulds of roughly 4 oz.
- Making the panade off the heatPour the hot milk onto the dry flour a spoonful at a time, whisking, before returning the pan to the heat. Adding it all at once gives lumps no amount of stirring will remove.
- Fold, do not mixThe instruction to "lightly mix the whole for one minute" means fold. Beat the whites only to soft peaks that just hold, and stop folding while a few streaks remain; overworked whites give a dense, wet pudding.
- The mouldsButter them and dust with sugar, and fill only three-quarters full. The puddings climb during steaming and settle again as they cool, which is why they are unmoulded and served at once.
- The vanilla beanSplit the half-bean and scrape the seeds into the milk along with the pod, then remove the pod as directed. A teaspoon of extract stirred in with the yolks is the usual substitute, added off the heat.
- Cover the water bathLay a sheet of foil loosely over the pan so the moulds steam rather than bake dry. Use hot, not boiling, water and top it up if it reduces below halfway.
- DonenessThe tops should be puffed and dry to the touch with only the faintest tremble at the centre. Rest two or three minutes before turning out.
- Sabayon and yieldThe sauce is the French form of Italian zabaglione: yolks, sugar and a fortified wine such as Marsala whisked over barely simmering water until thick and hot; keep whisking until it is thoroughly hot and thickened so the eggs are properly cooked. Six moulds serve six.
"Saxonne" is one of the geographical tags that nineteenth-century French professional kitchens attached to a standard preparation to distinguish it on a menu, and this pudding belongs to the family of puddings soufflés of the classic French repertoire: a panade of flour and milk, cooked like a thin pastry cream, then loosened with yolks and raised with whites and steamed in a water bath rather than baked open in a dish. The method is essentially that of a soufflé made sturdy enough to unmould, which suits professional service: it can be prepped ahead, cooked in individual moulds and sent out quickly. The Sabayon poured over it is the French form of Italian zabaglione, a whisked wine-and-yolk sauce that appears with steamed and soufflé puddings in the same period.