Filbert and Wine Iced Pudding.—To one pint of cream put four tablespoonfuls of sugar and two glasses of fine sherry. The cream must be perfectly sweet, but should be at least twenty-four hours old, and be ice cold. Whip this solid; then freeze. Put a pint of filberts in a cool oven till the skins will nearly all rub off; put them between two coarse cloths, and rub as much as possible of the brown coating off them; pound them to a paste with a little thick cream, mix four ounces of sugar with the nuts, and then blend the whole with enough thick custard to make a very thick batter; flavor with lemon or vanilla, or not, as you choose; freeze. Line a plain mould with the frozen wine cream an inch thick; then fill in the centre with the frozen filberts well pressed in; cover tight, and pack in ice and salt for three hours, or until wanted. This pudding can be made of walnuts and port-wine cream.

Iced Custard with Fruit.—Flavor one pint of cream with any liqueur you prefer; beat twelve eggs thoroughly; strain them; boil the cream with five ounces of sugar, and when it is just off the boil pour it, little by little, to the eggs; add a quarter of an ounce of gelatine that has been dissolved in very little water and strained to the custard; whisk until cold; have ready a mould masked with candied fruits. To mask, set the mould in a pan of cracked ice, and dip each piece of fruit in strong melted jelly; build up from the bottom of the mould having all the fruits, cut about the thickness of a split candied cherry and near the size, arranged with a view to a good effect when the mould shall be turned out. Half freeze the custard, and pour it in the mould three inches high; throw in some of the trimmings of candied fruit chopped fine. When set, add more custard, then more fruit, until the mould is full. Let it stand in ice at least five hours before it is wanted.

Rice À la Princesse.—Let some rice swell in water until quite tender; proportion, one cup of rice to two (scant) of water; then butter a saucepan; put the rice into it, with half a pint of milk; let it stew gently till it will mash; the milk must have all been absorbed; sweeten with three tablespoonfuls of sugar. Mix with this a gill of apricot jam, a teaspoonful of vanilla, and half a pint of whipped cream; freeze; when well frozen, pack in a mould and bury in ice and salt. Pound a dozen macaroons; stir them into a pint of whipped cream; let the mixture be put on ice. When the pudding is turned out of the mould, cover with the macaroon cream, and decorate the dish with cubes of peach or apricot jelly.

Chocolate Cream Pudding.—Boil a quarter of a pound of the finest vanilla chocolate in half a pint of milk, whisking it well till it boils; dissolve in it two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Beat three half-pints of cream and three tablespoonfuls of sugar solid while the chocolate cools; when it is ice cold mix in one half the beaten cream, and freeze. Line a plain mould with the frozen chocolate (the remainder of the whipped cream should have been kept in cracked ice and salt, so as to be ice cold); fill up the centre of the mould with the cream, cover tight, and bury in salt and ice.

Ice-Creams and Ices.—There are so many ways of making ice-cream, that all one can do is to indicate the one or two best, and certainly the very best is the simplest, and there is no dessert so easy to prepare in hot weather as this, since there is no work over the fire. The only trouble is breaking the ice and turning the machine for some twenty minutes, which can be done by a child.

Simplest Fruit Ice-Cream.—Mash two pounds of strawberries or raspberries, put to them half a pound of powdered sugar, and let them remain in a cold place two or three hours, so that the juice may run; then, strain the juice to a quart of thick sweet cream and another half pound of sugar, with the juice of half a lemon; stir, and pour cream and fruit juice into the freezer, which must be packed with ice and rock-salt in about equal quantities, the ice being broken quite small. Let the cream remain standing in the freezer a few minutes before you begin to turn; then freeze, letting off the water, and filling anew with ice and salt if necessary. Stir the cream down as it forms, and keep on turning five or ten minutes after it is actually necessary. This extra working insures that extreme smoothness characteristic of Italian and French ice-cream. If you are not expert in freezing, be satisfied not to pack your cream in a mould for the first few times. Take out the paddle of the freezer, press the ice compactly down in the freezer, cover, and see that the ice and salt are sufficient and free from water. In two hours you can turn the ice out of the freezer in a round column or loaf that will be quite as sightly as the oblong square one frequently gets from the caterer. Many people think that simply freezing the pure cream produces the loose, frothy cream found at inferior confectioners’, but this is not the case; pure cream frozen results in a firm smooth mass which cuts like butter.

I have given the formula for raspberry and strawberry cream only, but any fruit juice may be substituted, varying the quantity of sugar as required.

When it is desirable to freeze the fruit in the cream instead of the juice, it must not be added until the cream is frozen. Stir in raspberries, strawberries, chopped pineapple, banana, or peaches just before the ice is ready to pack down; otherwise the fruit, being full of water, will freeze into hard knots.

Tutti-frutti Ice-Cream being made from chopped candied fruit, this precaution is not necessary; the fruit may be added at any time during the freezing, or stirred in last, as you please.

I have given the simplest and best method of making ice-cream, yet the way most in use is to add custard; and French cooks always use “mÉringue paste,” claiming that it insures a smoothness and lightness nothing else can give.

Custard for Ice-Cream.—This is made as any other custard, except that double the amount of sugar is allowed for everything that is to be frozen. It may be made of from three to six eggs to a pint of milk, as you prefer. This must be ice cold before you put it in the freezer.

Ice-Cream with Eggs.—One pint of milk, three eggs, leaving out one white, half a pound of sugar (if acid fruit is to be added, it may require more for some tastes). Make a custard of these materials, and half freeze it; then add a pint of cream whipped solid. Stir in well and finish freezing, turning the handle some few minutes after it gets pretty stiff, if there is a strong enough hand near to do it.

In making varieties of ice-cream you have only to consider the fitness of the articles you use; for instance, any sort of fruit may be added, with the exception of lemons. Fleshy fruits, such as pineapple, peaches, pears, etc., are usually mixed with the cream uncooked in this country; abroad this is only done with soft fruits, such as raspberries, blackberries, oranges, and such as will mash through a colander. Others are very slightly stewed in rich syrup (as nearly their own juice as possible), then pulped and mixed through when the cream is nearly frozen.

In winter, fruit jams, and especially jellies, are very pleasant in ice-cream; they always require a little lemon juice to restore some of the natural sharpness of fresh fruit. A tumbler of red currant jelly turned into a pint of ice-cream is delicious, and gives a pretty, faint pink tint. The method is just the same whether for custard and cream or cream alone.

The mÉringue paste alluded to as used by foreign confectioners is made by beating the white of an egg with a tablespoonful of powdered sugar until stiff.

Grilled Almond Ice-Cream.—Make a quart of ice-cream; grill some almonds in the following way: Blanch four ounces of almonds, dry them in a hot spot till they are brittle; then put in a thick saucepan or sautÉ pan four ounces of sugar and a gill of water; let them boil five minutes; throw in the almonds; stir them till part of the sugar adheres and they begin to turn yellow. Take them up, chop them, and when quite cold stir them into the ice-cream, which should be flavored with vanilla.