Ingredients: Three and a half cupfuls of water, one cupful of sugar, a small piece of butter, a table-spoonful of either corn starch or flour, flavoring of either brandy, vanilla, lemon, or wine (with or without a little nutmeg), or zest and cinnamon.
When the water boils, stir in the corn starch or flour (rubbed smooth with a little cold water), sugar, and, if used, the yellow rind of a lemon and the cinnamon, and cook well for two or three minutes; take the pan from the fire, and stir in the butter and flavoring (if the lemon and cinnamon are not used).
Ingredients: One pint of water, three table-spoonfuls of flour or corn starch, half a cupful of butter, two cupfuls of sugar, two eggs, half of a nutmeg, half a pint of Madeira or sherry.
Beat the butter and sugar to a cream; add the eggs well beaten, then the nutmeg; heat the wine as hot as possible without boiling; bring the water to a boil in another vessel, and stir in the corn starch or flour (rubbed smooth with a little cold water), and cook it well for about two minutes. Mix well the ingredients off the fire.
WHIPPED-CREAM SAUCE (_Mrs. Embry, Kentucky_).
Mix a plateful of whipped cream (flavored with wine or vanilla), the beaten whites of two or three eggs, and pulverized sugar to taste, all together. Pile a bank of this mixture in the centre of a platter, and form a circle of little fruit puddings or Swedish puddings (steamed in cups or little molds), _blanc-manges_, corn-starch puddings, etc., around it; or place a large pudding in the centre, with a circle of the sauce around.
The French bottled apricots, greengage plums, or strawberries make delicious sauces for a Bavarian cream, _blanc-mange_, _charlotte-russe_, or corn-starch pudding. They may simply be poured around the pudding on a platter, or the juice may, be thickened by boiling it with a very little corn-starch, then adding the fruit to it when cold.
The American canned May-duke cherries (Shrivers) make a good pudding sauce. Boil the juice, and add the slight corn-starch thickening and a little sugar; when cold, add the cherries. It makes a good sauce poured around these puddings.
Fresh red cherries, stewed, sweetened, passed through a sieve, and slightly thickened with corn starch, make another pudding sauce. The Colorado wild raspberries make a fine berry pudding, with the same kind of berry sauce around it. Marmalades and preserves, if not too stiff, make pretty garnishes as well as good sauces.