THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

HOT PUDDINGS.

APPLE PUDDING (BAKED).

1 pint flour.

¼ cup butter or dripping.

1 cup milk.

1 tsp. cream of tartar.

3 tbsps. sugar.

½ tsp. salt.

1 egg.

½ tsp. soda sifted into the flour

6 tart apples.

~Hoodless, Adelaide.  Public School Domestic Science.  Toronto: The Copp, Clark Company, Limited, 1898.

THE UPDATED RECIPE

• 6 large Northern Spy apples (or other tart apples)
• 3 Tb. brown sugar (firmly packed)
• 1 ½ tsp. grated nutmeg
• 2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ c. butter (chilled)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 c. milk.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease a large, fairly shallow baking-dish with butter.

Blend together the sugar and nutmeg and set aside.

Sift the flour and measure it, and add to a mixing bowl.

Add the cream of tartar, baking soda and salt to the flour, and sift together.

Cut the butter into the sifted dry ingredients, and then, with the fingers, work the butter into the mixture, until the whole mixture resembles even, fine crumbs.

Peel the apples, and cut them into eighths, and arrange them in the bottom of the buttered baking dish.

Sprinkle the spiced sugar evenly over the apples.

Beat the egg lightly with a whisk, and add the milk to it; whisk to blend together.

Add the liquid to the crumbed mixture;  stir with a spoon to moisten evenly and mix together.

Spoon the batter evenly over the sweetened apples (letting the batter reach down between the apples), and smooth the surface of the pudding with a broad-bladed knife.

Bake the pudding in a preheated oven, at 350F for approximately 35 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve the pudding hot-from-the-oven, with either lemon sauce or custard sauce.

For the lemon sauce recipe, click here.

For the custard sauce recipe, click here.

Yield: 6 portions.

This is ideal family fare for a fall or winter-time dessert.

A bit about Adelaide Hoodless: A social reformer and educator, she was born near Brantford, Ontario in 1857, and died in Toronto in 1910. She is a renowned Canadian woman for a multitude of reasons, most notably for participating in the creation of the first YWCA, co-founding the National Council of Women of Canada, founding the first Women’s Insititute, writing Canada’s first domestic science textbook (from which this recipe is taken), presiding over the formation of the Macdonald Institute of Home Economics in Guelph, and helping to found the Victorian Order of Nurses. She tirelessly promoted the education of women, and fought hard for women’s rights in Canada.

~Adelaide Hunter Hoodless Homestead. (2023). Adelaide’s Story. adelaidehoodless.ca/history/.

“Educate a boy, and you educate an individual. Educate a girl, and you educate a community.”

~Adelaide Hoodless.

A note from Patricia: This is my second ‘pudding with sauce’ that I’ve made, and I have to say….. YUM! I substituted 1:1 gluten-free baking flour for the all-purpose flour in the recipe, and it worked out well. There is very little sugar in this apple cake, which is why a sweet sauce is suggested, and in my opinion, this is what makes any ‘pudding’ dessert extra special. I halved the recipe, used Granny Smith apples (it was what I had on hand), added a 1/4 tsp. of cinnamon too, and I went with the lemon sauce because I knew it would be delicious and sweet and tangy, and would pair well with the apples. This recipe is lovely and deeply comforting. Apples in fall always hit the spot, and I’m now addicted to pouring sauces on cakes.