Salvage Pudding

When I started getting into WWII and the rationing involved, one of the things I became utterly fascinated by was the difference in rations between the US and Britain.  Of course, Britain had it off much worse than we did over here, but things like "Meatless Monday" and recipes like this one that used up normal food waste to remake it into something different so that budgets could stretch and rations could stretch right along with it, were normal over here. 

One of the things rationed over here was sugar.  So, you'll notice that the original recipe here calls for corn syrup.  In the US, corn syrup became an invaluable replacement for sugar because...well we had the corn crops to make it!  Thus why you'll see marshmallows in so, so many 1940's era onward recipes.  Marshmallows were made with corn syrup, would keep a long time in the pantry and were versatile, so they became an American housewives secret weapon.  It was really easy to add marshmallows to say, a cup of otherwise bitter hot chocolate, and voila you had a sweetened drink.  Neat huh?

And now that I've "wowed" you with my little jaunt into food history (har) allow me to share with you one recipe (and there are many out in the world for things like this) for "Salvage Pudding".  This is a recipe that calls for cake and cookie crumbs to be used as replacement for part of your flour and believe me it does work well.  This isn't an American pudding (milk and starch custard basically), but actually refers to the British term "Pudding" which means a cake or dessert that is traditionally steamed in a mold.  This one, however, can be baked or steamed, so take your pick :).  And it comes out tasting like a mild gingerbread.  Works for me!!!

Salvage Pudding

• 2 cups crumbs of vanilla or spice cookies, or cake (for this particular recipe I used a combo of cake crumbs from my birthday pound cake, some going stale Pepparkakor and some shortbread cookies that were also going stale on me)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup all purpose flour (unsifted)
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup, or golden syrup, or maple syrup, or honey OR 1/2 cup sugar + 2 TBS water
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup softened vegetable shortening or butter (or a mixture), melted
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional...I omit these as we don't like raisins in cake)
• Vanilla ice cream, vanilla custard or whipped cream, optional (this is AWESOME with custard/pudding.  Just saying :)

Procedure:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 6 cup ring mold (if you have one.  I do not, so I used a 1 1/2 quart Pyrex casserole dish for this).  Combine crumbs and milk in a medium sized bowl.  Set aside for 10 minutes for the crumbs to absorb the milk.

2.  Add flour, corn syrup/sweetener of choice, egg, shortening/butter, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt to crumb mixture.  Stir until just combined.  Fold in raisins, if using.  Transfer to greased mold/dish.  Cover with greased aluminum foil.

3.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and the center springs back when gently pressed.  Remove foil and cool in pan for 5 minutes.  Invert onto a serving platter and serve warm with ice cream, custard or whipped cream if you choose.

Leftovers the next day are just as good if you reheat the cake in the microwave for 20 or so seconds. 

Also note:  If you wish you can steam this is in a covered 1 1/2 quart pudding mold for 2 to 2 1/2 hours instead of baking it.