#anAWWyear - October 1947: Food

In many ways, October 1947 was a disappointing month. In later blog posts I'll be posting about the dearth of craft projects and the rather lacklustre fashion, but here I'll be concentrating on the one area that this month's magazines do very well, the recipes.

One of this month's features is the visually stunning collection of pineapple recipes.

So much pineapple!
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 18 1947, p41

 I was extremely tempted by the Pineapple Wedge Salad, as it both combined flavours I like with my own favourite vintage recipe quirk, the abuse of the word salad, but as no one else in my house eats tomato I wasn't sure I could eat enough on my own.

PINEAPPLE WEDGE SALAD
Sliced pineapple, large firm tomatoes, cream cheese, a little milk, salt and cayenne pepper, curled celery, radishes, lettuce leaves.
Soften cream cheese with a little milk, add pinch cayenne and salt if needed. Spread half the pineapple slices with cream cheese, cover with a thick slice of tomato and place
remaining pineapple slices on top.
Cut each "sandwich" into three wedges, leaving one "sandwich" uncut to decorate centre of platter. Arrange on serving platter with lettuce leaves, curled celery, and radishes. Mayonnaise may be served separately.

 I settled for the pineapple chiffon tart, which is the one just above the word pineapple in the above picture. I'm happy with how my version looks too:

My pineapple chiffon tart

The recipe is straightforward, and I made it as written, although I chose not to garnish with nuts:

PINEAPPLE CHIFFON TART

One cooked pastry-case, 2 ½ teaspoons gelatine, ¼ cup water, 3 eggs,
½ cup sugar, pinch salt, ½ teaspoon grated lemon rind, 1 cup shredded
cooked pineapple, chopped nuts.

Soak gelatine in water. Cook egg yolks, salt, lemon rind, pineapple, and half the sugar for 15 minutes over boiling water, stirring occasionally. Add gelatine, stir while cooling over bowl of ice. Fold in egg-whites beaten stiffly with balance of sugar. When beginning to set pile into cold pastry-case, chill until set. Serve cold, garnished with grated pineapple and chopped nuts.

The stage of cooking the yolks and sugar and pinapple over heat is tedious, but the final result is worth it. I ended up with more than would fit into my pastry case (I used store bought) and I put the extra into a small glass dish and it was lovely by itself too.

A feature on 'vegetable dishes' is really a feature on what vegetables can be stuffed with breadcrumbs. 

The illustration accompanying a feature on vegetable dishes, it shows stuffed cabbage rolls.
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 4 1947, p 53.

I made a different breadcrumb recipe, a mushroom and breadcrumb stuffed steak. My husband and I both liked it very much.

This month also had a feature on children's birthday parties.

Party fare
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 11 1947, p 38

While I do have a small boy birthday party to plan this month, the food for that will not be as elaborate as the "apricots'n'peaches" or "goblin cup cakes" here. And although I like the idea of rainbow ribbon sandwiches, I am not serving sandwiches with dates, nuts, carrots and white sauce as a filling to four-year-olds. I was however intrigued to find a recipe for Hundreds and Thousands biscuits, an icon of Australian childhood. 

HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS

Two ounces margarine or butter, vanilla, l oz. castor sugar, 1 egg, 4oz. flour. ½ teaspoon baking powder, pinch salt, 1 extra tablespoon sugar, pink and green coloring, hundreds and thousands.

Cream butter or margarine thoroughly with vanilla and sugar. Beat in egg-yolk, add sifted flour, baking powder, and salt, making a dry mixture. Turn on to floured board, roll thinly. Whip egg-white to meringue consistency with extra sugar, flavor with vanilla. Color half pink, half green. Spread over rolled mixture, pink on one half, green on the other. Sprinkle liberally with hundreds and thousands. Cut into finger-lengths, place on greased tray. Bake 10 to 15 minutes in moderate oven (350deg. F). Allow to cool on tin.

I only made the pink version.  While my unbaked cookies were pleasingly similar to the Arnott's biscuit version...  

Before baking, bright pink and lovely.

after baking they dimmed a bit and the top layer didn't achieve the crispness I was hoping for.

After baking.

If I made these again, I would make the base even thinner, and cook at a slightly lower temperature for longer, in the hopes of avoiding the slight browning.