Christmas with Queen Victoria & Plum Pudding with Scotch

London Illustrated News, 1848

No matter where I (virtually) turned, everyone wrote Queen Victoria popularized the Christmas tree.  But you see, the dear lady did something much more important, she revitalized the warm spirit of Christmas.  The Weihnachtsbaum  (Christmas tree) had been part of German holiday celebrations for centuries and although the myth is that Albert brought the tree with him, Victoria’s Hanoverian heritage had put table trees in her childhood memories long before her marriage to her beloved German Prince Albert.  When Godey’s Ladies Book published their American version of the 1848 London Illustrated News  engraving of the royal family around the Christmas tree in 1850 … well suddenly everyone wanted a Christmas tree!

Osborne House

Victoria loved to celebrate Christmas at Osborne.  It was a magnificent Italianate palace designed by Prince Albert, and built by Robert Cubitt from 1845 to 1851 and the family spent many Christmases there, tucked away from Court life at Windsor.  It was the young couple’s style of family warmth (there were to be 9 children from their 20 year marriage, after all) and caring that changed the face of Christmas.  Before them, Christmas was only celebrated by the well-to-do.  Everyone else worked that day, as always.

1843 A Christmas Carol

With their influence, many of their subjects broke the shackles of the old Cromwellian Bah! Humbug! holiday and once again honored the spirit of Christmas as immortalized in Charles Dicken’s 1843 A Christmas Carol with family parties and gifts.

Durbar Room at Christmas in Osborne House

 I read all about the Osborne House Christmas at Edwardian Promenade. The largest tree went at the foot of the grand staircase at Osborne House but the household tree went into the Durbar room  (after it was constructed in 1891--you can read more about Durbar HERE at Art and Architecture Mostly ) where it was decorated with candles, tinsel, ornaments and spices. Large tables were laden with confectionary delights and presents for staff and individual tables were set with gifts for each family member so Queen Victoria could inspect them easily. 

1896 Christmas Menu for Queen Victoria 

 Christmas dinner started at 9pm and for that “50 turkeys, a 140-pound baron of beef [both sides of the rump with the back part of the sirloin] that took ten hours to roast over a spit, hundreds of pounds of lamb, dozens of geese, and crate after crate of vegetables, all shipped by train from Windsor. The confectionery chef and his staff spent days crafting 82 pounds of raisins, 60 pounds of orange and lemon peel, 2 pounds of cinnamon, 330 pounds of sugar, 24 bottles of brandy into the Christmas mincemeat.”  I would imagine that the Plum Pudding had been stashed away earlier (they were traditionally made on Stir-up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent – Nov 21 this year) so that they would be perfect for the festivities.  Some people make the pudding the year before and continue to splash it with liquor from time to time.  Nigella Lawson makes hers the day of the celebration so… your choice.

1851 Victoria Minton Dessert Set

For the royal sweets display, staff might have used pieces from the Minton dessert service, personally chosen by Queen Victoria at the Great Exhibition in 1851 and called The Victoria Dessert Service.  Although it was originally 116 pieces (and cost 1,000 guineas), the Queen gave 69 pieces to the Austrian Emperor (delivered by Herbert Minton himself) but kept the rest for herself.  She later added plates to the service (she had given the originals to the Emperor!). It is on display in the State Dining Room at Windsor till Jan 1.

Victoria Dessert Set

1851 Victoria Minton Dessert Set

Osborne House Dessert table

The amazing Ivan Day did an intimate dessert service at Osborne House using similar Minton pieces with an elegant sterling epergne and gorgeous molded desserts (including a Nesselrode pudding fashioned after a beehive) and colorful jellies that must have made the assembly giddy with delight (you can take classes with him to learn to make these beauties)!

When I looked at good Queen Victoria’s 1896 menu I was torn between "Les Dindes rôties à la Chipolata" (turkey with sausages and chestnuts -- how good does that sound?) or the plum pudding.  The pudding won out since I hadn’t made it in ages and I just had a week’s worth of turkey after Thanksgiving.  I made this baby 2 weeks before Christmas and it will sit until Xmas day when its’ boozy Scotchy goodness is ready to be devoured after dinner just like Victoria might have done… or Dickens or… well anyone English or English at heart! 

Cooking the Christmas Pudding, 1848

Plum pudding or something like it goes back at least to the Middle Ages in England.  Lovely Elinor Fettiplace had a recipe that is nearly the same from 1604 save that it was cooked with a technique the Romans used… in a sheep’s stomach instead of a cloth or bowl (it had eggs, flour, suet and the ubiquitous currants and raisins like its modern cousin).  I believe that it was during the 18^th century that the stomach was replaced by a cloth (sadly, I can’t nail down the exact time) that enclosed the pudding and then was boiled in a large pot, suspended on a pole stretched across the top of the pot.  The bowl came in toward the end of the 19^th century and is what is most commonly used today… although a few diehards do still use the pudding cloth!

This is a combination of many recipes that I’ve done over the years… the scotch makes it a little earthier.   Using it was a happy accident. I had run out of brandy when I was all ready to make it once upon a time, and substituted scotch… and scotch it has remained.   I recommend the peaty goodness of an Islay scotch (Lagavulin is my favorite!).  It makes the dried fruit really dark and delicious and does spectacular things to the orange marmalade.  May I suggest a genius ancient idea for leftover pudding?  Slice it and stick it under your spit to catch meat drippings (or save them to soak up meat juices) as they did in the old days… what a flavorful treat that would be (I can’t wait to try it!!). Use the final alcohol warmed and set aflame for the special presentation of the pudding.  Often, people turn out the lights to better see the flaming dessert… quite a bit of Christmas drama. Oh, and if I may say... I spent years avoiding suet in my pudding (called it bird food).... now that I have a grass-fed supplier in Grazin Angus Acres... well it makes all the difference... what I was missing!

Plum Pudding with Lagavulin Scotch

6 oz shredded suet from  Grazin Angus Acres 

6 oz raisins

8 oz currants

1/3 c Scotch (Lagavulin or any peaty Scotch will work well)

1 c cider

1 quince, peeled seeded and grated

3-4  c breadcrumbs

1 c flour

4 eggs from Grazin Angus Acres in Union Square NYC

1 t grated nutmeg.

½ t ground mace

½ t ground cinnamon

½ t salt ( I used a smoked salt)

1 c.milk (or a little more)

1 ½ c light brown sugar (demerara)

½ c Candied lemon peel, chopped (I took the peel of 2 lemons and cooked it in sugar syrup [1 c sugar to ½ c water] for 1 hour over a slow flame until peel is soft and translucent, drain, sprinkle with sugar and let dry)

1/3 c bitter orange marmalade

½ c Citron peel (this is available at Market Hall Foods made without corn syrup) 

You will need a 6c pudding bowl/basin or mold, lightly buttered.

Sauce:

4 egg yolks, beaten well

1/3 c brown sugar (demerara)

¼ c scotch

1/2 lemon (zest only)

½ c cream

grated nutmeg

50ml  2 oz scotch

holly with berries.

Marinate the raisins and currents in the scotch and cider for at least a day.

In a large mixing bowl beat the eggs and spice well together, mix in the milk a little at a time, then add the rest of the ingredients including the liquid from the raisins and currants, stir thoroughly. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and leave for two hours (or overnight). Uncover the bowl, mix thoroughly once more, if the pudding mixture is a little wet add in some more plain flour and stir.

Butter a pudding bowl or mold, pack within 1½” and cover it with a center-pleated piece of parchment, cover that with a pleated piece of foil and tie both securely.  The pleats will allow for expansion… there will be a little.   You will have enough left over for 1 or 2 small custard cup size puddings.  They are cooked in about 3 hours instead of 6

Put the pudding in a steamer with a rack on the bottom (or an upturned plate or crumpled foil) so the pudding doesn’t sit on the bottom of the pot.

Pour boiling water ½ way up the pudding and steam slowly at a low simmer for 6 hours… taking care to check that the water level stays constant.  Add boiling water when needed.  Remove from water, cover with new paper and refrigerate till ready to use.   When ready, repeat the process and warm for 2-3 hours till heated through.  If you are making it the day of, steam for 7 hours.  


To make the sauce:  warm the cream, sugar, lemon zest and scotch till the sugar melts.  Add the yolks and under low heat, stir constantly until thickened... taking care not to curdle the eggs.  


Then soak the pudding with some scotch and store.  Put holly in the top of the pudding, warm the last scotch and light for a little Christmas drama!

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This is another lovely drink from 1869's  Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks  and it's a great one for holiday celebrations.

Trinidad Punch

2 c rum (I used Haitian Barbancourt)

3-4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

½ vanilla bean or 1 t vanilla

4 c coconut milk

½ c sugar

lime for garnish

Warm and combine coconut milk and chocolate and sugar till melted.  Add the vanilla and rum.  I did add more chocolate… the original is 1 ounce.

May be served warm or cold and is delicious both ways.

Thanks to Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday!

Aftelier

* If I may recommend, a great foodie gift for the holidays (or a treat for you!)  would be a selection of chef's essences from Aftelier. The fir has just come out and it is TO DIE FOR!  I had it in a gin drink at Astor Center and felt faint from pleasure... 

**Tis the season to give… to WIKIPEDIA!!  It’s a great service that most everyone uses and it is done out of the goodness of many hearts.  Fill their holiday coffers, won’t you??

Donate a few bucks to keep them going. 

Thanks!

Vincent Price and Pheasant Under Glass

Vincent Price, 1911-93  

I know, many of you will go “What the???” when you see Mr. Price’s face and wonder if I had taken a wrong holiday turn and misplaced a Halloween post  … but you’d be as wrong as I was when I was a kid and heard that Price was an art collector.  I thought the idea risible (he was hawking his collection at Sears, after all) but the joke was on me.  Mr. Price was a respected collector of fine art as well as a renowned gourmet and host. An invitation to his Hollywood home was much prized -- as was his good humor and charm.

Often, when you see lists of great American cookbooks, his 1965 A Treasury of Great Recipes: Famous Specialties of the World's Foremost Restaurants Adapted for the American Kitchen is on it and with good reason. I got my copy many years ago from my ex’s wonderful mother,  have loved cooking from it and especially loved looking at the amazing menus and photos that really capture an enviable mid-century lifestyle beautifully.

Vincent and his wife Mary loved to cook and entertain, with a kitchen that anyone could only dream of… I mean is that an island or is that an island?

Not only did he entertain, boy did he know where to eat!   The book is a collection of menus and recipes for the great cuisines of the world from all the most famous restaurants of the day... from Paris’s Tour d’Argent and England’s Woburn Abbey to Chicago’s Pump Room and New York’s Trader Vics.  Thank heavens Vincent Price used his celebrity shamelessly. When he asked for recipes at incredible places, he got them.

Price came from a good deal of St. Louis, Missouri money (his father was president of The National Candy Company and his grandfather invented a popular cream of tartar baking powder).  He went to Yale majoring in Art History and was a member of the famous Courtauld Institute at University of London (founded in 1932), one of the premier centers for the teaching of art history in the world (said my friends at Wikipedia). Although he seemed to relish his career in theatre and film (especially in campy horror films), I think he enjoyed the fine art of living even more.

Faisan sous cloche, or pheasant under glass appears in a 1940 menu from Antoine’s restaurant in New Orleans (where my parents went for their honeymoon a decade later!).   From what I understand, the dish evolved over time from Escoffier’s famous Mushrooms sous cloche.

 Le Guide Culinaire 1903, Escoffier

Charles Ranhofer’s The Epicurean has a similar mushroom recipe in 1894 (an homage to Escoffier perhaps?) … with a lovely illustration.

I tried to find where the transition was made from mushrooms to pheasant (my theory is that it’s an early mid-20^th century American invention to evoke high-style to provincial American clientele) but came up empty.  I did find that as late as 1920, a creaky delight by James Lane Allen called “On the Mantelpiece” still referred to mushrooms under glass… the pheasant was a stuffed curiosity perched under a glass bell on a table.

“Who loved the domestic canary, and the owl if perched on a bookcase

And the pheasant With its young and its nest if well arranged on a table-

Served sous cloche like mushrooms.”

Ranhofer’s pheasant is still sans cloche even though he had done the mushrooms that way in 1894.

 The pheasant sous cloche preparation is different from the mushroom method in one significant way.  The mushrooms are cooked inside the cloche, keeping all of the precious aromas within the glass until the moment the fortunate diner removes the lid.  The pheasant is prepared beforehand and then the finished product is covered -- but the effect is the same -- the diner will open the lid and enjoy the dizzying aromas of truffles, cognac and Madeira in a potent blast of scent not unlike today’s magic pillows of fragrance created by gastro-geniuses like Grant Achatz.

I read a charming 2001 article by Jonathan Reynolds in the NYT’s in which Reynolds recalled eating pheasant under glass as a youth on an outing with an elegant uncle at The Westbury Hotel in NYC in the 50s (I am guessing -- he wasn’t clear on the year). I believe this was the heyday of the dish.  I remember films of the 30s and 40s always made pheasant under glass seem like the sine qua non of cuisine (funny I always remember it being ordered but never arriving!).  By the time I was old enough to enjoy it, it had gone the way of the dinosaurs but I have always wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  Everyone in old black and white movies ordered pheasant under glass at fancy soirees… me too, please!

I based my recipe on the Jonathan Reynold’s version principally, and it is similar to one from the Greenbriar Hotel in WV (how long ago it was on the menu, I do not know) but added the truffle because I think it is essential for the effect to work properly.  Morels are great but they don’t knock you off your feet like the scent of a truffle does, Vincent knew best on that one (although I remember tasting truffles in a sauce as a kid in a fancy joint and they tasted like dirt… I think they were from a jar… blech!, I wonder if Antoines were the real deal?).  I did love the Antoine’s toast with pheasant liver idea so threw that in since it is a classic French technique when serving game birds.  The Antoine’s sauce wasn’t my cup of tea but I’ve included it for you to decide which you like.  All and all, great dish and a real show stopper if you have cloches (I used the top from a cake stand).  I can imagine the Pricean glee when young Vincent enjoyed the ceremony at Antoines nearly 70 years ago, bathing his famous face in the celestial steam to enjoy it to its fullest.

Oh yes, I got my pheasant from D’Artagnan and it was raised in NJ!!!   If you have never had raised pheasant, it is mild and like chicken and not dark like duck… every so slightly pink is the ideal degree of doneness.  The wild version is darker but equally superb! I have another recipe for it that is related, but with foie gras and truffles called Pheasant Souvaroff that you can find HERE.

Pheasant Under Glass for 2

1 whole large pheasant breast from D'Artagnan, split and boned (Duck or chicken would work too) *

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons unsalted butter (plus 2 T for sautéing livers)

6 dried morels from Marx Foods, brushed off

1 T brandy

1 T Boston Bual Madeira  from Rare Wine Company 

2 large shallots, peeled and chopped

2 shitake mushrooms, sliced

2 small crimini mushrooms, sliced

1 tablespoon plus 1 t. brandy

1/3 cup dry white wine

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 T  demi-glace from D'Artagnan

1 small truffle from D'Artagnan, sliced   or a few drops of good white truffle oil from D'Artagnan 

 Pinch cayenne pepper.

pheasant liver (optional, if you have one, mine did not)

2 pieces toast (optional)

I used arugula for a garnish and loved the flavor with the rich sauce… you may want to use it as an edible side dish.

1. Flatten pheasant breasts slightly with a mallet or rolling pin, then rub with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and season with black pepper.

2. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium-high heat in a 9-inch skillet. When it foams, sear the pheasant, skin side down, about 5 minutes per side. Remove to a plate, cover and keep warm (raised pheasant breast is light like chicken and not like duck… every so slightly pink is the ideal degree of doneness).

3. Steep the dried morels in ½ cup hot water, cognac and madeira for an hour. Drain and strain them, reserving the soaking liquid. Discard stems and slice caps thinly.

4. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the skillet and sauté the shallots for 2 minutes, until golden, then add the morels and mushrooms for 5 minutes. Remove to a bowl and keep warm.

5. Boil the reserved soaking liquid with the brandy and white wine until reduced by 1/2, about 1 minute, then whisk in the cream and demi-glace and boil about 1 minute, until sauce is thickened and smooth. Whisk in the remaining lemon juice and the cayenne.

6. If you have one, sauté the pheasant liver in butter, season and add 1 t cognac and then spread on toast.

7. Place the pheasant breasts skin side up on your toast on a hot serving plates and top each with half the mushroom mixture, then the sauce and shaved truffles or drops of truffle oil.

8. Enclose with a glass cover.  It is classically served with wild rice. 

* You will have many pheasant bits left after removing the breast.  What I did was brown them and cook them for 6 hours in 6 c stock at the lowest heat possible.  I will be using the legs for a holiday cassoulet ( and Petunia the St Bernard gets the rest)!

And now, another holiday drink for you via Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks.  Those slushy punches are hot again.  Mark Bittman did a version in the NYTs  this week.  I have done one before HERE . A version of Punch Romaine (and there are many) was served on the Titanic’s last night as a palate cleanser between courses. I can tell you, they are delish… boozy and refreshing all at once.  I’ll keep ‘em coming till New Years.  They really knew how to drink in the 19^th century!  Oh yes, drop over and visit David Solmonson at 12 Bottle Bar  if you want to find out more about great cocktails… I’m a novice at mixology having been a wine person most of my life.  He tells great stories with lots of history and is doing a 12 days of Christmas drink special.

Ponche á la Romaine, á la Hall

2 c pineapple syrup*

2 drops essence of orange peel (I used Aftelier’s essence of Bergamot )

a few gratings of orange peel

a few gratings of ambergris from Ambergris Co. NZ   (optional)

2 cups dry sherry

2 c cider

4 egg whites in an Italian meringue**

½ c rum

Put the pineapple syrup to warm in a pan.  When it is quite warm, add the ambergris and orange essence.  Cool the mixture, then add the peel, sherry, cider, meringue and rum and freeze.  Unless your freezer can go very cold, the texture will be like a stiff, albeit boozy slushy.  If you’d like, you can dollop any leftover meringue you have on the top or put fresh fruit in the bottom ( I tried raspberries and they were delicious and cut the sugar… it is a sweet drink!).

*Pineapple Syrup 

2 cups cane sugar

1 cup water

1/2 small pineapple

Combine sugar with water and stir. Skin and cube a small pineapple, add the fruit to the sugar mixture and muddle somewhat.  Let stand for 24 hours. Put the mixture in a blender for a moment to put some juice into the mixture. Stir to dissolve any residual sugar and pour the resulting syrup through a strainer or cheesecloth-lined funnel and let it drip through for an hour. Add a small dash of vodka as a preservative. Keep refrigerated for up to a month.

**Italian Meringue

1 1/3 c sugar

4 egg whites

¼ t cream of tartar

Combine sugar with 1/3 c of water and bring slowly to a boil and continue cooking till it reaches 238º. 

Beat the egg whites till foamy, add cream of tartar and continue beating till stiff.

Add the syrup slowly while beating the eggs for 10 minutes until cooled.  It will be smooth and glossy.

Ambergris Co. NZ

Aftelier

* If I may recommend, a great foodie gift for the holidays (or a treat for you!)  would be a selection of chef's essences from Aftelier. The fir has just come out and it is TO DIE FOR!  I had it in a gin drink at Astor Center and felt faint from pleasure... 

**Tis the season to give… to WIKIPEDIA!!  It’s a great service that most everyone uses and it is done out of the goodness of many hearts.  Fill their holiday coffers, won’t you??

Donate a few bucks to keep them going. 

Thanks!

Thanks to Gollum for hosting foodie friday!

Frango Mint Ice Cream Pie at Marshall Field & Co.

Marshall Field & Co.

For many years after moving to NYC, I made an annual pilgrimage home to Chicagoland for the Christmas holidays.  Part of the ritual was a stop at Marshall Field & Co. in Chicago to get frozen Frango Mint® Pie, no matter how hard that might be to fit into my schedule.  

Marshall Field Tiffany Atrium

The store was gorgeous (it is no longer Marshall Fields but now has been gobbled up by the Macy’s empire) on State Street with a stories-high atrium topped by a glorious Tiffany Favrile glass  mosaic ceiling composed of 1,600,000 pieces of glass – one of the largest of its kind built in 1907 (watch a video of it HERE ).

Tiffany Favrile Glass Mosaic Ceiling

Tiffany Ceiling Detail 

I always loved having my first slice in the Walnut Room restaurant – the first tea room in a department store… just for lady shoppers so they could stay and shop all day without having to rush home for lunch… brilliant idea, yes?  At Christmas time there was a giant Christmas tree in the center of the room instead of the usual fountain.

Marshall Field Interior Christmas Tree

Walnut Room…  as it is most of the year

Back in the days before homeland security, you could bring the pie on the plane, wrapped in a dry ice box and ready to pop into your freezer when you got home (as you tried not to eat the whole thing in one sitting… not easy to do).  Did I mention I had often eaten 2 whole pies already during my stay?                             

It had been years since I had one and I searched far and wide for a recipe, finally locating one that was quietly put out by the store (before it was absorbed by Macy’s) and it is close to my memory of it.  I can’t find it online anymore. The biggest change I made was the topping. The recipe said hazelnut praline but I always remember it tasted like the inside of a Heath Bar… so that is what I made -- with almonds.  It is fast, easy and just revoltingly good (it was gobbled up in no time with one guest eating 3rds!). 

The famous Marshall Field Clock, installed in 1897

The Walnut Room opened in 1907… I have no idea how far back the Frango Mint Pie goes, but the Frederick and Nelson Company in Seattle trademarked the name “Frango Mint” in 1918. That company was bought out by Marshall Field who started making their own, slightly different version in their flagship store in 1929 on the 13^th floor (and did so until 1999 when they moved off-site).  Get the ball rolling by ordering the famous green box of their chocolates that are now organic!  The pictures I’ve seen of the pie today are missing the toffee topping… big mistake.  The topping is magnificent.  If you can't get the mints, you could use milk chocolate with mint added... but the original is the best way to go and not terribly expensive.

Frango Mints

Frango Mint Pie

Topping:

½ c butter

½ c sugar

2 T water

1/8 t salt

¼ cup sliced almonds

Heat the butter, sugar, salt and water to 300º.  Add the almonds and stir.  Pour out on a cookie sheet and cool.  Break up and pulse in a food processor till it looks like course crumbs.

Crust:

1 ½ cups graham crackers crumbs (about 18 crackers)


6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted


¼ cup sugar

Filling:


1/3 cup of sugar (the original called for ½ a cup… your choice)


1½ teaspoons of cornstarch


1/8 teaspoon of salt


1 cup milk


8 Frango® Mint Chocolates (about 3 ounces) finely chopped


1 egg, room temperature


1 cup heavy whipping cream


½ teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch pie pan. Combine the cracker crumbs, butter and sugar in a food processor and process until well blended. Transfer to the prepared pie pan and press the mixture evenly and firmly to the bottom and side of the pan. Bake for about 8 minutes, until the crust is beginning to brown. Transfer to a wire rack and allow it to cool completely in the pan.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Add ¼ cup of the milk and whisk until the cornstarch is dissolved. Add the chocolates and the remaining milk and place over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 4 minutes, until the mixture comes to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg until lightly beaten. Gradually add about ¼ cup of the hot chocolate mixture to the egg, whisking constantly until blended. Whisk the chocolate and egg mixture into the saucepan and place over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 1 minute, until slightly thickened. Do not let the mixture come near a boil or the eggs will scramble. Transfer the custard to a bowl and allow it to cool completely, stirring occasionally. Stir in the cream and vanilla. Refrigerate for about 2 hours, until well chilled.

Freeze the custard in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instruction, until frozen but soft and spreadable. Transfer the ice cream to the crust and smooth the top with a spatula. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight, until firm.

Sprinkle the top of the pie with the praline, pressing it in gently to adhere.

**Tis the season to give… to WIKIPEDIA!!  It’s a great service that most everyone uses and it is done out of the goodness of many hearts.  Fill their holiday coffers, won’t you??

Donate a few bucks to keep them going. 

Thanks!

From Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks, an 1869 drink that is a dessert in itself.

Apple Toddy

1 or 2 small baked apple* (I used a lady apple with raisins, butter and brown sugar inside)

1 oz powdered sugar

½ c brandy or brandy and apple brandy (I used Germain-Robin Apple Brandy and Maison Surrenne Cognac )

1 c boiling cider

a little grated fresh ginger

lemon peel

cinnamon stick for apple

Put baked apple in a glass with cinnamon stick, add powdered sugar, cider and brandy.  Grate ginger on top and a squeeze of lemon peel!  If you are making the apples earlier, store them in the cider and warm them together.  Good to serve the apples with a little plate and fork… they are delicious!
*just a note, 150 years ago, most  apples were much smaller... closer to today's lady apple.  I had a very old tree that had small but very flavorful apples... not the style today!