Oh, Christmastime, Christmastime; with so many possibilities for Christmastime desserts, how does one decide what dessert to make?
Well, one can start by consulting a copy of A Calendar of Desserts, thoughtfully published for us by the General Foods Corporation in 1940.
A Calendar of Desserts is a thing of glorious, full-color beauty; with strange and unusual dessert suggestions for every day of the year. I’ve got half a mind to try and work my way through it chronologically one of these days, but for now, let’s keep it seasonal and skip to December.
With 365 new ideas and recipes, surely A Calendar of Desserts must have something wonderful and perfect to recommend for Christmas dinner. WHAT COULD IT BE???
“Merry Christmas to all. Serve Jell-O Plum Pudding.”
Never has a dessert recommendation been made quite so imperatively. OK, Calendar of Desserts, whatever you say, I will make Jell-O Plum pudding. Especially if, as promised, it comes out looking like this:
(Please note that everything about this picture, including but not limited to the phrase “for Tropical Rhubarb” that I accidentally cropped in, is perfect and glorious.)
So, here’s a fun fact about Jell-O Plum Pudding: It’s the only recipe that I’ve ever seen that includes both NUTMEATS (type of nut: unspecified) and GRAPE NUTS. NEATO.
Here is how you can make it at home, according to A Calendar of Desserts:
Combine 2 1/2 cups water, 1 two-inch stick cinnamon, 4 whole cloves, and 1/4 tsp whole allspice and bring to a boil. Boil, uncovered for 5 minutes; strain; and add hot water to make one pint. Dissolve 1 package Cherry Jell-O in this liquid. Pour spiced Jell-O mixture into large mold. Chill until firm.
Combine 1 package Cherry Jell-O, dash of salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp cloves; add 1 pint hot water and stir until dissolved. Chill until slightly thickened, then fold in 3/4 cup each of finely cut raisins, cooked prunes, and nut meats, 1/4 cup finely cut citron, and 3/4 cup Grape Nuts. Turn into mold over clear Jell-O. Chill until firm.
Ok, so, some things:
I used a combination of crushed almonds and pecans as my nutmeats; and I couldn’t find a citron, so I used candied lemon peel. Also, let us all be thankful that we live in the future and can thus use our kitchen robots (or “food processors”) to finely cut our raisins. Also also, infusing the water with spices and then using it for Jell-O? Kind of ingenious.
“BUT HOW DID IT TURN OUT, HOW DID IT TURN OUT,” you are all certainly clamoring to know!
WELL!
It looked less like the illustration and more like a meatloaf with ketchup on top.
But it was not inedible! It managed to actually taste like a plum pudding, and the combination of nuts (grape and otherwise) with Jell-O kind of miraculously reached a plum pudding-like texture. If you like plum pudding, if you don’t mind Jell-O, if you want to save yourself the trouble of steaming something for a few hours, and if you can suspend your disbelief and know in your heart that, despite appearances, this is not a meatloaf, it would not be a terrible idea to make this dessert.
I recommend washing it down with Charles Mingus’ eggnog. AND GOD BLESS US, EVERY ONE.
