Baked Prune Whip

I had a great time in NY. I was at the What Teens Want conference for two days, and heard many wonderful speakers. I visited my editor at www.Teenreads.com, went to the top of the Empire State building (sad amount of security there), toured part of one of my favorite YA publishing companies then a NYPL branch, hit Macy's & Time Square, ate food from three different countries plus a stop at Magnolia Bakery and finally saw my friend David's apartment. All in about 48 hours. My friend has a wonderful apartment, and his living room looks designer, though he did it himself. I was especially attracted to the wall of books, including three shelves of cookbooks. David eats healthy now, and when he left the room for a moment I grabbed this one and paged through as it caught my eye among his healthy cookbooks. He said I could have it - yeah! Before we left for a delicious Japanese meal where we cooked the food ourselves on the table, I paged through. He didn't believe me that Prune Whip is in all these old books, so I showed him. I will get back to carrot cake recipes, but couldn't resist this one, as I've never seen a baked version before. This book is from 1975.

Baked Prune Whip

1 cup pitted prunes, cooked and cut up (I'm turned off already)

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

3 egg whites

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Sweetened whipped cream

Heat oven to 350. Beat prunes, sugar, salt and egg whites in small mixer bowl until stiff. (Oh boy - beat prunes until they are stiff - appetizing, eh?) Fold in lemon juice and pecans. Spread in ungreased 1 1/2 quart casserole. Place casserole in pan of very hot water (1 inch deep).

Bake until pudding is puffed and a thin film has formed on top, 30 - 35 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream.

I don't know about you, but who wants to eat anything that has a 'thin film' on top? Maybe Creme Brulee, but not this. It seems like it's not really baked, but kind of congealed. Wow.

Oh! I also had the Battle of the Bands at work Tuesday night - for 600 folks. In the 98 degree weather. Wow. The limo picked me up at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. It is kind of fun to do something out of the normal routine once in a while, but I'm happy to be back home!