Skip to main content

Alice B. Toklas' Prunes with Cream

5.0

(1)

Miss Toklas frightens her readers when she says this dish takes four days to prepare. Actually, the labor involved is insignificant.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

3 dozen prunes (pitted, extra-large variety)
4 cups good red port
1 cup sugar
1 piece vanilla bean
Whipped cream
Macaroons
Candied violets

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Soak prunes for 24 hours in 2 cups port. Then add 2 more cups port, the sugar, and vanilla bean. Cook gently for about 1/2 hour. Cool and refrigerate for 3 days.

  2. Step 2

    To serve, put in a decorative bowl and cover with whipped cream. Sprinkle whipped cream with a thick layer of powdered macaroons and garnish with candied violets.

Read More
Choose your own adventure at the supermarket with marinated artichokes, beans, peppers, and of course, olives.
Lime juice, fish sauce, peanuts, and plenty of herbs.
Like hot honey chicken with peaches and a dirty martini spritz.
Dashi gives a phenomenal boost to all kinds of dishes that crave umami.
With dramatic choux layers and fruit-rippled cream, it’s the drag queen of Polish desserts.
The best homemade hummus starts with an unexpected ingredient: ice cubes.
Tender, buttery breakfast pastries with crisp caramelized edges, a fragrant cinnamon-orange filling, and a crackly sugar topping.
Rotisserie chicken makes quick work of these no-cook rolls with a spicy peanut sauce.