Hamilton Pudding

A tart with apricot jam topped with a vanilla cookie-like filling, and toasted meringue

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City/Region: Carpathia | United Kingdom | United States of America

Time Period: 1903 | 1912

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The menu from the last meal aboard the RMS Carpathia before it docked in New York, carrying the survivors of the Titanic, lists Pouding Hamilton as one of the dessert options. After a fruitless search of my late 19th- and early 20th-century cookbooks, I finally found one recipe for it in a newspaper from 1903.

Honestly, I don’t know why there isn’t more mention of this tart. It’s delicious. The texture has kind of a wonderful crumbly shortcrust quality to it, and it’s not too sweet. It’s reminiscent of a vanilla cookie with jam, and you could really swap out the apricot jam for any flavor you like. I could see this being a great dessert for the holidays.

“Hamilton Pudding -
Line a pie dish with a good short crust and cover the bottom with a layer of apricot jam; then fill up with the following mixture: Cream three ounces of butter with the same quantity of caster sugar, then add the yolks of two well beaten eggs and the white of one. Sift in by degrees three ounces of flour and flavor with a few drops of vanilla essence. Bake in a moderate oven and when nearly cooked beat the remaining white of egg to a stiff froth and lay it on top in tough lumps. Return the pudding to the oven till it is slightly browned.”

— The Gazette, York, Pennsylvania, Sunday, August 9, 1903

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Ingredients:

Crust

• 1 1/4 cup (150 g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (113 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 2 to 3 tablespoons ice water

Filling

• 2 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 6 tablespoons (85 g) salted butter, softened
• 7 tablespoons (85 g) caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup (85 g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup apricot jam
• A pinch cream of tartar, optional

Instructions:

1. For the crust: Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
2. Whisk the flour and salt together, then work the butter into the flour with your fingers until the mixture is crumbly.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of ice water and work the dough just until it comes together. If the dough is too dry, add a splash more water, but you want to only add enough so that it forms a cohesive dough.
4. Give the dough a few quick kneads, form it into a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes. This will give the butter some time to firm back up and the dough to relax.
5. Roll the dough out into a 10 to 11 inch circle (25 to 28 cm). Line an 8-inch tart tin with it, making sure to press the dough firmly into the sides of the pan. Don’t worry about trimming off the excess just yet.
6. To avoid a soggy bottom, blind bake the crusty by lining the dough with a piece of parchment or foil. If using parchment, it can be helpful to crumple up the paper first so that it’s easier to get it into the corners of the pan. Fill the lined crust with baking beans, place the tart tin on a baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes.
7. After 10 minutes are up, carefully remove the parchment or foil and the baking beans. Trim off any excess crust, and if you happen to have any cracks like I did, you can patch them with some leftover dough.
8. Return it to the oven for another 5 minutes. Leave those crust trimmings on the baking sheet for some chef snacks.
9. After the 5 minutes are up, take the crust out of the oven set it on a wire rack to cool completely.
10. For the filling: Lower the temperature of the oven to 325°F (160°C).
11. Beat the egg yolks until they’re thick, then in a separate bowl with clean beaters, beat one of the egg whites to soft peaks.
12. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until they’re nice and fluffy.
13. Add the egg yolks to the butter mixture a little at a time, mixing well between each addition.
14. Gently fold the egg whites into the butter mixture until no streaks remain. Halfway through folding, add the vanilla.
15. Sift in half of the flour and gently mix it in. Sift in the rest of the flour and gently mix just until it’s incorporated. The mixture should be quite thick.
16. To assemble: Heat the apricot jam in a saucepan until it is pourable. Spread it evenly over the bottom of the cooled crust.
17. For easiest spreading, transfer the filling to a piping bag and pipe it over the apricot jam, then gently spread it evenly with a spatula. You can definitely do this without a piping bag, but be careful to not smoosh the jam around too much. There should be a layer of jam on the bottom and a layer of the filling sitting on top of it.
18. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it’s puffed up and has browned on top, then take it out of the oven and set it on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes
19. In a clean bowl, combine the remaining egg white with the cream of tartar if you’re using it. Beat with clean beaters to stiff peaks.
20. Pipe or dollop the meringue onto the tart, the design is up to you. I used a large star tip for mine.
21. Return the tart to the oven for about 5 minutes to brown the egg whites, or set it under the broiler for about 5 seconds (and not much over 8 seconds or it will burn).
22. After the meringue has browned, let the tart cool completely before slicing and serving it forth.

Notes

• 8-inch tart pans can be kind of hard to find, so if you’re using a 9-inch pan, double the filling ingredients to be sure you have enough. For the crust, you may get away with the recipe as-is (with a thinner crust than mine), but you can also increase the ingredients by a half so that you’re using 225 g flour, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 170 g butter, and 3 to 5 tablespoons of ice water.

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