Where I live March came in like a lion, and I wanted to make a cheery dessert. I found a hundred-year-old recipe for Apricot Souffle that fits the bill. It was light and had a lovely apricot flavor with a hint of almond.

Here’s the original recipe:

I got this recipe out of a cookbook that I bought off eBay. It had a penciled checkmark at the top which suggests that the original owner of the cookbook made it.

I used a 15-ounce can of apricots. I drained them, and then measured the apricots and had about 1 cup of them which I then pureed. I baked the apricot souffle in custard cups. I did not grease and sugar the cups because I thought it might make the top portion of the cups that was above the apricot mixture look messy. It worked fine not to grease them.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

I select most of the hundred-year-old recipes that I post on this blog because they genuinely sound like something I might enjoy. But, occasionally I chose a recipe because it seems so odd. This is one of these times.

The March, 1920 issue of American Cookery featured Frozen Canned Apricots – which is basically canned apricots frozen in the can. After they are frozen, they are removed from the can, and placed on a plate in the middle of a circle of marshmallow cream.

In 1920, there were few photos in magazines, but the editors of American Cookery were so enthralled with this recipe that they included not only the recipe, but also a photo.

The Frozen Canned Apricots were surprisingly tasty. My daughter said, “This is better than most of the recipes you make.” I decided that it was best not to probe too deeply into what that meant, but I think that it was praise.

There was a downside to the recipe. I didn’t really like the way it looked on the plate. If I made this recipe again, I think that I would just put the canned apricots and syrup in a freezer box,  freeze – and then scoop the frozen mixture into bowls with a little marshmallow cream topping.

Here’s the original recipe:

The old recipe called for freezing the contents of the can using ice and salt (somewhat similarly to how ice cream is made). A hundred-years-ago, most cooks probably didn’t have freezers, but since I have one, I decided to just open a can of apricots, cover it with plastic wrap, and freeze it in the freezer. This worked fine.

The old recipe called for a pint (2 cups) of marshmallow cream. When I made the recipe, that seemed like too much, so I only used approximately 1 cup.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks: