Dinner with Mr. Darcy: Recipes from Jane Austen’s Novels and Letters

I do love literary cookbooks and Dinner With Mr. Darcy is no exception. How about a dinner party featuring Mr. Bingley’s white soup, Lady Middleton’s apricot marmalade, Margaret Dods’s pigeon pie?

This recipe sounds easy enough:

APRICOT MARMALADE AND APRICOT “CAKES”
Lady Middleton successfully deploys “apricot marmalade” (which we would now call jam) to stop her daughter’s attention-seeking screams. The apricot cakes are made from thick purée, which is dried in the oven to make delicious, chewy sweets.

Makes 2 quarts (2 liters)
18 oz (500g) fresh apricots or dried apricots, reconstituted overnight in apple juice 

1 ¼ cups (250g) preserving sugar for marmalade 

1 ¾ cups (350g) preserving sugar for cakes 

Pit the fruit and boil it until tender — about 30 minutes. Then rub through a sieve or purée in a blender, stir in the sugar and bring back to a boil. Boil until the sugar has dissolved. 

To make apricot cakes, spoon the mixture into oiled muffin cups and smooth down. Leave in a very low oven, 175°F (80°C) to dry out for 5–6 hours, turning them over halfway.

More literary treats from Georgian England at Brain Pickings