1210. Sweet Macaroons.
—Proceed as for bitter macaroons ([No. 1209]), only omitting the two ounces of bitter almonds, and substituting for them two extra ounces of sweet almonds, or six ounces in all.
1211. Apple Cake.
—Peel and core four fine, sound pippin apples. Put them into a saucepan with two ounces of boiled and peeled chestnuts, and a piece of cinnamon an inch long. Toss well on the fire for ten minutes, then transfer them to a copper basin, stirring in a teaspoonful of corn-starch, and adding a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar. Place on a slow stove for ten minutes, then put aside. When thoroughly cooled, add three egg yolks and one whole one; mix well with a wooden spatula, and the preparation will be ready for use. Take a three-pint, square mold, butter it lightly, and with a small hair-brush sprinkle in a little powdered sugar, and pour in the prepared apple. Place the mold in a tin pastry-pan, filling the latter to half the height of the mold with cold water, and place the whole in a moderate oven for thirty minutes. Take the mold from the pan, and lay on top of it a hot, deep dessert-dish, slightly larger than the cake; turn the mold bottom up, and lift it off, leaving the cake on the dish. While the cake is in the oven, prepare the following sauce: mix in a saucepan two egg yolks, one ounce of powdered sugar, half a pint of water, and half a teaspoonful of ground cinnamon. Place on a brisk fire, and stir constantly for five minutes, not allowing it to boil. When the cream is ready, add half a glassful or a gill of rum, or any other kind of liquor. Mix well for half a minute, pour the sauce over the cake, and serve very hot.
1212. St. Honoré à la Rose Delmonico.
—Peel neatly two medium-sized, sound, red oranges. Separate the sections carefully to avoid tearing the skin, as, should they lose any of their juice, they would become useless. Lay a sheet of paper over a tin pan, arrange the pieces of orange on top, and leave them in a warm place to dry for four hours. Wipe neatly twenty-four Malaga grapes, leaving on each about a quarter of an inch of stem, so that they shall remain firm while using them. Beat up a pint and a half of sweet cream à la vanille as for [No. 1254], and lay it aside in a cool place until needed. Roll three ounces of pie-paste ([No. 1077]) into a round piece eight inches in diameter. Lay it on a baking-sheet ten inches wide, and proceed to prepare a pâte-à-chou as follows:
Put into a saucepan a gill of cold milk with one ounce of good butter, place it on a hot fire, and when boiling, add at once three ounces of well-sifted flour. Stir briskly with the spatula all round; take it from the fire, set on a table, and add immediately a saltspoonful of powdered sugar, mixing well for one minute more. Break in an egg, stir briskly for one minute, break in another, mix again, and then another, mixing all together for two minutes. Slide down the pastry-bag ([No. 1079]) a tube (No. 3), pour in the above preparation, and press down the top with the hands onto the edge of the paste in the baking-sheet, so as to make an even border half an inch high, and with the remainder of the paste press down onto another baking-sheet into twenty-four small, round choux, half an inch in diameter, leaving them one inch apart. Glaze the surfaces with beaten egg, and place them in a brisk oven to bake for twelve minutes. Remove, and let them get thoroughly cold. Spread over the paste, inside the border, two tablespoonfuls of apple sauce ([No. 1328]); then put it in a moderate oven to bake for twenty-five minutes. Remove, and put to cool for thirty minutes. Make a paper cornet, cut off a quarter of an inch from the point and put into it three ounces of currant jelly ([No. 1326]). Press this out gently, dividing it evenly into the twenty-four small choux. Cook one pound of granulated sugar as for [No. 1264]. Oil two square feet of the surface of a marble table, and place at hand the pan containing the sugar. Plunge one of the grapes into this; remove it immediately with a fork and lay it on the oiled table. Proceed the same with the other twenty-three, being careful to lay them one inch apart from each other. Now dip twelve of the sections of prepared oranges into the sugar, one by one, and lay them on the oiled table exactly the same as the grapes. Dip carefully the surfaces of the small choux into the sugar, and lay them on the same oiled table. Then take the St. Honoré bottom in the baking-sheet, and proceed to arrange it as follows: with the cooked sugar standing on the right, lift the choux up, one by one, dipping one side of each lightly in the cooked sugar, arranging them on top of the pâte-à-chou border close together to form a crown. Should the sugar be too thick, return it to the stove, and let it boil up once; then take it off, and dip the thin part of the oranges lightly in it, and lay them over the small choux, the thick part upward, each one adhering to the other, until they form the crown. Dip the tops of the grapes lightly into the same sugar, and place one on each join of the oranges, with another in the centre, the stems being upward; attach to the small choux the six remaining grapes, dividing them evenly. Arrange a fancy paper on a dessert-dish, and lay the St. Honoré over carefully, then take the froth part only of the whipped cream; transfer it to another vessel, and, with the whip, beat briskly for five minutes, adding half a gill of good cognac, a quarter of a gill of Swiss kirsch, and three ounces of well-pounded and sifted macaroons ([No. 1210]). Mix well together for two minutes longer, and fill the empty space of the St. Honoré with three-quarters of this preparation, keeping it as high as possible. With the use of the pastry-bag and fancy tube press down the rest of the cream, and decorate artistically the top and sides, taking care not to put any on the oranges, and send to the table.
1213. Gingerbread à la Française.
—Make a hollow space in a pound of flour laid on the table. Peel and chop up very fine five ounces of almonds; put them into the hollow with a saltspoonful of grated nutmeg, the same quantity of ground cloves, four ounces of powdered sugar, and seven ounces of fresh honey. Knead the ingredients well for five minutes, then mix in the flour, and knead the preparation with the hands in all directions for fully thirty minutes without ceasing. Finish by forming it into a ball. Lay this on a dish, cover it with a napkin, and place it in a temperature of about 60° for six hours. Lay the paste on a floured table, and roll it out eighteen inches long by twelve wide. Butter well a baking-sheet, lay the paste on top, and put it in a very slow oven to bake for forty-five minutes. Remove, lay the baking-sheet on the table, cut the cake immediately into small pieces, lozenge shaped, one and a half inches long by one inch wide, or any other shape desired; let cool off thoroughly for about twenty minutes, then dress on a glass bowl, and serve. The above cakes can be glazed with a glace à l’eau, as for [No. 1197], and served the same.