SMALL VOL-AU-VENTS.
VOL-AU-VENT OF FRESH STRAWBERRIES, WITH WHIPPED CREAM.
Ingredients.—¾ lb. of puff-paste, 1 pint of freshly-gathered strawberries, sugar to taste, a plateful of whipped cream. Mode.—Make a vol-au-vent case, only not quite so large nor so high as for a savoury one. When nearly done, brush the paste over with the white of an egg, then sprinkle on it some pounded sugar, and put it back in the oven to set the glaze. Remove the interior, or soft crumb, and, at the moment of serving, fill it with the strawberries, which should be picked, and broken up with sufficient sugar to sweeten them nicely. Place a few spoonfuls of whipped cream on the top and serve. Time.—½ hour to 40 minutes to bake the vol-au-vent. Average cost, 2s. 3d. Sufficient for 1 vol-au-vent. Seasonable in June and July.
VOL-AU-VENT, Sweet, of Plums, Apples, or any other Fresh Fruit.
Ingredients.—¾ lb. of puff-paste, about 1 pint of fruit compôte. Mode.—Make ½ lb. of puff-paste, taking care to bake it in a good brisk oven, to draw it up nicely and make it look light. Have ready sufficient stewed fruit, the syrup of which must be boiled down until very thick; fill the vol-au-vent with this, and pile it high in the centre; powder a little sugar over it, and put it back in the oven to glaze, or use a salamander for the purpose: the vol-au-vent is then ready to serve. It may be made with any fruit that is in season, such as rhubarb, oranges, gooseberries, currants, cherries, apples, &c.; but care must be taken not to have the syrup too thin, for fear of its breaking through the crust. Time.—½ hour to 40 minutes to bake the vol-au-vent. Average cost, exclusive of the compôte, 1s. 1d. Sufficient for 1 entremets.
WAFERS, Geneva.
Ingredients.—2 eggs, 3 oz. butter, 3 oz. flour, 3 oz. pounded sugar. Mode.—Well whisk the eggs; put them into a basin, and stir to them the butter, which should be beaten to a cream; add the flour and sifted sugar gradually, and then mix all well together. Butter a baking-sheet, and drop on it a teaspoonful of the mixture at a time, leaving a space between each. Bake in a cool oven; watch the pieces of paste, and, when half done, roll them up like wafers, and put in a small wedge of bread or piece of wood, to keep them in shape. Return them to the oven until crisp. Before serving, remove the bread, put a spoonful of preserve in the widest end, and fill up with whipped cream. This is a very pretty and ornamental dish for the supper-table, and is very nice and easily made. Time.—Altogether from 20 to 25 minutes. Average cost, exclusive of the preserve and cream, 7d. Sufficient for a nice-sized dish. Seasonable at any time.