Cake Pithiviers.—Roll some puff-paste down to a thickness of about one-eighth of an inch; cut it round and place on a baking-pan; if the pan be square or rectangular, cut a round piece that will go in easily; cut a strip of paste about one inch broad, glaze with egg the border of the paste in the pan, place the strip all around, and then glaze it also. Fill the middle with the following mixture: pound four ounces of sweet almonds and mix them well with half a pound of sugar, two ounces of butter, four yolks of eggs, essence to flavor, and four macaroons chopped. Cut another piece of puff-paste round, and of the same size as the other; dust it slightly with flour, fold it gently in four; the piece then will have two straight sides and a circular one. With a sharp knife make three cuts in each of the two straight sides through the four thicknesses of the paste, and about half an inch in length. Make another cut through the paste also, representing half of the figure 8, right in the middle of the piece of paste, commencing half an inch from the border of the circular side and in the middle of it, and going toward the point, so that when the paste is open there are sixteen cuts in it. Place the paste still folded on the paste and mixture in the pan, the circular side on the border and the point right in the middle; open it gently, and the whole will be covered. Glaze with egg, and put in an oven at from 430 to 460 deg. Fahr. The same cake may be filled with a frangipane, and prepared as the above for the rest.
Rissoles (also called Fourrés).—Cut round pieces of puff-paste about three inches in diameter; wet the edge with water, put a teaspoonful of compote or any kind of sweetmeat on one side of it, then fold the paste in two, so as to cover the sweetmeat; pinch the paste around to cause it to adhere, in order to envelop the sweetmeat; you have then a cake of a semicircular shape. Glaze with egg, bake in a quick oven, dust with sugar, and serve.
Galette du Gymnase.—Make puff-paste with half a pound of butter to a pound of flour, and when done as directed, knead it. Then roll it down to the thickness of about one-fourth of an inch, cut it in strips of any length and about an inch and a half wide, glaze with egg, bake in a quick oven, about 420 deg. Fahr. The two ends of the strips may be brought together and joined, forming a crown. The same galette is made with trimmings of puff-paste, kneaded and rolled as above.
Fanchonnettes.—These are made with the same puff-paste as the galette above; then cut it in round pieces, place them on small moulds, fill them with any kind of sweetmeats and frangipane, with almonds, half of each; bake, dust with sugar, and serve. Instead of frangipane, spread raisins over the sweetmeats, or almonds, peanuts, hazel-nuts, etc., all cut in small strips, lengthwise; you make then an infinite number of different small cakes.
Fans.—Make some puff-paste with equal weight of flour and butter, fold and roll it down six times, and put in a cold place. Leave it of a thickness of about one-quarter of an inch; cut it with a sharp knife in pieces of a rectangular shape, about four inches long and two broad, which cut again in two, across and from one corner to the other, so that you make two pieces of a right-angled triangle shape. Place the pieces on their sides in a bake-pan, on their sides, far apart, and bake in a very quick oven. When done, dust with sugar, and serve.
Vol-au-vent and bouchées for the day's use are baked early in the morning. They are warmed in a slow oven just before filling them.
Vol-au-vent.—A vol-au-vent is made with puff-paste and filled with oysters, meat, etc., when baked; that is, when the cake is baked and emptied, it is warmed in the oven, filled, and served warm. It is made of an oval or round shape. When made small it is generally of a round shape, but when made rather large it is generally of an oval shape. When the puff-paste is ready to be used, roll down to any thickness from one-quarter to three-quarters of an inch; cut it with a sharp-pointed knife of the size and shape you wish, then with the same knife cut what is called the cover, i. e., make a cut all around, about half an inch from the edge or border, and about one-third through the paste, leaving two-thirds of the thickness of the paste uncut. This operation is called marking out the cover. Glaze the top of the paste with egg, and bake it in a very quick oven, about 500 deg. Fahr. In glazing, be careful not to glaze the sides or allow any egg to run on the sides; it would prevent the paste from rising. Some drawings may be made on the cover with the back of a knife, according to fancy: leaves, for instance, are very easily imitated; it is only necessary to run the knife on the paste, without cutting it. When in the oven, do not look at it for at least seven or eight minutes, for in opening the door of the oven it might cause the paste to fall and even after that time open and shut the door quickly; take off when properly baked. When the oven is hot enough it takes about twelve minutes, and even less time when the vol-au-vent is small. Take from the oven when baked, and immediately run the point of the knife all around and in the same place as you did before being baked, which place is well marked. Thus you cut off the cover and remove it, then remove also all the unbaked paste that is inside of the vol-au-vent, so that you have left what may be called a shell. Keep it then till the oysters or meat are ready to put in it. About five minutes before the filling is ready, put the shell or baked paste in a slow oven to warm it, turn the filling into it, enough to fill it entirely; place the cover on the top, and serve warm. The unbaked paste removed from the inside is baked, and makes an excellent cake, though not a sightly one.
Another.—Cut a piece of puff-paste the same as for the above one, that is, either round or oval, and of the size you wish. Instead of marking a cover, glaze the border with egg. It is understood here by "the border," a space about three-quarters of an inch broad and all around it, the space being measured from the edge toward the centre. Then cut a strip of puff-paste about three-quarters of an inch broad, long enough to cover the place or space glazed, which strip you put all around the first paste, and you then have a border. The place between the two pastes being glazed, they will adhere in baking. Then also glaze the upper side of the border carefully with egg. With a knife or fork, prick the paste, inside of the border only, in ten, fifteen, or twenty places, according to the size of the vol-au-vent, and in order to prevent that part from rising as much as it would if not pricked. Bake in the same oven as the above—a very quick one.
A vol-au-vent thus made is deeper than the first one, having two thicknesses of paste. Generally there is little or no paste (unbaked) to remove; having pricked the centre, it prevents it from rising and bakes it evenly, but if there is any, remove it. A cover may be made by cutting a piece of puff-paste of the size of the vol-au-vent and baking it separately. It may be decorated with the back of the knife as the above one, and made convex on the top by baking it on a piece of tin. It is warmed, filled, and served the same as the above.