Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1
Page 69
A heavy 12-inch enameled skillet
¾ cup water
3 cups sugar
1 Tb lemon juice
Bring water, sugar, and lemon juice to the boil, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Add the apples and boil over moderately high heat, stirring frequently to keep them from sticking and burning, for about 20 minutes. They should become an almost transparent mass.
A 1-quart cylindrical mold
1 tsp tasteless salad oil
A round of waxed paper
While the apples are cooking, rub inside of mold with oil; oil the waxed paper and set in the bottom of the mold.
4 ounces (about ¾ cup) glacéed fruits, such as red and green cherries, angelica, orange peel
Make a decorative design in the bottom of the mold with half the fruit. Dice the rest and add it to boil with the apples for 2 to 3 minutes at the end of the cooking.
3 Tb dark rum
When apples are done, remove from heat and stir in the rum. Spoon into the mold and chill for 4 to 6 hours, or until set. Serve as follows:
A chilled serving dish
2 cups crème anglaise (custard sauce)
Surround the mold with a hot towel for 10 to 15 seconds. Run a knife around edge of mold, and reverse the aspic onto a chilled serving dish. Surround with the sauce and serve.
POMMES À LA SÉVILLANE
[Apples Braised in Butter, Orange Sauce—a hot or cold dessert]
For 6 people
6 unblemished Golden Delicious apples
A mixing bowl containing 2 quarts water and 2 Tb lemon juice
One by one, peel and core the apples, and drop into the acidulated water.
A covered fireproof baking dish just large enough to hold the apples easily in one layer
4 Tb butter
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup dry white wine or dry white vermouth
½ cup water
2 Tb cognac
A round of buttered waxed paper
Smear inside of baking dish with half the butter. Drain the apples and place them upright in the dish. Sprinkle with sugar and place a teaspoon of butter in the center of each apple. Pour the wine, water, and cognac around the apples. Lay the round of buttered paper on top. Bring just to the simmer on top of the stove. Cover and bake in lower third of preheated oven for 25 to 35 minutes; it is important that you maintain the liquid at the merest simmer to prevent the apples from bursting. When a knife pierces them easily, they are done. Be careful not to overcook them.
2 or 3 brightly colored oranges
A vegetable peeler
While apples are cooking, remove the orange part of the skin with vegetable peeler. Cut into strips 2 inches long and ⅛ inch wide. Simmer 10 to 12 minutes in water until tender. Drain, rinse in cold water, and dry.
6 canapés (rounds of white bread sautéed in clarified butter)
A serving dish
A slotted spoon
Also while the apples are baking, prepare the canapés, and arrange on serving dish. When apples are done, place a drained apple on each canapé.
½ cup red currant jelly
3 Tb cognac
Beat the jelly into the apple cooking liquid and boil down quickly over high heat until thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. Stir in the cognac and the cooked orange peel, and simmer a moment. Spoon the sauce and orange peel over the apples.
1½ to 2 cups heavy cream or crème anglaise (custard sauce)
Serve them hot, warm, or cold, and pass the cream or sauce separately.
ORANGES GLACÉES
[Glazed Oranges—a cold dessert]
This recipe calls for whole, peeled oranges, placed in a bowl, then glazed with syrup and decorated with glazed orange peel. If you prefer sliced oranges, allow one to a serving, slice them crosswise, re-form the oranges horizontally in the serving dish, and glaze them.
For 6 people
6 large, brightly colored navel oranges
A vegetable peeler
Remove the orange part of the skins with a vegetable peeler and cut into strips ⅛ inch wide and 2 inches long. Simmer in water for 10 to 12 minutes or until tender. Drain, rinse in cold water, and dry on paper towels.
A serving dish 2 inches deep
Cut the white part of the peel neatly off the oranges to expose their flesh. Cut a bit off one end of each, so it will stand up. Arrange oranges in the serving dish, with the flattened ends on the bottom.
2 cups granulated sugar
⅔ cup water
A small saucepan
Optional: a candy thermometer Optional: green-colored glacéed fruit cut into leaf shapes
Boil the sugar and water in the saucepan to the firm ball stage (244 degrees). Immediately drop the blanched orange peel into the syrup and boil a moment or two until syrup has thickened again. Spoon peel and syrup over oranges and chill until serving time.
PÊCHES CARDINAL
[Compote of Fresh Peaches with Raspberry Purée—a cold dessert]
This is an especially nice dessert when both peaches and raspberries are in season. Though the taste is not quite as good, you can substitute fresh apricots or pears for the peaches, or use canned fruit. Frozen raspberries do not make as thick a sauce as fresh ones, but are good anyway.
For 10 people
6 cups water
2¼ cups granulated sugar
2 Tb vanilla extract or a vanilla bean
A 12-inch saucepan
Simmer the water, sugar, and vanilla extract or bean in the saucepan and stir until sugar has dissolved.
10 firm, ripe, unblemished, fresh peaches about 2½ inches in diameter
A slotted spoon
A cake rack
A serving dish 2 inches deep
Add the unpeeled peaches to the simmering syrup. Bring again to the simmer, then maintain at just below the simmer for 8 minutes. Remove pan from heat and let peaches cool in syrup for 20 minutes. (Syrup may be used again for poaching other fruits.) Drain peaches on rack; peel while still warm, and arrange in serving dish. Chill.
1 quart fresh raspberries, and 1½ cups granulated sugar
OR, 1½ lbs. frozen raspberries, thawed and well drained, and ⅔ cup sugar
An electric blender (or electric beater)
Force the raspberries through a sieve and place the purée in the jar of an electric blender along with the sugar. Cover and blend at top speed for 2 to 3 minutes, or until purée is thick and sugar has dissolved completely. Chill. (Or beat purée and sugar for about 10 minutes with an electric beater.)
Optional: fresh mint leaves
When both purée and peaches are chilled, pour the purée over the peaches and return to refrigerator until serving time. Decorate with optional fresh mint leaves.
POIRES AU GRATIN
[Pears Baked with Macaroons—a hot or cold dessert]
For 6 people
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2 lbs. fresh ripe pears or drained canned pears
A baking dish about 2 inches high and 8 inches in diameter, smeared with 2 Tb butter
Peel, quarter, and core the pears. Cut into lengthwise slices about ⅜ inch thick. Arrange in overlapping layers in the baking dish.
4 Tb dry white wine or dry white vermouth, or canned pear juice
¼ cup apricot preserves, forced through a sieve
Beat the wine or pear juice and apricot preserves together and pour over the pears.
½ cup pulverized macaroons
3 Tb butter cut into pea-sized dots
Sprinkle on the macaroons and distribute the butter over them.
Bake in middle portion of preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes, or until top has browned lightly. Serve hot, warm, or cold.
FLAN DES ISLES
[Pineapple Custard, Unmolded—a cold dessert]
For 6 to 8 people
2½ cups drained, canned, crushed pineapple, and 1⅔ cups syrup from the pineapple (or about 30 ounces: a No. 2½ and a No. 1 can)
A 6-
to 8-cup saucepan
Boil the pineapple syrup for 5 minutes in the saucepan. Add the pineapple, bring again to the boil, and boil slowly 5 minutes more.
A wire whip
1 Tb flour
3 Tb lemon juice
A 3-quart mixing bowl
¼ cup kirsch or cognac
5 eggs
Beat flour and lemon juice in the mixing bowl until blended, then beat in the kirsch or cognac, and the eggs. Gradually beat in the hot pineapple mixture in a thin stream of droplets.
A 6-cup, fireproof, cylindrical mold lined with caramel
A deep saucepan
Boiling water
Pour the pineapple custard into the caramel-lined mold, and set mold in a deep saucepan. Pour boiling water around the outside of the mold to come up to the level of the custard. Bring to the simmer on top of the stove, and maintain water barely at the simmer, always on top of the stove, for 1¼ to 1½ hours. Custard is done when it begins to shrink from the sides of the mold. A little circle in the center of the custard will remain creamy.
Remove mold from water, let cool, then chill for 3 to 4 hours or overnight.
A serving platter
3 Tb kirsch or cognac
2 cups chilled crème anglaise (custard sauce)
Reverse on a serving platter. Simmer kirsch or cognac in mold to dissolve remaining caramel. Strain it into the chilled crème anglaise, and pour the sauce around the custard.
DESSERT TARTS
Tartes Sucrées
French dessert tarts, like French entrée tarts and quiches, are open faced and stand supported only by their pastry shells. They should be beautiful to look at, especially the fruit tarts which lend themselves to glittering arrangements of rosettes and overlapping circles.
THE PASTRY
The pastry for dessert tart shells is molded and baked in a flan ring or a false-bottomed cake pan so that the shell may be unmolded. You may use either sweet short paste, which is ordinary short paste with sugar added, or pâte sablée, sugar crust, which, besides flour and butter, contains eggs and usually more sugar. We give proportions for both here, and refer you to the illustrated directions in the Entrée chapter for their molding and baking.
FLOUR
Be sure to read the illustrated directions on how to measure flour. All our recipes are based on this method; other measuring systems can give different results. The small proportion of vegetable shortening included with the butter in each pastry recipe gives a less brittle crust when you are using all-purpose flour. If you have pastry flour or French flour, you may use all butter, increasing it by the amount indicated for vegetable shortening.
Pâte Brisée Sucrée
[Sweet Short Paste]
Sweet short paste is made exactly like regular short paste except that sugar is mixed into the flour before you begin.
AMOUNTS NEEDED
For an 8- to 9-inch shell, proportions for 1½ cups flour
For a 10- to 11-inch shell, proportions for 2 cups flour
Proportions for 1 cup flour
⅔ cup flour (scooped and leveled)
A mixing bowl
1 Tb granulated sugar
⅛ tsp salt
5½ Tb fat: 4 Tb chilled butter and 1½ Tb chilled vegetable shortening
2½ to 3 Tb cold water
Place the flour in the bowl, mix in the sugar and salt, then proceed to make the dough and mold the shell either by hand or in the food processor as described.
Pâte Sablée
[Sugar Crust]
Sugar crusts are particularly good with fresh fruit tarts, like the strawberry tart. They are more delicate than sweet short paste shells because of their eggs and additional sugar. The more sugar you mix in, the more difficult it is to roll and mold the pastry because it is sticky and breaks easily; the larger proportion of sugar, however, makes a delicious crust, actually a cooky dough.
By hand or by food processor. The following directions are for making the pastry by hand. Food processor directions are the same as for regular short paste dough.
For a 9- to 10-inch shell
1⅓ cups flour (scooped and leveled)
3 to 7 Tb granulated sugar (see remarks in preceding paragraph)
⅛ tsp double-action baking powder
7 Tb fat: 5 Tb chilled butter and 2 Tb chilled vegetable shortening
A 3-quart mixing bowl
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water
½ tsp vanilla extract
A pastry board
Waxed paper
Place the flour, sugar, butter, vegetable shortening, and baking powder in the mixing bowl. Rub the fat and dry ingredients together rapidly with the tips of your fingers until the fat is broken into bits the size of small oatmeal flakes. Blend in the egg and vanilla, and knead the dough rapidly into a ball. Place on a pastry board and with the heel of your hand, not the palm, rapidly press the pastry by two-spoonful bits down on the board and away from you in a firm, quick smear of about 6 inches. (This final blending of fat and flour is illustrated.) The dough will be quite sticky if you have used the full amount of sugar. Form again into a ball, wrap in waxed paper, and chill for several hours until firm.
Mold the pastry in a flan ring or false-bottomed cake pan as described and illustrated. Work rapidly if you have used the full amount of sugar, as the dough softens quickly.
FULLY and PARTIALLY BAKED PASTRY SHELLS
Sweet Short Paste Shells
Sweet short paste shells, made from the formula in the first of the two preceding recipes, are baked exactly like regular short paste shells, directions for which are on this page. You will note in these directions that shells may be fully or partially baked. Partial baking is for shells which are filled and baked again; this preliminary cooking sets the dough, and is a safeguard against soggy bottom crusts. A fully baked shell may be used for fresh fruit tarts, and and is an alternative to the sugar crust shell.
Sugar Crust Shells
Sugar crusts are usually fully baked, and must be watched while in the oven as they burn easily if the full sugar proportions have been used. Because the dough is collapsible until it has firmed in the oven, it is essential that the dough be held in place against the sides of the mold by a lining of foil and beans or a bean-filled mold, as illustrated in the directions for molding.
Bake the sugar crust shell in the middle level of a preheated, 375-degree oven for 5 to 6 minutes until the dough is set. Then remove the lining, prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork in several places, and bake for 8 to 10 minutes more. The shell is done when it has shrunk slightly from the mold and begins to brown very lightly. Immediately remove the mold from the shell and slip the shell onto a rack. It will become crusty as it cools.
LEFTOVER PASTRY DOUGH and SUGAR COOKIES
Leftover dough, securely wrapped, will keep for several days in the refrigerator or may be frozen. Or use it for sugar cookies in the following recipe:
Galettes Sablées
[Sugar Cookies]
Leftovers from either or both of the 2 preceding pastries
A 1¼ inch cooky cutter
Granulated sugar
A baking sheet
Optional: cinnamon
1 egg beaten in a small bowl with 1 tsp water
A pastry brush
A cake rack
Roll out the dough to a thickness of ¼ inch, and cut into rounds 1¼ inches in diameter. Spread a ¼-inch layer of granulated sugar on your pastry board, lay a round of dough over it, and heap sugar on top. Roll the round into a sugar-coated oval about 2½ inches long and place on the ungreased baking sheet. When all the cookies have been formed, sprinkle them with cinnamon if you wish. Paint tops with beaten egg. Bake in middle level of a preheated, 375-degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on a rack.
TARTE AUX POMMES
[Apple Tart—warm or cold]
The classic French apple tart consists of a thick, well-flavored applesauce spread in a partially cooked pastry shell. Ov
er it thinly sliced apples are placed in an overlapping design of circles. After baking, it is coated with apricot glaze.
Apple Tart
For 8 people
A 10-inch partially cooked pastry shell set on a baking sheet
Use the sweet short paste for your pastry shell.
4 lbs. firm cooking apples (Golden Delicious)
1 tsp lemon juice
2 Tb granulated sugar
A 2-quart mixing bowl
Quarter, core, and peel the apples. Cut enough to make 3 cups into even ⅛-inch lengthwise slices and toss them in a bowl with the lemon juice and sugar. Reserve them for the top of the tart.
A 10-inch heavy-bottomed pan: enameled saucepan, skillet, or casserole
A wooden spoon
⅓ cup apricot preserves, forced through a sieve
¼ cup Calvados (apple brandy), rum, or cognac; or 1 Tb vanilla extract