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Croquant Paste
Mix two ounces of finely-sifted loaf sugar with a quarter of a pound of fine flour. Add the well-beaten yolks of eggs till it forms a stiff paste. Roll it out about the eighth of an inch in thickness, and, with an ordinary pastry cutter, cut it out into pretty little shapes. Let these dry a short time, then brush them over with the white of an egg, sift a little sugar over them, place them on a tin, and bake them for a few minutes in a moderate oven. Take them from the tin before they are cold, and place them on the tartlets, etc., for which they are intended. Sufficient, two or three for a small dish of pastry. Probable cost, 4d. for this quantity.
A stiff yolk-and-sugar pastry rolled thin, cut into shapes and baked crisp as a decoration for tarts and other sweet dishes. It behaves more like a biscuit dough than a pastry, and the whole point is brittleness.
- Loaf sugar, finely siftedLoaf sugar came as a hard cone that was broken up and pounded; "finely sifted" means it was reduced to something close to caster sugar. Use caster sugar, or blitz granulated briefly and sift.
- The egg quantity is not givenThe original says only "the well-beaten yolks of eggs till it forms a stiff paste" — for 2 oz sugar and 4 oz flour, expect two to three yolks, but add them a little at a time. The dough should just come together and be firm enough to roll without sticking, not soft.
- Moderate ovenAround 350F (180C). "A few minutes" is accurate at that heat for pieces an eighth of an inch thick — five to eight minutes, watching for the palest colour at the edges. These are meant to stay blond; browning makes them taste of scorched sugar.
- Roll thin and keep it evenAn eighth of an inch is thin, and uneven pieces will burn at the edge before the centre sets. Roll between sheets of baking paper if the dough cracks.
- The drying step mattersLetting the cut shapes stand before glazing firms the surface so the egg-white wash sits on top rather than soaking in. Skip it and the sugar dissolves into the dough instead of forming a crisp frosted crust.
- "Take them from the tin before they are cold"This is the hinge. The sugar glaze sets hard as it cools and will weld the shapes to the sheet; lift them with a palette knife while still warm and pliable, and shape them over a rolling pin at that moment if you want a curve.
- Tin means baking sheetA flat tin; the recipe does not say whether it was greased. Baking parchment does the job better and removes most of the sticking problem.
- Yield and keepingTwo or three pieces per small dish of pastry; the recipe does not say how many pieces this quantity makes. Stored airtight and completely cool they keep crisp for several days; any damp and they go leathery.
Croquant is the French for crunching or crisp, and in nineteenth-century confectionery it covered a range of brittle sugar work — nut croquants and thin baked pastes like this one — used to dress a dish rather than to be eaten as the substance of it. The reliance on egg yolk rather than butter gives a paste that bakes hard and holds a cut shape sharply, which matters when the purpose is decoration. The costing at fourpence is characteristic of the book, which gives a probable cost for most entries.