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Lemon Puffs
Grate the rind of two fresh lemons, and mix it with ten ounces of finely-sifted sugar. Beat the whites of two eggs to a firm froth, add the sugar very gradually, and whisk all together to a thick paste. Cut it into any shape that may be preferred, but be careful not to handle the paste any more than can be helped. Place the puffs on oiled writing-paper, and bake upon tins in a moderate oven for about ten minutes. Probable cost, 7d.
This is a sugar-paste confection rather than a cake batter: ten ounces of sugar to two egg whites gives a stiff, mouldable dough that can be rolled and cut, closer to a lemon-flavoured meringue biscuit or old-fashioned "kiss" than anything piped.
- The hinge: keep the paste stiff and coolThe finished mass should hold a cut edge without slumping. Warm hands thin it, which is exactly why the original warns against handling it more than necessary; work quickly and use a palette knife or cutter rather than fingers.
- Weights in modern termsTen ounces of sifted sugar is about 285 g, or roughly 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 cups; two egg whites are about 60-70 g. If the whites are large and the paste stays sticky, add sifted sugar a spoonful at a time rather than reducing it at the start.
- "Finely-sifted sugar"Not modern icing sugar, which contains cornflour. The period term usually meant loaf sugar pounded and passed through a sieve; sieved caster sugar is the nearest easy substitute, while icing sugar tends to give a softer, more fondant-like puff.
- Oven temperatureA Victorian "moderate oven" is usually glossed as somewhere around 350F (175C); at that heat ten minutes will set the puffs but may also tinge them. If a paler, drier result is wanted, 300F (150C) for 15-20 minutes may suit better, though the original specifies ten minutes.
- Oiled writing-paperSubstitute baking parchment, which needs no greasing, whereas the paper linings of the period did.
- Lemon rindGrate only the yellow zest, no pith, and use unwaxed lemons since the rind is not cooked out. Mixing the zest with the sugar first, as directed, helps draw out the oils and perfume the whole batch.
- Rolling and cuttingDust the board and cutter with caster sugar, never flour, which would show as raw streaks. Small shapes, 3-4 cm across and about 1 cm thick, bake evenly.
- YieldThe quantity makes roughly 24 to 30 small puffs. They keep a week in an airtight tin and turn sticky in humid weather.
Sugar-and-egg-white pastes of this kind were long a staple of English confectionery, appearing under names like puffs, kisses, drops and biscuits depending on whether they were cut, dropped or piped; the technique descends from the same family of "sugar work" that produced macaroons and meringues. The recipe demonstrates a lesson in miniature: what a beaten white will carry, and how sugar stiffens rather than lightens once past a certain proportion. The "probable cost, 7d." is characteristic of the book, which costed almost every recipe in pence so that a household could judge a dish before committing to it he 1870s.</p>