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Merlins
6 macaroons 1 square chocolate 2 cups milk 3 egg yolks, well beaten 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla Grate and sift macaroons. Put chocolate in saucepan and cover with 1/2 cup milk. Heat gradually, stirring all the time, until chocolate is melted. Add rest of milk, then beaten egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and macaroon crumbs. Line patty tins with puff paste. Fill with mixture and bake 30 minutes. This makes 8 small tarts.
A chocolate custard baked in individual puff-paste shells, thickened partly with almond macaroon crumbs. The recipe gives no oven temperature, which is the main gap to fill.
- Oven heatNo temperature is stated. For a custard in raw puff paste, a hot start of about 400F for the first 10 minutes sets the pastry, then reduce to 325-350F for the remainder so the filling does not curdle. Thirty minutes total is about right for small tins.
- A square of chocolateIn American recipes of this period this normally means one ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate, sold in blocks scored into one-ounce squares. Modern 100% cacao baking bars are the closest equivalent; if you substitute bittersweet, cut it back and account for the added sugar.
- SweetnessOne tablespoon of sugar for two cups of milk and an ounce of unsweetened chocolate is very restrained by current taste. The macaroons carry most of the sugar, so the balance depends entirely on how sweet they are.
- Which macaroonsDry almond macaroons, stale or crisp enough to grate and sift. Chewy coconut macaroons will not grate and will make the filling stringy; a shop-bought French macaron is a different confection altogether.
- Patty tinsShallow individual tart tins of roughly 2.5 to 3 inches. A standard muffin pan works, though the deeper wells will need a few extra minutes and a slightly thinner pastry lining.
- Tempering the yolksThe remaining cold milk goes in before the yolks, so the mixture should only be lukewarm at that point. If it still feels hot, whisk a ladle of it into the yolks before returning everything to the pan.
- Puff paste under a wet fillingRaw puff paste soaks quickly. Chill the lined tins hard before filling, and do not fill above about three-quarters or the custard will lift the layers and run over.
- Doneness and yieldEight small tarts. They are set when the centres barely tremble; carryover heat finishes them, and a fully firm centre in the oven means an overcooked custard.