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Cannelons, or Fried Puffs
INGREDIENTS for dish for 6 persons. lb. of puff-paste; apricot, or any kind of preserve that may be preferred; hot lard. AVERAGE CosT, 1s.
Cannelons, which are made of puff-paste rolled very thin, with jam inclosed, and cut out in long narrow rolls or puffs, make a very pretty and elegant dish. Make some good puff-paste by the recipe given; roll it out very thin, and cut it into pieces of an equal size, about 2 inches wide and 8 inches long; place upon each piece a spoonful of jam, wet the edges with the white of egg, and fold the paste over twice; slightly press the edges together, that the jam may not escape in the frying; and when all are prepared, fry them in boiling lard until of a nice brown, letting them remain by the side of the fire after they are coloured, that the paste may be thoroughly done. Drain them before the fire, dish on a d'oyley, sprinkle over them sifted sugar, and serve.
These cannelons are very delicious made with fresh instead of preserved fruit, such as strawberries, raspberries, or currants: it should be laid in the paste, plenty of pounded sugar sprinkled over, and folded and fried in the same manner as stated above.
TIME. About 10 minutes.
SEASONABLE, with jam, at any time.
A straightforward fried jam pastry that works well with modern bought puff pastry. The critical points are frying temperature and giving the paste long enough to cook through.
- Quantity of pasteThe weight of puff-paste has lost its fraction in this text; half a pound (about 225 g) is the likely reading and is enough for six. That is somewhat less than a standard 320 g sheet of ready-rolled all-butter puff pastry.
- Rolled very thinRoll to about 2-3 mm. Thicker paste will brown outside before the interior layers set, which is the usual failure with fried puff pastry.
- Frying fat and temperature"Boiling lard" means fat at roughly 350-360F/175-180C, not fat actually boiling. Any neutral fat with a high smoke point works; lard gives the crispest result.
- The hinge: finish at lower heatThe instruction to leave them "by the side of the fire after they are coloured" is the point of the recipe. Once browned, move them to a cooler part of the oil or drop the heat so the layers cook through; ten minutes total is realistic for pastry this size.
- SealingEgg white on the edges and a firm press matter more than they sound. Escaping jam scorches quickly in hot fat and can foul it for the rest of the batch.
- Jam versus fresh fruitUse a thick, set preserve. Loose modern jams and fresh berries release liquid; with fresh fruit, follow the original's advice and add plenty of sugar, and expect a wetter filling that needs an extra-secure seal.
- Draining and serving"Drain them before the fire" means drain in a warm place rather than on paper where the underside steams. A d'oyley is a small ornamental mat or napkin, often of paper; sifted sugar is a finely powdered sugar, near modern icing sugar.
- YieldThe recipe gives strips of about 2 by 8 inches, folded twice, without stating how many; the quantities are for a dish for six persons. Best eaten hot, soon after frying.
Cannelon is a French term for a small rolled or tubular pastry, generally connected with canne, a reed or pipe, and the name covers savoury versions too, notably rolled forcemeat. The fried puff belongs to the same family as the beignet and the jam turnover. Beeton's description of the dish as "pretty and elegant" reflects a period concern with how a sweet course looked on the table; the doily, the sifted sugar and the neat uniform rolls were as much the point as the flavour. The note that it is "seasonable, with jam, at any time" is a reminder that preserves put fruit on the table in months when no fruit grew.