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Puff-Paste Sandwiches
Roll puff paste very thin (about one-eighth of an inch), cut in fanciful shapes and bake to a delicate brown; add chopped almonds to rich strawberry preserves, or peach marmalade, and spread the mixture between each two bits of pastry.
A dessert sandwich in the older sense: two crisp wafers of puff paste with a sweet filling between them. The original assumes you have puff paste on hand and know how to handle it.
- Puff pasteFrozen all-butter puff pastry is a fair substitute; a single sheet rolled to 1/8 inch will give a dozen or more small shapes, depending on the cutter, and each sandwich takes two. Roll on a lightly floured surface and keep the dough cold, since warm butter will leak instead of lifting the layers.
- OvenNo temperature is given; the recipe says only to bake to a delicate brown. A hot oven, around 400-425F for 10-14 minutes, suits puff paste, which needs an initial blast of heat to steam its layers apart.
- Cut cleanlyUse a sharp cutter pressed straight down rather than twisted, and do not drag a dull knife. A smeared edge seals the layers and the piece will rise crooked or not at all.
- Prick or pressFor sandwich work you want flat, even wafers rather than tall ones. Docking the rolled dough lightly with a fork, or baking under a second sheet pan for the first few minutes, keeps them level enough to stack.
- "Fanciful shapes"The recipe leaves the shapes to the cook; rounds, diamonds and crescents are the obvious choices. Cut all pieces in matching pairs so the tops and bottoms sit together.
- The fillingRich preserves here means thick and well set, not runny jam; peach marmalade in cookery of this period generally means a thick peach preserve rather than the citrus kind. Blanched almonds, chopped fine, are stirred in just before spreading.
- Assemble lateFill shortly before serving. Fruit preserve draws moisture into the pastry and the layers go limp, so filled sandwiches do not keep well.
- ServingThese belong with tea, ices or fruit at the end of a meal, not among the savoury sandwiches.
Sandwich chapters in this period were far broader than the word suggests today: alongside chicken, ham and lettuce came sweet sandwiches built on cake, wafers or pastry, meant for tea tables and card parties. Puff paste was a laborious rolling-and-folding job, and a recipe like this one is a way to spend trimmings and leftover paste elegantly. The pairing of chopped nuts with fruit conserves in small pastries is an old European habit, and the instruction to cut "fanciful shapes" reflects a taste for prettiness in small foods.