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Biscuits Glaces
Ices, extra sweet and rich, in little paper cases made to imitate cakes, sometimes with a brown crust on top as if baked. Very handsome little rice paper cases can now be procured for this and similar purposes. Fill them with any kind of ice or with a number of different varieties. There is no rule as to kinds but nut creams, caramel, chocolate and strawberry ice creams, and the sponge ices to be mentioned further on, are the most suitable Smooth over, roll some macaroons to powder and sift that over to give the brown appearance, then place the ice biscuits in a freezing box to remain till time to serve. Small quantities of ice creams, etc., for biscuits glaces and for lining a mold, can be frozen without the trouble of the regular packing of a freezer for each kind in any sort of deep tin vessel set in a tub of ice and salt, by rapid stirring with a spoon or paddle while the vessel is kept in motion with the other hand. A quart in each can generally be frozen in 10 or 15 minutes. Ices for biscuits glaces that are made with 1 pound or 1 1/2 pounds of sugar to a quart have a glossy appearance when well worked and draw from the spoon like pulled candy.
A freezing box: It is a simple and easy matter to freeze ice cream in a mold that can have the lid put on, be sealed and dropped into the freezing tub from which the ice cream freezer has just been removed. A freezing box involving the use of a larger amount of freezing material is, however, indispensable for some articles. An empty ice cream freezer with the lid on, packed around and on top with ice and salt, is an example of what is wanted. A glass of cream placed inside might be frozen solid in an hour or two. But something more spacious can generally be improvised, such as a broad and shallow boiler set in a tub. The article must have a lid that will admit of ice and salt being packed all over it without danger to the contents. "Now I have lived long enough to know that each generation says the same thing, and is laughed at for its pains by the generation following."--Savarin
This is less a fixed formula than a working method: individual portions of very rich ice cream served in paper cases and dusted to look baked. Two things carry it — a high-sugar base and a freezing environment cold enough to hold the shapes.
- The hinge: sugar ratioThe text specifies 1 to 1 1/2 lb sugar per quart of base, several times the sugar of a modern ice cream. That is deliberate: the extra sugar depresses the freezing point so the ice stays glossy and pliable in the salt-and-ice chest rather than freezing to a brick. If you reduce the sugar to modern levels, the biscuits will set hard and lose the "drawn from the spoon like pulled candy" texture the recipe is describing.
- Paper casesRice paper cases are hard to find now; use pleated paper or foil petit-four cups, or the small souffle-style paper cases sold for baking. Set them in a mini muffin tin so they hold their shape while you fill and freeze.
- Freezing boxThe improvised ice-and-salt chest is unnecessary. A domestic freezer at 0F (-18C) does the same job. Fill and dust the cases, freeze uncovered until firm, then cover so they do not pick up freezer odours.
- Hand-freezing small batchesThe bowl-in-ice-and-salt method still works well for a quart or less and needs no machine. Use about three parts crushed ice to one part rock salt by volume, set a metal bowl in it, and stir constantly, scraping the frozen film off the sides. Ten to fifteen minutes is realistic, as stated.
- The "crust"Rolled macaroon crumbs mean crisp almond macaroons, not the coconut kind. Crushed amaretti or dry ladyfingers give the same toasted-brown look. Sift the crumbs on just before the final freeze; applied too early they soften and go pasty.
- Sponge icesThe "sponge ices" mentioned in passing are presumably the aerated, meringue- or gelatine-lightened water ices described elsewhere in the book. They hold air well and suit the small cases.
- Yield and servingA quart of base will fill a dozen or more small cases, depending on their size. Serve straight from the freezer; they slump quickly at room temperature.
Biscuit glace is a piece of French pastry vocabulary that has confused English readers ever since: nothing is baked, and nothing is a biscuit in either the British or American sense. The name is generally taken to refer to the appearance — a small square or oblong of frozen cream in a paper case, dusted brown on top so it passes at a glance for a little baked cake. The form belongs to the era of the ice-and-salt freezing tub, when the capacity of a packed chest shaped what could be made, and when high sugar helped keep a moulded ice scoopable and glossy. Jessup Whitehead's The American Pastry Cook was written for hotel and restaurant pastry departments rather than households, which explains the practical asides about improvising a freezing box out of a shallow boiler set in a tub. The closing quotation is from Brillat-Savarin's Physiologie du Gout (1825).