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Meringue Peaches
The same in the main as the preceding "surprises," but instead of a cone, press out the meringue from a kiss tube to imitate the shape of a peach-of which the hidden tart is the foundation--color pink on one side with a brush dipped in carmine, then gloss over with hot fondant, having a slight green tint imparted by the addition of green vegetable coloring while melting. These are not mere fancy notions, but are said to be among the best selling staple sweets of the London confectioners.
This is a finishing instruction rather than a full recipe: it assumes you have already made the "surprises" on the preceding page, a small baked tartlet masked in meringue. What follows is what a modern cook needs to reproduce the shaping, colouring and glazing.
- The foundationThe "hidden tart" is a small baked pastry shell, presumably filled, that the meringue covers; the original does not say what the filling is, and the preceding "surprises" recipe is not reproduced here. Bake and cool the tartlets completely before piping, or steam trapped underneath will weep into the meringue.
- Kiss tubeA plain round piping tip, so called because it was used to pipe meringue kisses. Something in the 1/2 to 3/4 inch range works; pipe in a rising spiral and pull off with a slight twist so the top rounds rather than peaks, then smooth the crease with a wet fingertip.
- Drying, not bakingThe original gives no oven instruction. Meringue of this kind is generally dried rather than browned: a low oven, around 200-225F for an hour or more, until it lifts cleanly. Colour taken in the oven would spoil the pale ground the carmine and fondant depend on.
- CarmineCochineal-based red, still sold as carmine or natural red 4, and still one of the better reds for this job because it stays pink rather than turning orange. Brush it on dry meringue as a soft blush on one cheek only; a modern pink gel colour thinned with a drop of water behaves the same way.
- Hot fondantPoured fondant, warmed over hot water to roughly 100-105F and thinned with a little sugar syrup until it coats a spoon in a thin sheet. Above about 110F it dries dull and streaked, which defeats the whole point of the glaze.
- The green tintThe tint is added to the fondant while it melts, not painted on, and it should be barely perceptible — a hint of green over pink is what reads as peach skin. Add colour a drop at a time.
- Timing of the dipMeringue is hygroscopic and will soften within hours in a humid kitchen. Dip and set the fondant the same day you dry the shells, and keep the finished peaches in a dry, covered container rather than the refrigerator.
- YieldThe original gives none. Reckon one meringue peach per tartlet shell; how far a batch of meringue goes will depend on the size of the tarts.
Jessup Whitehead's American Pastry Cook belongs to a run of trade manuals he wrote in Chicago in the 1880s and 1890s for hotel and restaurant kitchens, and its tone throughout is that of one working pastryman talking to another — hence the closing note that these are not "mere fancy notions" but sell well, which is the argument that mattered to a shop owner deciding whether to bother. Imitation fruit made of sugar has a long confectionery pedigree, most familiarly in marzipan fruits, and the trick here is a late-nineteenth-century variation: a meringue shell standing in for the flesh of the peach, painted and then sealed under poured fondant, which both fixes the colour and gives the skin its sheen. The book also glances at London confectioners.