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Tartlets, Bouchees and Vol-au-vents

The fine leaf paste or puff-paste being ready there is nothing easier to make than vol-au-vent tartlets like those shown below. Roll out the paste to about a quarter of an inch in thickness, or even thinner, cut out with the double cutter, place the tartlets in pans like biscuits and bake in a brisk oven. They rise to three or four times the heighth of the paste they are cut from. Lift out the little lid made by the cutter in the middle or else push it down and fill the cavity with a spoonful of red currant jelly or lemon honey or any kind of fruit or preserves.

The tin-smiths make and keep for sale the double cutters that cut out rings for doughnuts and jumbles, like two of these in the cut with the inside cutter on a level with the outside and cutting the middle of the paste clear through, but the vol au-vent cutters have to be made to order. The inner cutting edge is a sixteenth of an inch below the outer and only marks out a lid. The small tartlets using up the pie paste remaining after dinner and taking but a teaspoonful of filling make a desirable addition to or substitute for cake in the baskets for supper. The next are larger cutters for oyster patties and vol au-vents of birds etc.

The annexed show forms of bouchees and tartlets that it might be difficult to make plain in words only. The three lower figures are intended to show how the puff-paste is folded, and the three upper <??> article after baking. 1. For the form shown in the middle roll out the finest leaf paste to about an eighth of an inch in thickness. Cut it in squares of about 2 1/2 inches and fold over the four corners to meet in the middle where there should be a drop of water placed to make them sick. Stamp out a round piece of paste like a lozenge and lay on the center. Brush over with a little beaten egg-and-water without wetting the edges of the paste, and bake. The shell can be partly hollowed out when done, and filled with any kind of mince or sweetmeat. 2. For the left hand figure roll out the same as the preceding and cut and fold over the same and then cut pieces out of the four sides to make the shape shown. These leaf tartlets open out and rise as high in baking as the middle figure. Fill the hollows with bright fruit jelly 3. The three cornered bouchees or tarts have the filling--either mince or salpicon, or yellow or red conserve or jelly-baked in them. Roll out a sheet of puff-paste and cut out like biscuits, with a large cutter. Place a teaspoonful of the filling in each wet the edge of the paste and pinch it up in the shape of a three-cornered hat. Brush over with egg-and water and dredge with granulated sugar if for a sweet tart. Bake in a rather slack oven. Beside the foregoing, other shapes may be made by stamping out the sheet of paste with an oval cutter and doubling the flats<??> over like French split rolls, and by doubling over square cuts. These open up like the leaves of a book and jelly or preserves can be inserted in the cavities.