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Florentine Meringue
Roll puff or plain paste one-eighth inch thick; cut a piece ten inches long by seven inches wide; place on a sheet, wet edges , and put on a half-inch rim. Prick with fork six times, and bake in hot oven. Cool, and spread with jam, cover with Meringue II, and almonds blanched and shredded; sprinkle with powdered sugar and bake.
A flat pastry slab, jam, meringue and almonds — essentially a French tart aux confiture meringuée built on a rectangle rather than in a tin. The recipe assumes you already have paste and meringue recipes to hand, so the gaps are worth filling.
- The hinge: bake the shell blind and flatThe pricked base keeps the pastry from doming while it bakes empty; the half-inch rim is there to contain the jam and meringue that go on afterwards. Prick it as directed and, if using puff paste, weight the centre lightly with a second sheet pan for the first ten minutes so the rim rises but the floor does not.
- "Hot oven"425–450°F for the pastry shell. The second bake, once the meringue is on, must be far cooler — 300–325°F for 15 to 20 minutes, just until the meringue is set and lightly coloured. At hot-oven heat the meringue browns and weeps before it cooks through.
- Meringue IIThe book gives more than one meringue formula and this recipe calls for the second; use the book's own Meringue II for the exact quantities. Working from a modern recipe, use about 1/4 cup sugar per white.
- Powdered sugarIn this book powdered sugar means finely ground white sugar, closer to today's superfine/caster than to the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold now. Either works in the meringue; caster dusts more cleanly on top.
- Blanched and shredded almondsShredded here means slivered lengthwise by hand after the skins are slipped off in hot water. Packaged slivered almonds are the direct substitute; sliced almonds brown faster and may scorch during the second bake.
- Jam layerUse a thick preserve — apricot, raspberry or damson — and spread it thin. A loose jam boils, thins under the meringue and soaks the pastry floor. Warm and reduce a runny jam before spreading, then let it cool.
- Sheet"A sheet" is a flat baking sheet, not a rimmed tray; the pastry's own rim contains the filling. Line it with parchment for easy transfer of a ten-by-seven slab.
- YieldCut across the short side into eight or ten fingers. Serve the day it is made; the meringue softens against the jam overnight.
This one belongs to the family of jam tarts finished with meringue that English and American cooks took from French pâtisserie — the same idea as a queen of puddings, with beaten whites standing in for a top crust. A page like this assumes the reader can already turn out puff paste, plain paste and two grades of meringue, and simply directs how to assemble them. The rectangular slab is cut into fingers, so that it serves as a bar rather than a wedge of round pie.