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Nougat with Apricots
Roll out one-half pound of puff paste to one-sixteenth inch in thickness and bake. When quite cold spread over apricot jam to about an inch in thickness. Meanwhile put one-half pound of well-chopped and dried sweet almonds into a basin with eight ounces of powdered sugar and the whites of three eggs beaten to a snow mix them thoroughly and spread the mixture over the jam. Put the sheet of paste, etc., into a moderate oven and let it remain until firm and slightly browned. Take it out, and when quite cold cut it into pieces or squares; put them on a napkin spread over a dish, and serve.
A flat almond-meringue slice built on a sheet of pre-baked puff pastry. It is straightforward, but two of the original figures need reading with care.
- The jam layerAn inch of apricot jam is wildly out of proportion to a sheet of pastry a sixteenth of an inch thick; it may be a misprint, or simply a very loose instruction. A much thinner layer, spread to the edges, is the workable reading. Use a thick, set jam rather than a loose preserve or it will boil up through the meringue.
- Moderate ovenThe book gives no temperatures; "moderate" is conventionally read as somewhere around 350F/175C. The topping only needs to set and take a little colour, and the pastry underneath is already baked, so the second firing is short: bake only until firm and just showing the first blush of brown.
- Baking the paste flatPuff paste rolled to a sixteenth of an inch must be docked all over and baked between two sheets, or under a light weight, so it stays a flat platform. Left to itself it will lift and buckle and the jam will run off.
- "Powdered sugar"In American kitchen books of this period powdered sugar usually means finely milled granulated sugar — what is now sold as caster or superfine — not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar. Caster sugar dissolves properly into the whites; confectioners' sugar will make the topping chalky.
- Sweet almonds, chopped and driedSweet almonds are simply ordinary almonds, named to distinguish them from bitter almonds, which were then sold for flavouring and whose sale is now restricted in some countries. Drying the chopped nuts briefly in a low oven and cooling them keeps the mixture from turning oily and slack.
- Folding, not beatingWhip the three whites to soft peaks, fold in the sugar, then fold in the almonds by hand. Stirring the nuts in vigorously knocks the air out and the topping bakes dense rather than crisp.
- CuttingCut only when completely cold, with a long thin blade wiped between cuts. Warm, the jam smears and the meringue crumbles.
- The napkinServing pastry on a folded napkin laid in the dish was standard practice — it absorbs any weeping from the jam and stops the squares sliding. A doily or a wire rack does the same job.
"Nougat" here does not mean the chewy honey-and-egg-white confection.