Home › The Waldorf Kitchen › Raspberry Ladies' Bouchees
Raspberry Ladies' Bouchees
Put the yolks of half a dozen eggs into a basin and beat them up with one-half pound of sifted crushed loaf sugar, working them well for about five minutes. Add the whites of the eggs whipped to a stiff broth, and mix in four ounces of flour. Turn the mixture into a biscuit-forcer or paper funnel, squeeze out rounds about one and one-half inches in diameter, letting them fall on sheets of paper, sprinkle them over with powdered sugar, and bake them. When done take them out, mask half of them with raspberry jam, cover with the other half, glaze them with raspberry icing, by dipping them into it, holding one at a time on a skewer, drain, place them in a hot closet for two or three minutes, take them out, and when cold they are ready for use.
This is ladyfinger batter — a whole-egg genoise-style sponge piped into small rounds — sandwiched with jam and dipped in a poured icing. The batter is the whole game: it must hold a domed round on the sheet without spreading.
- Weights, convertedHalf a pound of sugar is about 1 1/8 cups granulated; four ounces of flour is a scant cup, and it is worth weighing rather than scooping. Six yolks and six whites give at least two dozen finished bouchees about 1 1/2 inches across, depending on how heavily they are piped.
- Loaf sugar, crushed and siftedLoaf sugar was sold as a hard cone and broken down at home; crushed and sifted, it is simply granulated sugar. Ordinary caster or granulated sugar is the direct substitute.
- "A stiff broth"A printer's slip for a stiff froth — whites beaten to firm peaks. Fold them into the yolk-and-sugar base, then sift the flour over and fold again, stopping the moment no dry flour shows. Overworking here is what makes the piped rounds spread into flat discs.
- Biscuit-forcerA piping bag with a plain round tip, roughly 1/2 inch. Pipe onto parchment rather than the plain paper specified, and pipe with the tip close to the sheet so each round mounds rather than trails.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. Small sponge biscuits of this kind want a moderate oven, 350F, for 8 to 12 minutes — set and pale gold, still springy. Any hotter and the outsides colour before the centres set.
- The sugar dustingDust with powdered sugar, wait a minute, then tip the sheet to knock off the loose excess. What remains gives ladyfingers their characteristic crisp, faintly pearled crust.
- Raspberry icingIn this period that means a poured glace or fondant icing — confectioners' sugar loosened with a little water or raspberry juice to a coating consistency, warmed to just tepid so it flows off the skewer in a thin sheet. Too thick and the bouchee wears a cap; too thin and it soaks in.
- The hot closetA warming cupboard beside the range, used to flash-dry the glaze to a matte shell. A 150F oven with the door ajar, or the oven's residual heat after baking, does the same in two or three minutes. Cool completely before stacking.
Bouchee is simply French for a mouthful, and the batter here is the classic biscuit a la cuiller which, in fingers rather than rounds, became the ladyfinger and lined every charlotte russe of the era. The recipe's pastry instructions follow the French professional tradition closely: they assume a pastry cook who already knows how thick an icing should run and how hot a warming closet is, and give no temperatures or times because the man reading them did not need to be told.