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Strawberry Crusts
Prepare some small round buns that can be split into halves, buttered and warmed in the oven. Sprinkle powdered sugar over some strawberries, bruise them slightly and allow them to stand for a considerable length of time. Mix the fruit and sugar, cover the hot buns with this, allow them to get cold, and then serve in a glass dish.
A macerated-strawberry dessert built on split buns rather than biscuit shortcake. The whole thing hinges on giving the sugared berries long enough to throw their juice.
- The buns"Small round buns" here means a plain, slightly sweet enriched roll; a soft dinner roll will do. Split, butter the cut faces and warm them briefly in a moderate oven so the butter melts into the crumb — the recipe specifies no temperature or time.
- Macerating time"A considerable length of time" probably means at least half an hour at room temperature for ripe berries; the point is to give the sugar time to draw out a syrup, since without it there is nothing to soak the buns.
- Bruise, don't puréePress the berries lightly with a fork or the back of a spoon so some break and release juice while others stay whole. This is what distinguishes the dish from strawberries in sauce.
- Powdered sugarPeriod powdered sugar was ordinary granulated sugar crushed fine, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold today. Use granulated or caster sugar — roughly 2 to 3 tablespoons per pint of berries, adjusted to the fruit.
- Hot buns, cold serviceThe berries go on while the buns are hot so the juice is drawn into the crumb, then the whole thing is left to cool. Do not refrigerate hard; a cool room or 20 minutes in the fridge is enough, as cold mutes strawberry flavour.
- YieldNo quantities are given; a pint of strawberries and four buns would make about four servings. Assemble not long before serving, or the buns go to paste.
Oscar Tschirky's book collects the plainer end of Waldorf service alongside its showpieces, and this is one of the plain ones: a hotel cook's way of putting strawberries in front of guests without pastry work. The construction follows the same logic as strawberry shortcake — sugared fruit and its syrup soaked into a warm buttered base. Serving it in a glass dish is a period habit worth noting: pressed and cut glass was cheap and plentiful by 1900, and glass berry dishes were common household items.