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Walnut-and-Jam Biscuits
Pound fifty walnuts in their skins, and pass them through a fine wire-sieve. Slightly warm one-fourth pound of butter, and beat it until creamy, together with one-half pound of sugar, then beat in the yolks of two eggs, and one whole one, and one wineglassful of rum. Put one-fourth pound of flour into a basin, and add the beaten mixture, stirring it until quite smooth. If too thin, more flour may be added to the paste, but it should not be too stiff. Butter a shallow baking-tin, spread the paste over it, bake in a moderate oven, and when done, spread a layer of any kind of jam over it; then put it in the oven again for six or seven minutes. Beat the whites of two eggs, two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and a small quantity of ground cinnamon to a firm froth, then mix with them the powdered walnuts. Spread the walnut mixture over the top of the cake, and leave it in the oven until lightly browned. When cooked, leave the cake until cold; then cut it into squares or diamond-shaped pieces, and pack them away in biscuit tins, placing a sheet of white paper between each layer. They will keep for some time.
This is a sheet-baked bar in the European style — a rich rum shortbread base, jam, and a nut meringue crown — cut into squares once cold. The original gives no times or temperatures for the first bake, so work by appearance.
- Fifty walnutsShelled walnuts with the brown papery skin left on. If "fifty walnuts" means whole kernels, that is somewhere around 7-8 oz / 200-225 g; if halves are meant, nearer half that. A food processor replaces the mortar and sieve, but pulse in short bursts: run it steadily and the nuts turn to oily paste rather than powder.
- A wineglassfulIn American cookbooks of this period, about 2 fl oz — a quarter cup. That is a lot of liquid against 4 oz of flour, which is why the recipe anticipates a slack batter and tells you to add more.
- Weights to volumeOne-fourth pound butter is 1/2 cup (1 stick); one-half pound sugar is about 1 cup; one-fourth pound flour is a scant cup, 115 g. Weighing the flour matters here, since the whole texture depends on the flour-to-rum-and-egg balance.
- A moderate oven350F. The base is done when it is set and just coloring at the edges, roughly 20 to 25 minutes in a shallow pan.
- The panA "shallow baking-tin" means a rimmed sheet or jelly-roll pan; in a quarter sheet or a 9x13 this quantity of paste spreads thin, well under half an inch. Spread it thinner still and the base dries out before the toppings go on.
- The meringue bakeA cooler oven for the final stage is the safer course; the recipe only says to leave it in until lightly browned. Work by appearance — the nut meringue should dry and take light colour rather than scorch.
- Cut cold, and mind the jamThe hinge of the recipe: cut only when completely cold, or the jam layer drags and the meringue shatters. A thin, stiff jam — apricot or raspberry that has been reduced slightly — behaves far better than a loose one, which will soak the base.
- KeepingOscar's biscuit tins with paper between layers work, but meringue draws moisture from jam and softens within a day or two. Expect two or three days at their best rather than the "some time" promised.
- YieldAbout 24 to 30 pieces from a 9x13 pan, depending on how the squares or diamonds are laid out.
Oscar Tschirky, the Swiss-born ma u00eetre d'h u00f4tel whose name carried the Waldorf's kitchen into print in 1896, included this jam-and-nut sheet cake, cut into bars or diamonds and kept in tins. The word "biscuits" appears to be used in the British and Continental sense of a small dry sweet rather than the American quick bread — the recipe's mention of biscuit tins points that way — which is why the instructions end with packing them away in layers instead of serving them warm. The rum is period-typical.