Crusts with Pears a la Douglas

Cut some half-inch thick slices from a kitchen loaf and form them into rounds with a plain cutter two and a half inches in diameter; remove the center of these rounds with another cutter an inch in diameter so as to make them into rings. Put two egg-yolks into a basin and dilute with a pint of good cream, adding two ounces of sugar flavored with half a grated orange peel and pass the whole through a colander over the bread rings. After they have well soaked, drain and dip them in pulverized macaroons, then in beaten eggs and lastly roll in white bread-crumbs; fry to a fine color in clarified butter; drain and mask the surface with apricot marmalade (No. 3675); throw over a pinch of powdered burnt almonds and dress in a circle on a dish; fill the center with fine pears cooked in syrup, some Malaga raisins and candied orange peel cut in small shreds and combined with apple jelly (No. 3668) and maraschino. Serve separately a sauce-boat of kirsch syrup thickened with a few spoonfuls of dissolved apple jelly and the pulp of two oranges free of their white skin and seeds.