No. 3040

Brioche and Cream Fritters with Sabayon

Beignets de Brioche a la Creme au Sabayon

Butter a tin mold forming a box four inches wide by three inches deep and eight inches long, with a hinged cover; fill it half full with brioche paste (No. 130); let it rise in a mild temperature until the box is full, close the cover and fasten the catch, then bake it in a moderate oven. As soon as done, unmold and lay it on a wicker stand and keep it in a cool place to use only twelve hours later. Now pare and cut it up into three-eighths of an inch thick slices; cut these straight through the center so as to obtain oblong pieces three inches long by one and a half inches wide. Dilute six egg-yolks with one quart of double cream and two ounces of vanilla-flavored sugar; run the whole through a sieve and dip into it the pieces of brioche so that they soak in well; drain them off and plunge into hot frying fat, then drain again and wipe; besprinkle with powdered vanilla sugar and dress in a pyramid. Serve a sabayon with Madeira wine separately. (See cabinet pudding with sabayon, No. 3096.)

← No. 3039 Apricot or Peach Fritters with Maraschino Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 3041 Celeriac, Pear and Quartered Apple Fritters →

For the Modern Kitchen

A fried bread pudding in disguise: rich brioche, staled on purpose, soaked in thin sweetened cream and fried. Ranhofer's proportions are sound, but the timing and the frying temperature carry the dish.

Stale the brioche — this is the hingeThe twelve-hour rest on a wicker rack is not fussiness. Fresh brioche collapses into paste the moment it meets the cream; a day-old loaf with a dry surface absorbs the liquid and holds its shape in the fat. If anything, a full 24 hours uncovered is better.
The moldA hinged, lidded 4 x 3 x 8-inch tin is a pain de mie or pullman pan. Any lidded pullman tin gives the same square-shouldered loaf that slices into neat oblongs. Filling it half full and closing the lid once risen is what forces the flat top.
"A moderate oven"Ranhofer's "moderate" falls somewhere in the 350-400F range; 350F is a safe reading. A lidded loaf of this size will likely want something in the region of 35-45 minutes; the closed tin traps steam, so check that the crumb is set rather than relying on colour.
Brioche paste, No. 130Ranhofer's brioche is a standard rich yeast dough — flour, eggs, butter, a little sugar and milk, raised with a leaven. A modern brioche baked in a lidded pullman pan will stand in for it.
The soaking cream is meant to be thinSix yolks to a quart of cream is a soaking liquid, not a custard to be cooked. Two ounces of vanilla sugar is about 1/4 cup. Sieve it as directed to catch chalazae, and let the slices sit only until saturated — a minute or two a side — then lift them carefully, as they will be fragile.
Frying fat360-375F, in enough fat for the pieces to float. Below that they drink oil; above it the outside colours before the soaked interior heats through. Fry a few at a time so the temperature does not crash, and drain on paper rather than "wiping" them.
Sabayon with MadeiraYolks, sugar and Madeira whisked constantly in a bowl over barely simmering water until thick and foamy — roughly 160F, which also brings the eggs to a safe temperature. It will not hold; make it while the fritters fry and send it out at once in a warm sauceboat.
YieldA loaf that size gives around 40 pieces, enough for 8-10 as a dessert course. Ranhofer's pyramid is easier to build if you dust with vanilla sugar after stacking rather than before.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is his attempt to set down the whole restaurant repertoire in one volume — some 3,500 numbered items, cross-referenced like an engineering manual, which is why the brioche here is simply "No. 130." The dish itself is a grand-restaurant refinement of the thrift trick behind pain perdu: stale enriched bread revived in egg and cream. What raises it is the deliberate staling, the purpose-baked square loaf cut to identical oblongs, and the sabayon served apart. Sabayon is the French form of the Italian zabaglione, generally traced to northern Italy and usually made with Marsala; Madeira was the fortified wine most at home in nineteenth-century American kitchens, and Ranhofer reaches for it repeatedly. The pyramid dressing belongs to French presentation generally, while the arrival of a hot entremets as its own course near the end of a long menu follows from the era's service à la russe.