No. 3047

Souffled Fritters a la Medicis

Beignets Souffles a la Medicis

Put a pint of water into a saucepan with two ounces of butter, one ounce of sugar, and a grain of salt; set the saucepan on the fire and at the first boil remove it on one side and mix in quickly half a pound of sifted flour; thicken the paste over the fire, dry for a few moments, working it continually, and then take it off to have it lose its greatest heat, but continuing to stir it steadily.

Then add to it one tablespoonful of orange flower water and seven to eight eggs, breaking them in one by one. Take up a heaping teaspoonful of this paste, and push it with the finger in such a manner as to give it a round shape, then let it fall into hot frying fat: stir all the time until the fritters assume a fine golden color, then drain on to a cloth and besprinkle with vanilla-flavored sugar; glaze them in a brisk oven, and dress on a napkin. Serve separately a sauce-boatful of chocolate cream prepared as follows: Place in a saucepan three egg-yolks, two ounces of sugar, and half an ounce of fecula; beat well and dilute the preparation with half a pint of boiling milk into which has been added the fourth part of a vanilla bean; stir the whole on the fire, and as soon as it thickens pour it over an ounce of dissolved cocoa; mingle all well together, pass through a tammy and let get cold, afterward adding to it twice as much whipped cream; serve at the same time as the fritters.

← No. 3046 Singapore Fritters Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 3048 Souffled Fritters with Lemon Peel or with Ro →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is pâte à choux fried rather than baked, served with a lightened chocolate pastry cream. Ranhofer assumes a cook who knows the paste by sight, so the two things worth watching are the consistency of the dough and the temperature of the fat.

The hinge: fry them slowlySouffled fritters must go into moderate fat, around 325-340F, and be kept moving so they turn and swell as they cook. Fat that is too hot sets the outside before the interior expands, and the fritters collapse into raw-centred lumps when drained.
The paste, in modern termsExpect a soft paste, and add the last eggs one at a time only until the dough falls from the spoon in a thick ribbon; seven or eight eggs may be more than you need.
"Dry" the pasteAfter the flour goes in, keep the pan on the heat and beat for two or three minutes until the dough pulls from the sides and films the bottom of the pan. This drives off water and is what allows the fritters to take the eggs and puff.
FeculaNineteenth-century fecula is potato starch. Cornstarch substitutes directly at the same half-ounce, roughly two tablespoons.
"Dissolved cocoa"Most likely melted chocolate rather than modern cocoa powder; an ounce of plain dark chocolate, melted, is the safer reading. Powdered cocoa would need sugar adjustment and would thin the sauce.
TammyA tammy is a fine woollen straining cloth. A fine-mesh sieve or a double layer of muslin does the same work; the point is to catch any egg that has scrambled.
"A brisk oven"Conventionally around 400-425F, and only for a minute or two. The sugar-dusted fritters are meant to gloss and lightly caramelise, not to bake further.
Orange flower waterStrengths vary widely between bottlings. Start with two teaspoons and taste the paste before committing to the full tablespoon.
Yield and serviceThis makes a large batch, several dozen small fritters. They deflate within minutes, so fry, glaze and send them out at once; the chocolate cream can be made hours ahead and the whipped cream folded in at the last moment.

A Little History

Beignets soufflés are choux paste dropped straight into fat, known in French kitchens for centuries and better known in domestic cookery as pets de nonne. The Medici attribution reflects a long-standing tradition — generally repeated rather than documented — that choux paste came to France with Catherine de' Medici's Italian cooks in the sixteenth century, one of whom is often named as the pastry cook Popelini, whose name is attached to the popelin. Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York and author of The Epicurean (1894), organised his hot entremets by the sauce and garnish as much as by the base, which is why an entire family of near-identical fritters runs through these numbers, distinguished only by their flavouring: Singapore before, lemon peel and rose after. The chocolate cream lightened with twice its volume of whipped cream is a restaurant economy as much as a refinement — it stretches a small quantity of expensive chocolate across a sauce-boat and keeps it from setting stiff before service.