No. 3228

Biscuit a la Hernani

Bake a Savoy biscuit in a dome-formed mold eight inches in diameter by four inches high. Turn it out and let stand till cold, then put it back again in the mold and pare it straight; cut around the top at about two inches from the bottom a cover by means of a small knife held on a slant, to have the cut form a bevel (this is to prevent the cover falling in the biscuit), and empty it, leaving the outer crust only half an inch in thickness. Place it on a grate with its cover on and cover with reduced apricot marmalade (No. 3675), and glaze with fondant (No. 58), to which melted chocolate is added. At serving time fill the empty biscuit with whipped cream, into which mix a few chocolate pastilles, some finely shredded pistachios and a few preserved cherries cut in two. Lay the biscuit on a frolle paste (No. 136) foundation, coated with egg whites, and dredged over with white granulated sugar; slide the whole on a cold dish and surround the base with a wreath of Africans (No. 3364) glazed with chocolate.

← No. 3227 Baba Syruped or Iced Large Cakes for Entremets No. 3229 Almond Biscuit →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is an assembly job more than a baking one: a hollowed sponge dome, glazed, filled at the last minute, and set on a cookie-dough plinth. Ranhofer's cross-references hide most of the work, so the components need naming before you start.

The hinge: fill at serving timeRanhofer says it outright and means it. Whipped cream in a sponge shell begins to weep and soak within the hour, so glaze the dome, build the base, and hold everything cool and dry until the moment it goes to the table.
Savoy biscuitBiscuit de Savoie is a sponge leavened only by beaten eggs, usually with the whites whipped separately, and commonly with a mix of flour and potato starch, which makes it dry and firm enough to hollow out. Ranhofer gives no oven setting or time here; bake in a buttered and sugared mold in a moderate oven until it springs back.
The moldAn eight-inch dome four inches high is close to a 2-quart stainless bowl or a charlotte-russe dome. Returning the cooled cake to the mold, as directed, is simply a jig for cutting the lid and paring the sides true.
Cutting the lidThe bevelled cut, made about two inches up from the base with the knife held on a slant, gives the cover a seat so it cannot drop into the hollow once the shell is filled. Ranhofer specifies a shell of half an inch, which is thin enough to be mostly filling yet still able to carry the glaze.
Reduced apricot marmaladeSieved apricot jam boiled down until a spoonful sets on a cold plate. Brushed on warm, it seals crumbs and gives the fondant something smooth to sit on.
Fondant with chocolatePoured fondant warmed to about 100F, no hotter, or it loses its gloss; melted chocolate is stirred in to color and flavor it. A modern chocolate glaze or ganache behaves better but will not give the same matte, opaque finish of chocolate-tinted fondant.
Chocolate pastilles and the fillingPastilles are small flat chocolate discs, near enough to modern chocolate chips or chopped couverture. Whip the cream only to soft peaks before folding in chocolate, pistachios and halved preserved cherries, since folding stiffens it further.
Frolle paste and AfricansPasta frolla is a sweet short pastry; rolled, baked flat as a round disc, it is the foundation the dome sits on, brushed with egg white and dredged with white granulated sugar so the sugar adheres. "Africans" are the small cakes of Ranhofer's No. 3364, here glazed with chocolate and set in a ring around the base; any small crisp almond cookie serves.
YieldNot stated. An eight-inch dome with this filling serves ten to twelve as an entremets course.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty years' cooking at Delmonico's in New York, and this section, "Large Cakes for Entremets," belongs to a style of dining in which a constructed sweet arrived as a set piece on its own footed base. The name points to Hernani, Victor Hugo's 1830 drama whose stormy Paris premiere became shorthand for Romanticism, later set as an opera by Verdi as Ernani in 1844; the specific connection between play and pastry is traditional rather than documented. What the recipe does show plainly is its method of construction: nearly every element is a numbered cross-reference to a preparation given elsewhere in the book, so that the dome, the apricot glaze, the fondant, the shortcrust base and the ring of cookies are assembled from parts made separately.