No. 3267

Cinnamon Biscuits

Biscuits a la Canelle

The proportion for these is one pound of flour, half an ounce of compressed yeast, four ounces of sugar and one grain of salt, seven whole eggs and two yolks. With these ingredients prepare a dough the same as for biscuits (No. 3266). As soon as it is risen properly lay it in a long, square-shaped mold four inches wide, four inches deep and twelve inches long; fill it three-quarters full and let the dough rise to the level of the edges, then bake in a moderate oven for forty minutes. As soon as done unmold and when cold cut it up into slices five-sixteenths of an inch thick by three inches long and one and a quarter inches wide. Range these on a baking tin; sprinkle the tops lightly with sugar to which has been added a little ground cinnamon; place in a slack oven and let glaze to a fine golden brown.

← No. 3266 Biscuits Breakfast Cakes No. 3268 Flutes of Brioche →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a twice-baked rusk: a lean, very eggy loaf baked in a Pullman-style pan, sliced cold, then dried in a cool oven under cinnamon sugar. Ranhofer sends you to No. 3266 for the mixing method, so a few things have to be inferred.

The hinge: the loaf must be cold before slicingA warm egg loaf tears and crumbs instead of cutting. Bake it a day ahead if you can; slices of five-sixteenths of an inch (about 8 mm) are only possible on a firm, fully cooled crumb, cut with a long serrated knife.
Weights and quantitiesOne pound of flour is about 3 1/2 cups; four ounces of sugar is a scant 2/3 cup. Half an ounce of compressed (fresh) yeast is roughly 14 g, which converts to about 2 teaspoons active dry or 1 1/2 teaspoons instant.
"One grain of salt"Read this as a pinch. A grain is a real apothecary unit of about 65 mg, which would be invisible in a pound of flour; Ranhofer uses the phrase throughout the book where a small unspecified quantity is meant. Half a teaspoon is in keeping with the sweetness.
Oven temperatures"Moderate" is usually read today as somewhere around 350F for the loaf's forty minutes; a "slack oven" is cooler still, in the region of 250-275F. Ranhofer gives no time for the second bake: go by the instruction to "let glaze to a fine golden brown," checking as they dry through.
No liquid, no butterSeven whole eggs and two yolks are the only moisture in the proportions given, and no added fat is called for. Expect a stiff, tight dough that takes real kneading; it will feel wrong next to a brioche. Eggs at room temperature will ferment faster than cold ones.
The moldFour inches square by twelve long is a Pullman loaf pan, and the lidless version is what you want since the dough must rise to the level of the edges. A standard 9x5 loaf pan works, filled three-quarters full, though your slices will be taller and rounder than the specified rectangle.
RisingAn egg dough this rich ferments slowly. Give the bulk rise 1 1/2 to 2 hours at warm room temperature, and the pan rise until the dough is level with the rim rather than by the clock.
YieldA twelve-inch loaf cut at five-sixteenths of an inch gives roughly 38 slices, each 4 in. square, which then have to be trimmed and divided into the specified 3 in. by 1 1/4 in. pieces, so the finished count is considerably higher. Fully dried, they keep well in a tin.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's summary of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its breakfast-cake chapter is arranged by cross-reference, with items sharing a common base dough. Biscuit in its older French sense means twice-cooked, and that is exactly what happens here: the bread is baked, cooled, sliced and returned to a cool oven to dry, the same principle as German Zwieback and Italian biscotti. Rusks of this kind kept far better in a tin than fresh rolls. The very high egg count and the absence of any added butter in the listed proportions set it apart from the brioche of the entry that immediately follows.