No. 3302

D'Artois Cake with Apricot Marmalade or Almond Cream

Gateau D'Artois a la Marmelade d'Abricots ou a la Creme d'Amandes

Roll some puff paste parings (No. 146) into a layer three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness and cut this into two bands, each three inches wide. Lay one of these bands on a baking sheet and cover the center with apricot marmalade (No. 3675) or almond cream (No. 40); moisten the edges of the paste-with a brush dipped in water, then cover with the second band; pare them straight, scallop the edges and mark the band across one and a quarter inches apart with a knife; within this space place leaves formed with the tip of the blade of a small knife. Bake in a quick oven and when the cake is nearly done dredge with sugar and finish cooking and glazing. Cut it through the divided sections with a large sharp knife.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is describing what most bakers now call a jalousie: two bands of puff paste with a filling between, scored across the top so it breaks into neat portions after baking. Two details carry the whole thing — cold paste and a genuinely hot oven.

"Quick oven"425–450F. Puff paste needs the initial blast to turn its water into steam before the butter melts out; a moderate oven gives a flat, greasy band.
Puff paste paringsThe trimmings left from other work, gathered and re-rolled. They rise unevenly, which is why they are assigned to a cake that gets covered in filling and glaze. All-butter frozen puff pastry stands in perfectly well.
Three-sixteenths of an inchAbout 5 mm — thicker than a tart base, because the top band must hold the scored pattern without splitting. Roll on a lightly floured surface and chill the cut bands firm before assembling.
Almond cream, No. 40Ranhofer's cr tme d'amandes is an almond cream of the frangipane type, though the page here does not set out what No. 40 contains. A standard frangipane will serve. Keep the layer thin or it will boil out at the seam.
Apricot marmalade, No. 3675In this book marmalade means a thick reduced fruit purée, not the citrus preserve. Use a stiff apricot jam or purée reduced until a spoon drawn through it leaves a clear track; anything looser will steam the pastry from the inside.
Sealing and scallopingWater alone on the edges, as written, is right — egg wash there can glue the layers shut and stop the rim rising. Press the two bands together, then scallop by pushing the back of a knife into the cut edge at intervals.
Marking the topScore the cross lines and the leaf veins through the top layer only, no more than halfway down. Cutting through vents the filling and it will run out during baking.
Dredging and glazingSift confectioners' or very fine sugar over the cake near the end and return it to the oven only long enough for the sugar to melt to a gloss — a minute or two, watched. It goes from glazed to scorched quickly.
Yield and servingThe recipe does not specify a length for the bands. Scored at one and a quarter inch intervals, a band of twelve to fourteen inches would give roughly nine to eleven pieces. Let it cool before cutting through the marks, and use a long sharp blade in a single stroke rather than sawing.

A Little History

The g teau d'Artois belongs to the old French p tisserie repertoire of long, banded puff-paste cakes, and the name is generally traced to the Comte d'Artois, the future Charles X han than than documented, like most of the courtly names attached to nineteenth-century pastry. The same construction survives under the plainer name jalousie, from the slatted louvered shutter the scored top resembles. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York and author of The Epicurean (1894), files it among the small cakes for entremets, the sweet dishes served toward the end of a long service. Its assignment to "puff paste parings" is a glimpse of how a professional kitchen of that scale used its trimmings.