No. 3311

Jealousies

Jalousies

Roll out some puff paste parings (No. 146) to an eighth of an inch in thickness; cut this into three-inch wide bands; lay half of them on a baking sheet and mask the whole length of the center with apple marmalade (No. 3674); wet the edges and cover over with the remaining bands, scored as follows: Fold the bands in two, cut them from the folded side, this cut to be one inch long, the same as the bands for scored favors. Egg the tops, mark them across with the tip of a small knife, then bake in a hot oven. After the cakes are done bestrew with powdered sugar, return for a moment to the fire to have it melt, then divide the cakes.

← No. 3310 Goronflots Small Cakes for Entremets No. 3312 Rolled Jelly Biscuit →

For the Modern Kitchen

A straightforward strip pastry: two bands of puff paste, jam between them, the top band slashed so the filling shows through like slatted shutters. Ranhofer assumes you have paste trimmings and a thick apple marmalade already on hand.

Hot ovenA hot oven here is somewhere around 400-425F. Puff paste needs the initial blast of heat to turn its water to steam and lift the layers; a moderate oven gives flatter, greasier pastry.
Puff paste paringsRanhofer's No. 146 is his puff paste, and "parings" means the trimmings left from cutting other pastries. Rolled trimmings puff less evenly than fresh paste; using them here was a matter of thrift. All-butter frozen puff pastry, thawed and rolled to 1/8 inch, works.
Apple marmaladeHis No. 3674 is a stiff cooked apple paste, not a citrus marmalade. Use a thick apple butter or a reduced apple compote; anything loose will boil out of the slits and weld the pastry to the sheet.
The slashingFold the top band lengthwise and cut in from the folded edge, each cut one inch long, so it opens into a two-inch slot when unfolded. The uncut margin at the open edges is what holds the strip together.
SealingWet the edges with water and press firmly.
The sugar glazeDusting with powdered sugar and returning it briefly to the oven gives a thin lacquer, not a white coating. A minute or two under a hot broiler, watched constantly, does the same thing; the sugar goes from melted to burnt very quickly.
Cutting and yieldDivide into two- or three-inch lengths while still warm but not hot, with a serrated knife, sawing rather than pressing.

A Little History

Jalousie is the French word for a louvered shutter, and the name describes the pastry exactly: the slatted top lets the dark filling show in stripes, as a jalousie lets light through in bars. The link between the shutter and jealousy is traditionally explained by the idea of a screen you can see out of without being seen, though that account is folk etymology rather than documented fact. The recipe's placement is telling: Ranhofer files it among small cakes for entremets, the sweet course, and builds it entirely out of puff paste trimmings and a pot of apple marmalade made for other purposes. That was the logic of a large professional pastry section in the 1890s, where nothing usable was thrown away and the day's scraps became the next day's teatime pastry. The form survives essentially unchanged in French bakeries today, usually as a long strip cut into portions at the counter.