No. 3321

Parisian Cakes

Gateaux Parisiens

Lay a band of puff paste parings (No. 146) three and a half inches wide by twelve inches long on a baking sheet; on the edges place small narrow bands of the same or else twist the edge to form a border; fill it with vanilla pastry cream (No. 46); prick the bottom and push into a hot oven. As soon as done remove the band and allow to cool. Then cover with a preparation made of very lightly beaten royal icing (No. 101) into which shredded almonds have been mixed; dredge over with sugar; cut into crosswise slices an inch and a quarter in size; place these on a baking sheet, then in the oven to color; remove and stand on a wire grate to get perfectly cold.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A strip of puff pastry baked with pastry cream inside it, iced with almond royal icing, then cut into fingers and briefly returned to the oven. Ranhofer writes for a professional pastry section, so almost everything arrives as a cross-reference; the whole thing is straightforward once those are filled in.

The cross-referencesNo. 146 is puff paste, No. 46 vanilla pastry cream, No. 101 royal icing. Any standard versions of the three will do: about 12 oz puff pastry, a cup or so of thick pastry cream, and royal icing made from one egg white with roughly 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar.
"Puff paste parings"Trimmings left over from cutting out shapes such as vol-au-vents and fleurons, gathered and re-rolled. They rise unevenly, which matters little for a flat base like this one, so the scraps are put to use rather than wasted. Stacking the scraps in layers rather than kneading them keeps some lift.
Oven heat"A hot oven" for puff paste is usually taken as something in the region of 425F. The second, brief pass is a different job: a moderate oven, briefly and closely watched, is enough to colour the icing.
Fill before baking, and prickThe pastry cream is already cooked but goes in unbaked and bakes with the pastry, so the base must be docked or the middle will dome and push the filling over the border. Keep the cream thick, stiff enough to hold a shape in the spoon, or it will boil out at the sides.
The bandA rectangle 3 1/2 by 12 inches, with narrow ropes of pastry laid along the two long edges to make walls, or the edge simply twisted inward. "Remove the band" means to lift the baked strip off the sheet, not to strip anything from the cake.
Royal icing "very lightly beaten"Beat only until smooth and opaque, not to stiff peaks. Whipped hard, it dries chalky and cracks when the strip is sliced; slack, it spreads and takes the shredded almonds with it. Ice while the strip is fully cold.
Cut, then bake againSlicing at 1 1/4 inches from a 12-inch strip gives nine fingers with a little trimmed from each end. Use a long thin knife wiped between cuts; the icing shatters under a sawing motion.
ServingThese are entremets cakes, meant for a plate of small pastries rather than as a dessert on their own. Best the day they are made, since the pastry cream softens the puff paste overnight; refrigerate any that are kept.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows how such a kitchen worked: nothing wasted, everything cross-referenced to a numbered base preparation. It sits here among the small cakes served with the entremets course, the sweet dishes that came between the roast and the dessert proper in service a la francaise. The method itself, baking a raw pastry cream inside a puff paste case and only then icing and slicing it, belongs to the same family as the bande aux fruits: build a long strip, finish it whole, and portion it at the last moment so the cut edges stay clean for the plate.