No. 3325

Cakes Stuffed with Apricot

Gateaux Fourres a l'Abricot

Roll Out some puff paste parings (No. 146) to an eighth of an inch in thickness; cut it into rounds with a channeled pastry cutter (Fig. 16) two and a quarter inches in diameter. Place half these rounds on a moistened baking sheet, fill the centers with well-reduced apricot marmalade (No. 3675), wet over the borders and cover with the remaining rounds, fastening them together; egg over twice, mark a rosette on top and push into a brisk oven to bake. When the cakes are almost done sift powdered sugar over and finish cooking, allowing the sugar to melt well.

← No. 3324 Small Savarins Small Cakes for Entremets No. 3326 Almondine Tartlets →

For the Modern Kitchen

A turnover-style puff pastry sandwich, glazed at the end with melted sugar. Ranhofer assumes you have puff paste trimmings on hand and a well-reduced apricot preserve; both assumptions are worth unpacking.

The hinge: reduce the marmaladeOrdinary jarred apricot jam holds too much moisture and will boil out through the seam. Cook it down in a small pan until a spoon drawn through leaves a clear track, then cool it completely before filling.
"Puff paste parings"The offcuts left from trimming puff pastry, gathered and re-rolled. They puff unevenly, which likely explains why they were put to small filled cakes rather than vol-au-vents. Store-bought all-butter puff, rolled to 1/8 inch, is the practical substitute.
"Brisk oven"Roughly 425F. Puff paste needs the initial blast to convert its water to steam; a slack oven gives you a greasy, flat biscuit.
Channeled pastry cutterA fluted round cutter, 2 1/4 inches. Cut straight down without twisting, or the compressed edge will seal the layers and the pastry will not rise.
Moistened baking sheetA common instruction in nineteenth-century pastry work; the film of water on a bare metal sheet is usually explained as generating steam and helping keep the bases from scorching. Parchment on a heavy sheet does the same job more reliably.
"Egg over twice"Two thin coats of beaten egg, the second after the first has set slightly. Keep the wash off the cut edges, where it glues the layers shut.
The sugar finishSifting powdered sugar on near the end and returning the cakes to the oven melts it to a thin glassy glaze. Watch closely; it can go from glossy to scorched in a minute or two, so it may help to drop the heat or move the tray to the upper rack for this step.
Yield and timingNot given. A standard sheet of puff pastry yields about a dozen finished cakes, and they bake through in 15 to 20 minutes before the sugar goes on. Best eaten the day they are made.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and its structure explains this recipe as much as its contents: the book is a cross-referenced system, so the puff paste is No. 146 and the apricot marmalade No. 3675, and No. 3325 simply assembles them. Gateaux fourres means, plainly, stuffed cakes, and the entire section of "small cakes for entremets" exists to fill out the sweet course of a long service menu, where a plate of two-inch pastries would generally be served alongside ices and creams. The use of parings is a professional kitchen's economy rather than a home cook's: a restaurant turning out vol-au-vents and feuilletees daily accumulated trimmings that were too good to discard but too disorderly for anything requiring an even rise. Apricot is often said to have been a common choice for such fillings in French pastry work of the period, being tart enough to cut through butter and firm enough, once reduced, to hold its place between two layers.