No. 3333

Herisson Tartlets

Tartelettes Herisson

Line some oval tartlet molds with puff paste parings (No. 146); fill them with a fanchonnette preparation (No. 3332), flavored with kirsch, and bake in a medium oven; as soon as done let get cold, then put some Italian meringue (No. 140) on top in a dome form, sticking it all over with long thin strips of almonds, sprinkling chopped almonds over all; push into a slack oven to color the almonds lightly.

← No. 3332 Fanchonnette Tartlets Meringued Small Cakes for Entremets No. 3334 Peach Tartlets with Rice →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for cooks with a full pastry section at hand, so the recipe is mostly cross-references. Here is what those numbers stand for and where the dish can go wrong.

What the cross-references areNo. 146 is puff paste; "parings" are the offcuts left from trimming a batch, re-rolled and used where lift matters less than flake. No. 3332 is a fanchonnette filling, in essence a thick custard or pastry cream; the page here does not spell out its composition. No. 140 is Italian meringue, egg whites whipped while hot sugar syrup (soft- to firm-ball) is poured in.
Oven temperaturesA "medium oven" for the filled tartlets corresponds roughly to 350-375F, and the final "slack oven", used only to tint the almonds, to roughly 250-300F; these are conventional equivalents, not figures Ranhofer gives. Much higher and the meringue will weep and the almond strips will scorch before the dome takes color.
The hinge: cool completelyThe instruction to let the tartlets get cold before meringuing is the one step not to hurry. Italian meringue piped onto warm custard slumps and separates, and the dome will slide as it goes back into the oven.
Puff paste paringsGather the trimmings in a stack rather than kneading them into a ball, so the layers stay roughly aligned. They will rise unevenly, which matters less in a lined mold, though a hump in the base will push the filling about.
The almonds"Long thin strips" are what we now sell as slivered or julienne almonds; the "chopped" almonds are a finer dice, not ground. Stick the strips into the meringue while it is still soft and slightly tacky.
KirschA clear cherry brandy, not a sweet liqueur or cherry syrup. The recipe gives no quantity; add only enough to read as flavor, since too much thins the custard.
ServingThese belong to the entremets course and are meant to be eaten the day they are made. Refrigeration softens both the puff paste and the meringue surface.

A Little History

Hérisson is French for hedgehog, and the name is purely descriptive: a dome of meringue bristling with almond spikes. The same conceit turns up across nineteenth-century pastry work, on large gateaux as well as individual tartlets. The fanchonnette underneath has its own lineage in French pastry — a custard-filled tartlet finished with meringue, generally traced to early nineteenth-century Parisian pâtisserie and given at length by Carême himself. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a working record of that kitchen, which is why this entry reads as shorthand: a chef with a brigade did not need the custard explained, only the number of the page it was on.