No. 3338

Wells of Love

Puits d'Amour

Roll out some six-turn puff paste (No. 146) to the thickness of three-sixteenths of an inch; cut it out with a two-inch diameter channeled pastry cutter, and lay these rounds on a baking sheet, putting it aside in the ice-box for a few moments to set. Now egg over and mark a round in the center with a small plain cutter an inch in diameter, and bake in a hot oven. A moment before removing bestrew over with powdered sugar, and leave until this is entirely melted and glazed. Then empty them at once, and fill the hollow with currant jelly (No. 3670); strew a few chopped pistachios over, and place a fine preserved greengage (No. 3679) in the center.

TEA CAKES (Gateaux Pour le The).

Forty to the Pound.

← No. 3337 Variegated Fruit Tartlets Small Cakes for Entremets No. 3339 Basel Leckerlets →

For the Modern Kitchen

A puff-paste shell dusted with sugar, glazed under high heat, hollowed and filled with jelly. Most of the work is in the pastry; the hinge is the final sugar glaze, which goes from glossy to burnt in under a minute.

Six-turn puff pasteRanhofer's No. 146 is classic puff pastry given six folds (turns), the standard full lamination. All-butter commercial puff pastry, rolled a little thinner than it comes, is an acceptable substitute; rough puff will not rise evenly enough to hollow out cleanly.
Thickness and cuttersThree-sixteenths of an inch is about 5 mm. Cut with a 2-inch fluted round cutter, then mark — do not cut through — a 1-inch circle in the center with a plain cutter, about halfway down. That inner disc becomes the lid you lift off after baking.
Chill before bakingThe recipe sets the cut rounds aside in the ice-box "for a few moments to set." Warm cut pastry slumps and the flutes lose definition; a short spell in the freezer or a longer one in the fridge firms the butter.
Hot ovenRead this as 425-450F. Egg wash only the tops, keeping it off the cut edges, or the glaze seals the layers and the pastry rises lopsided.
The sugar glazeDust with powdered sugar in the last minute or two and return to the oven only until the sugar melts to a shine. At 450F this happens fast and the line between glaze and scorch is a matter of seconds; watch it through the door.
Emptying while hot"Empty them at once" means lift off the marked center lid and scoop out the soft, underbaked pastry inside while the shells are still hot and pliable. Cold shells shatter.
Fillings and substitutionsNo. 3670 is a currant jelly, warmed just enough to spoon and left to set in the shell. Greengages (No. 3679) are a small green plum preserved in syrup; good jarred greengages or reine-claude in syrup work, and a preserved apricot half is a reasonable stand-in. Ranhofer empties and fills the shells at once.

A Little History

Puits d'amour — "wells of love" — is an old name in French pastry, appearing in print by the middle of the eighteenth century; a version is generally traced to Vincent La Chapelle's Le Cuisinier moderne. The name is traditionally explained by a Paris well of that name, or by a stage piece of the period, though neither account is documented well enough to be relied on. What is certain is the form: a fluted puff-paste case with a hollow center, filled variously with jelly, jam, or later with pastry cream burnt to a caramel top. Where exactly Ranhofer files it is unclear: the heading "TEA CAKES (Gateaux Pour le The). Forty to the Pound" follows the recipe on the page, while the preceding entry is marked "Small Cakes for Entremets," so the section to which No. 3338 belongs cannot be settled from the text. He does, in any case, specify the cutter diameters to the inch and the paste to the sixteenth.