No. 3344

Croquets

Put one pound of flour on the table, make a hollow in the center and into it lay half a pound of butter, half a pound of sugar, half a pound of chopped almonds, the grated peel of a lemon, four eggs and two spoonfuls of rum; mix well to obtain a smooth paste; leave this in some cool place to rest for one hour. Then roll it into two-inch wide bands, having them three-eights of an inch in thickness; lay them on a buttered and floured baking pan, egg over and leave rest again for half an hour in a cool place. Mark them with a fork in the shape of small lozenges. Bake them in a hot oven, brush them over with thick syrup, and after removing cut the bands across into small cakes, each one-half an inch wide.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A short, almond-rich dough baked in flat bands, glazed, then cut into narrow fingers while still warm — the same method behind mandelschnitten and biscotti-style tea cakes. The hinge is the cutting: the bands must be sliced hot or they shatter.

Weights, not cups1 lb flour, 8 oz butter, 8 oz sugar, 8 oz almonds — a scale gives the correct short, sandy dough. In volume that is roughly 3 1/2 cups flour, 2 sticks butter, 1 cup sugar, and about 2 cups chopped almonds.
"Two spoonfuls of rum"In The Epicurean a plain "spoonful" generally reads as a tablespoon, so about 2 tablespoons. It is there for flavour and to loosen the paste; most of the alcohol cooks off.
No leaveningThere is no baking powder or soda anywhere in the formula. The four eggs supply what little lift there is, so expect a dense, crisp cake rather than a risen one.
Working the pasteThe well-in-the-flour method is a pastry technique: gather the centre ingredients into a paste, then draw in the flour and stop as soon as it is smooth. Overworking develops gluten and the finished cakes turn tough instead of short.
Two rests, both coldThe hour before rolling and the half hour after are both there to firm the butter so the bands hold their edges. Refrigerate rather than trusting a modern room-temperature kitchen.
"Egg over"The recipe does not specify the wash; a beaten whole egg brushed thinly will do. Mark the lozenge pattern with a fork after the wash has set slightly, or it will smear.
A hot ovenThe book gives no temperature; a modern equivalent is somewhere around 400F. The bands are only 3/8 inch thick, so they will not need long — take them out pale gold rather than brown, since the syrup glaze will darken them further.
Syrup and cuttingThe recipe brushes on the thick syrup as the bands leave the oven, then cuts them across into 1/2-inch fingers after removing; do the cutting while they are still warm, as cooled bands are likelier to crack than slice.
YieldA pound of flour makes a large batch of small fingers, in the manner of a hotel pastry department.

A Little History

"Croquets" here is not the fried croquette, though both words go back to croquer, to crunch: this is the family of hard almond biscuits known in French as croquets and croquants. Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's, put it in the Tea Cakes section of The Epicurean (1894) among dozens of small dry pastries meant to be baked in quantity, stored in tins, and sent out with tea, ices, or coffee rather than made to order. The band-then-slice method is the same labour-saving logic that produces biscotti: one rolling, one bake, and many uniform pieces from a single pan.