No. 3349

Lozenges

Losanges

Arrange one pound of flour on the table, lay in the center three-quarters of a pound of butter, ten ounces of sugar, a pinch of salt, two eggs and two spoonfuls of orange flower water; mix the whole to have a smooth paste. Push this through a syringe having a scalloped plate on the end into long ribbons one and a half inches wide, and divide these into three-inch long lozenges; lay them on a buttered and floured baking sheet and leave in a cool place for half an hour, then bake in a hot oven; when cooked brush over with light gum or with a little icing sugar dissolved in milk.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A rich piped butter cookie from Ranhofer's The Epicurean, worked by weight in the French manner. The dough is closer to shortbread than to a batter, and everything depends on keeping it stiff enough to hold the ridges from the piping tube.

Weights, not cupsOne pound flour is about 3 1/2 cups; 3/4 pound butter is three sticks; ten ounces sugar is about 1 1/3 cups. Weigh these if you can, since the dough's stiffness is the whole point and cup measures of flour vary by 20 percent.
"Two spoonfuls"Ranhofer is not specific here. Tablespoons are the reasonable reading for orange flower water, but strengths vary considerably between brands, so start with two teaspoons and adjust.
The syringeThe "syringe having a scalloped plate" is a piping tube with a flat ribbon or wide star tip. A piping bag with a large star tip does the same work; pipe continuous 1 1/2-inch ribbons the length of the sheet and cut them into three-inch lengths before baking.
The half hour in a cool placeThis is the hinge. The dough is three parts butter to four parts flour, and if the piped ribbons go into the oven soft they spread into a single sheet and lose the scalloping. Chill until the ridges feel firm to the touch, longer than thirty minutes if your kitchen is warm.
"A hot oven"Ranhofer gives no degrees; a hot oven is conventionally read as somewhere around 400 to 425F. At that heat expect roughly 8 to 12 minutes, until the edges have just taken colour and the centres are still pale. They firm as they cool.
Light gum"Light gum" is a thin gum arabic syrup, brushed on hot to give a faint gloss. The alternative Ranhofer offers, confectioners' sugar slaked with a little milk, does the same job.
YieldThe original gives none. A pound of flour at this richness makes roughly three to four dozen three-inch lozenges, depending on how heavily you pipe.
KeepingHigh butter and no chemical leavening means they keep well in a tin for a week.

A Little History

Losange is simply the French word for a diamond or rhombus, and the name here describes the shape of the cut ribbon rather than any flavouring — these are not the medicinal or gum lozenges of the chemist's shop, though both words descend from the same geometric root. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York and author of The Epicurean (1894), files them among the tea cakes, the small dry biscuits kept on hand for afternoon service and for building up petit-four trays. The orange flower water is the period marker: distilled from bitter orange blossom, it was a standard aromatic in French pastry work before vanilla extract became cheap and reliable, and it turns up elsewhere in Ranhofer's sweet chapters where a modern chef would reach for vanilla or citrus zest. The piping syringe, a metal cylinder with interchangeable plates, was common professional equipment; the cloth bag and nozzle was also in use by this date.