No. 3352

Nantes

Arrange a pound of flour in a circle on the table; in the center lay half a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter, three eggs and four ounces of candied orange peel and citron, chopped very finely; stir well to have a firm and smooth paste, roll it out with a rolling pin to a quarter of an inch in thickness and cut this into rounds an inch and a half in diameter; pinch the edges with a pastry pinch (Fig. 178) and lay them at once on a buttered and floured baking sheet; garnish the centers with a preparation made with an equal quantity of chopped almonds and sugar combined with a little egg-white; let rest for an instant in a cool place, then bake in a medium oven.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A stiff, short French biscuit dough mixed by the old "fountain" method, cut small and finished with an almond paste button. Nothing here is difficult, but the proportions are given by weight and the oven by adjective.

The hinge: keep it a paste, not a batterHalf a pound of butter to a pound of flour with only three eggs gives a firm dough you can roll a quarter inch thick. Use cool butter and stop working it the moment it comes together; if it warms and softens, chill it before rolling or the rounds will spread and lose their pinched edges.
WeightsA pound of flour is about 3 1/2 cups, half a pound of sugar about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons, half a pound of butter two sticks. Ranhofer wrote for cooks working on a scale, and this dough is much easier to get right weighed than measured.
"A medium oven"Best read as a moderate oven, somewhere around 350°F; the book gives no temperatures at all. At a quarter inch thick and an inch and a half across, the rounds should need roughly 12 to 15 minutes — pale gold at the edge, still blond on top.
The fountain on the tableFlour in a ring, everything else in the well, drawn together with the fingertips. A bowl, or a food processor pulsed briefly, does the same job.
The pastry pinchFig. 178 is a small hinged crimping tong that nips a decorative scallop into the rim. A fluted cutter, or the back of a knife pressed at intervals, gives the same effect.
Candied peelFour ounces total of candied orange peel and citron, chopped very fine — as fine as coarse sand, or it will tear the thin rounds when you roll them. Good candied peel from a confectioner behaves far better than the hard diced supermarket kind, which can be soaked briefly in warm water and dried before chopping.
The garnishEqual weights of chopped almonds and sugar bound with just enough egg white to make a thick paste — an ounce or so of each per batch is plenty. It bakes through with the biscuit, so the raw white is not a concern. Pipe or dab a small button in each center.
Rest before baking"Let rest for an instant in a cool place" means only a short chill, long enough for the butter to firm again; a brief spell in the refrigerator serves. It is what keeps the crimped edge sharp.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a working compendium of the French repertoire as it was cooked in New York, and its tea cake chapter runs through dozens of small dry biscuits named for cities — Milanese, Nantes, Palais de Dames — of the kind a pâtissier kept in tins for afternoon service. Gâteaux de Nantes are generally traced to the Loire port of Nantes, long a center of the sugar, rum and candied-fruit trades on the strength of colonial imports, and the city's name still attaches to several almond-and-butter confections. Ranhofer's version is squarely in that family: butter, sugar, almonds and candied peel, with none of the leavening or liquid a modern cookie recipe would carry. The chief difference from a plain sablé is the fruit.