No. 3397

Quillets-Small

Petits Quillets

Line some small tartlet shape molds with parings of thin puff paste (No. 146), and let rest for some time. Mix three parts of cream cake paste (No. 132) with one part of pastry cream (No. 46) and with this fill the molds as far as the edges; bestrew the tops lightly with powdered sugar, then bake in a slack oven. As soon as done turn them out of the molds and leave to cool off; scoop out partially and refill with Quillet cream (No. 48). Ice the tops with vanilla fondant (No. 58).

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a professional pastry department, so this entry is really an assembly instruction resting on five other numbered recipes. Read it as a plan rather than a standalone formula.

The hinge: keep the filling below the rimThe hinge: fill level, not proud -- Ranhofer says to fill "as far as the edges," i.e. level with the rim and no more. The choux-and-pastry-cream mixture rises in the oven, so an overfilled mold is likely to dome and split, leaving nothing flat to ice later.
"Cream cake paste"No. 132 is pâte à choux — the same batter used for éclairs and cream puffs. Cutting it with one part pastry cream by volume gives a softer, custardy interior that sets rather than hollows.
The 3:1 ratio is unspecifiedRanhofer does not say whether the parts are by weight or by volume, and the recipe gives no quantities at all. Whichever reading you take, err toward less pastry cream, since too much keeps the batter from setting.
"Slack oven"A low, gentle heat, conventionally reckoned somewhere around 300°F, though period usage varied. That is low for choux, but here the batter is supported by the mold and the puff-paste lining, and a low heat lets both cook through without the sugared tops scorching.
Puff paste paringsTrimmings from a previous batch of puff paste, re-rolled. They give a flaky but uneven lift, which is why they are used for linings rather than for anything that must rise straight. Ranhofer says only to "let rest for some time" after lining; the rest is what keeps the paste from shrinking off the mold walls.
MoldsSmall tartlet tins; the recipe specifies no size beyond "small." Modern mini-muffin tins work, though the straight sides give a less delicate shell.
Quillet creamNo. 48 is a rich butter cream with a perfumed flavoring in the almond/kirsch or maraschino line. Any well-made French buttercream stands in; it should be soft enough to pipe into the scooped cavity but firm at room temperature.
Fondant temperatureVanilla fondant is warmed only to about 100°F before dipping. Hotter than that and it dries dull and grainy instead of glossy.

A Little History

Crème Quillet, and the layered gâteau Quillet built on it, are generally traced to a nineteenth-century Parisian pâtissier of that name, and the cream — butter, sugar, egg and a perfumed almond note — passed into the professional repertoire as a standard entry rather than a signature. Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York and author of The Epicurean (1894), reproduces it here in miniature among the book's many petits fours, the small iced pastries a large restaurant kitchen turned out by the tray for dessert service and banquet displays. The construction is characteristic of that work: a puff-paste shell built from scraps, a filling that reuses two other batters already standing in the pastry room, and a fondant glaze applied last so the whole tray looks uniform. Nothing is made from scratch for its own sake, which is exactly how a brigade of that size stayed solvent.