No. 3543

Caramel Bouchees

Bouchees au Caramel

Lay on a sheet of paper some half-spherical rounds of lady finger paste (No. 3377), each two and a half inches in diameter; when cooked empty out the centers. Put a quarter of a pound of strawberry juice in a vessel with a pint of thirty-two degree syrup and a little vanilla; strain through a fine sieve, freeze and then mix in two Italian meringue egg-whites (No. 140) and half a pound of preserved pineapple cut in three-sixteenths inch squares and macerated in kirsch. With this ice fill the interior of the biscuits, range one on top of the other, fastening them well together; lay them in a freezing box for one hour to congeal the ice and then dip them in sugar cooked to "crack" (No. 171). Dress these balls on rounds of waffles three inches in diameter; serve them plain or scatter over finely shredded green pistachios.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a professional pastry brigade with an ice house at hand, so the work is in the sequencing rather than the technique. Everything hinges on the ice being frozen rock hard before the hot sugar touches it.

The critical momentSugar cooked to "crack" is around 300F. If the filled biscuits are merely firm, the ice melts on contact and the shells collapse. Freeze the assembled balls until they are solid through, work with a few at a time, and return them to the freezer the instant they are dipped.
Thirty-two degree syrupThis is 32 degrees Baume, measured with a saccharometer: on the order of 60 percent sugar by weight. Sorbet syrups of this density are what keep the mixture scoopable rather than icy.
A quarter of a pound of juiceRanhofer measures liquids by weight here, so this is 4 oz of strained strawberry juice, a little under half a cup. Depending on the fruit, somewhere in the region of 8 to 12 oz of ripe berries pressed and sieved.
Italian meringue egg-whitesHis No. 140 is whites whipped with hot sugar syrup; "two egg-whites" means the meringue made from two whites, not two spoonfuls of finished meringue. Folded into a churning sorbet it lightens the body, the same job a modern spumone or sherbet base does.
Preserved pineappleCandied pineapple from a good confectioner, not canned in juice, which is far too wet and will freeze into hard shards. Cut it small, about 3/16 inch, and let it sit in kirsch for an hour so it stays tender at freezing temperature.
Lady finger paste in half-spheresPiped or spooned domes of savoiardi batter, 2 1/2 inches across, baked until dry and hollowed out while barely warm. A shallow half-sphere silicone or metal mould gives more even shells than piping onto paper.
The freezing boxA moulding box packed with ice and rock salt, held well below 32F. A domestic freezer set to its coldest setting does the same thing; give the assembled bouchees two hours rather than one, since a home freezer pulls heat out more slowly than a salt-ice bath.
Yield and serviceThe mixture makes roughly a quart of ice, enough to fill about eight finished balls of two shells each. They must go to the table immediately: the caramel shell soon weeps over the frozen filling and turns sticky.

A Little History

Bouchee means "mouthful," a term French cooks used for small one-bite items, savoury as well as sweet, and Charles Ranhofer's version belongs to the long list of composed iced desserts he built at Delmonico's in New York, where he was chef from 1862 to 1876 and again from 1879 to 1896. The Epicurean (1894) was his attempt to set the whole restaurant repertoire down in one volume, which is why the recipe reads as a set of cross-references: the lady finger paste, the Italian meringue and the sugar boiled to "crack" each have their own numbered entry elsewhere in the book, on the assumption that a working kitchen already had them in production. The dessert also shows off what a well-provisioned nineteenth-century American establishment could get in quantity when domestic freezers did not exist: natural ice and rock salt for the freezing box, imported kirsch, candied pineapple, and pistachios shredded fine for colour. A sugar-shelled iced sweet of this kind could not travel or be held, so it could only be served within a few steps of the dining room.