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Banana Cakes
Lightly butter six small tartlet moulds. Roll out on a lightly floured table a half pound feuilletage to one-fifth-inch thickness. With a round pastry cutter (a shade larger than the tartlets) cut out six round pieces and line them with cut pieces of paste; carefully press paste down with finger in centre and all around, then spread a tablespoon apple jelly at bottom of each tartlet. Peel and slice six ripe bananas, then nicely arrange in the tartlets, sprinkle a little powdered sugar and pour two or three drops vanilla essence over each, set in oven for twenty-five minutes, remove, spread a teaspoon currant jelly over each, take from moulds, dress on dish with a folded napkin, sprinkle a little powdered sugar over and serve.
A simple puff-pastry tartlet from the era when bananas were still slightly exotic. The original assumes you have puff paste on hand and an oven you judge by feel.
- FeuilletageThis is puff pastry. Half a pound of all-butter frozen puff, thawed, does the job; roll it a scant 1/4 inch (the original says one-fifth inch, near enough).
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. Puff pastry needs a hot oven to lift: 400-425F, and twenty-five minutes is about right for tartlets of this size.
- Blind bakingThe recipe lines the moulds and fills them raw. Modern practice would dock the bases with a fork and chill the lined moulds for fifteen minutes before filling, or the bottoms steam rather than crisp under the jelly and fruit.
- Powdered sugarIn this period the term meant finely ground sugar, roughly answering to today's confectioners' or icing sugar, though period 'powdered' sugar was often coarser than the modern product. A light dusting only; the bananas and two jellies are already sweet.
- BananasRipe but firm, with no brown flesh. Fully soft bananas collapse to puree in twenty-five minutes of oven heat. Slice on a slight angle, about 1/4 inch, and overlap them.
- The currant jelly glazeAdded after baking, while the tartlets are still hot, so it melts into a thin glossy coat. Warm it slightly and brush rather than spread if the jelly is stiff.
- Vanilla essenceTwo or three drops per tartlet. The strength of period essences varied, so no exact modern equivalent can be given; a few drops of modern extract is plenty, and a heavy hand turns it medicinal.
- YieldSix tartlets, one per person. The recipe does not say at what temperature they were served. The folded napkin on the serving dish is period presentation.
The International Cook Book (1906) was compiled by Alexander Filippini, who was for many years associated with Delmonico's in New York, and this tartlet shows the house style: French pastry technique applied to whatever the American market had lately made cheap. Bananas were exactly that. The Central American fruit trade and fast steamer traffic had, by the 1890s, turned the banana from a rarity into a fruit sold from pushcarts, and banana recipes -- fritters, ice creams, baked bananas -- turn up freely in cookbooks of the period. The construction here is orthodox French patisserie of the time: a layer of jelly on the base to seal the pastry, fruit above, a second jelly brushed on hot as a glaze. Apple jelly below is mild and sets firm; currant above carries the red colour and some acidity.