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How to Prepare Patties
Roll out on a lightly floured table a half pound fueilletage to the thickness of a quarter inch; then with a round pastry (dentilated) cutter three inches in diameter cut out six pieces and turn them on a clean, cold, lightly wetted baking sheet, and with a plain round cutter of one and a half inches in diameter make an incision in the centre of each down to three-quarters of the height of the paste, being very careful not to cut through. With a hair pastry brush lightly wet the surface of each, and with the back of a fork make a few light lines in the centrepiece of each. Set in a brisk oven for fifteen minutes. Remove, carefully lift up the covers without breaking them and empty them with a fork. Place them on a plate, cover, and keep warm until required.
This is a component recipe: six puff pastry shells to be filled later with a creamed mixture. Everything depends on the pastry rising straight up while the inner disc stays attached.
- The hinge: do not cut throughThe 1½-inch inner circle is scored only three-quarters of the way down, so it bakes as a lid still joined to the base. Cut through and the centre lifts off in the oven, the filling well collapses, and you have a disc rather than a shell.
- FueilletageSimply puff pastry (French feuilletage), commonly given six turns of butter and dough. A half pound is about 225 g; frozen all-butter puff sheets vary in weight, so check the package. Rolled to ¼ inch.
- "Brisk oven"No temperature is given; a brisk oven is conventionally taken as roughly 400–425°F. Puff pastry needs high initial heat to turn its water to steam and drive the layers apart; a cooler oven leaks butter and gives a flat, greasy shell. Fifteen minutes is the time the recipe allows; give them longer if they still look pale.
- "Turn them on" the sheetMost likely just means transfer them onto it, though some read it as inverting the rounds. Inverting cut puff rounds is a genuine practice, since the cutter compresses the top edge and the underside face rises more evenly.
- The wetted sheetA film of water on a cold, ungreased sheet gives off steam and helps the pastry grip so it climbs instead of sliding. A parchment-lined sheet, lightly misted, does the same job.
- Wet the surface, not egg-wash itThe brush carries water here. Egg or butter running down the cut edge glues the layers together and stops the rise; if you want colour, glaze the top only and keep well clear of the sides. A "hair" brush means natural bristle.
- Chill before bakingNot stated in the recipe. Giving the cut shells 20–30 minutes in the refrigerator helps; warm, slack pastry loses its definition.
- "Empty them with a fork"Lift the baked lid and scrape out the soft, underdone crumb inside to leave a hollow case. Do it while hot, then hold the shells warm and dry — filling them ahead of service turns the bottoms to paste.
- YieldSix 3-inch shells, one per person as a first course, each taking roughly 2–3 tablespoons of a thick creamed filling: chicken, sweetbreads, oysters, mushrooms, lobster.