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To Shape the Milk Fluttes
Roll and gently press out another ball, with a cutter divide in twelve equal pieces, and with the hands roll each piece into nice round shape, cover, let rest for ten minutes, then roll out each piece to five inches long and pointed at both ends. Place in a lightly buttered baking pan, and with pastry brush lightly glaze surface of each with beaten-up egg, etc. Carefully make three small diagonal incisions with scissors or a small sharp knife, cover with a dry cloth and place for an hour in a temperature of 80 degrees to rise.
This is the shaping stage of a milk-bread recipe, not a standalone formula — the dough itself is mixed earlier in the sequence, and "another ball" refers back to it. Treat it as technique for any enriched milk dough of roughly 1 lb.
- No dough, no bakeThe entry gives neither the dough nor the oven. A modern equivalent for a soft milk dough of this kind would be roughly 400-425F for about 12-15 minutes, until the glaze is deep gold and the rolls sound hollow.
- "A temperature of 80 degrees"Fahrenheit; 80C would kill the yeast. Enriched dough proofs evenly at around 78-82F. A turned-off oven with the light on, or a covered box with a mug of warm water, holds this well.
- Twelve pieces from one ballThe recipe gives no dough weight, so divide by weight rather than by eye: if the ball runs to about 1 lb, twelve pieces come to roughly 38 g each. Uneven pieces bake unevenly, and at five inches long any difference shows.
- The rest mattersThe ten-minute rest after rounding is the hinge. Without it the gluten is too tight to extend to five inches and the rolls will spring back short and thick.
- Pointed at both endsRoll from the centre outward with tapering pressure, keeping the seam underneath. The points are what make a flûte read as a flûte rather than a finger roll.
- "Beaten-up egg, etc."The etc. is unexplained; most likely it stands for the milk or water commonly used to thin an egg wash. One egg beaten with a tablespoon of milk is a usual proportion; brush thinly, as pooled egg scorches.
- Slash after the wash, not beforeThe recipe glazes first, then cuts — correct, since egg dragged into a fresh cut seals it shut. Cut about a quarter inch deep with scissors held at a shallow angle.
- YieldTwelve small rolls, best eaten the day they are baked; enriched milk doughs stale quickly but freeze well once cool.
The flûte is generally said to take its name from the flute it resembles — a slim, tapered loaf, in France often described as a lighter and longer relative of the baguette family, though the definition varies from bakery to bakery and the word has been applied to small pointed rolls as well. Made with milk rather than water, glazed with egg and slashed on the diagonal, these belong to the tradition of pain au lait: enriched breakfast bread, softer and shorter-keeping than the plain water doughs of the same bakery. Their appearance in a turn-of-the-century international collection reflects how such books were built — a long chain of bread entries in which one dough is mixed once and then shaped, cut and named a dozen different ways, so that the shaping instructions stand as separate numbered recipes. The careful specification of an 80-degree proofing room suggests an author writing for someone who could be expected to control such things.