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Love Wells
2 ozs. (4 tablespoonfuls) butter 2 ozs. (4 tablespoonfuls) sugar I large beaten egg 1/2 pint (I cup) flour 1/2 teaspoonful baking powder Red currant jelly Blanched and chopped pistachio nuts Cakes Cream the butter with the sugar; add the egg, beat well, then add the flour and baking powder.
Knead on a floured baking board and roll out oneeighth of an inch thick; stamp out some rounds with a cutter. When the mixture has all been cut out into these rounds take half of them, and, with a smaller cutter, take out the centers, so as to form rings. Wet these rings and place them on the top of the plain rounds; put them on a buttered tin and bake in a moderate oven for ten minutes. When done, take them up and let them cool; then fill the center of each with red currant jelly. Sprinkle over with the pistachio nuts. Love wells, or Gâteaux de Putis d'Amour, are dainty jam tarts, with a rather ambitious title, and an example of what the French ladies used to call chatteries, i. e., delicacies for company.
They were much in use at the end of the seventeenth century.
A short, sweet biscuit dough handled like pastry: rounds baked with a ring on top to make a wall for jelly. The dough is stiff and the shaping matters more than the baking.
- The weights2 oz butter is half a stick; 2 oz sugar is a generous 1/4 cup. The original gives 4 tablespoonfuls for each without saying how the spoon was to be filled.
- Flour by volume"1/2 pint (1 cup)" of flour is a volume measure, roughly 4 to 4 1/2 oz / 125 g. With one large egg this gives a firm, slightly sticky dough; hold back a spoonful or two of the beaten egg if it slackens, since eggs sold today run larger than those the book assumes.
- Moderate oven350F/175C. At 1/8 inch thick the rounds need only the stated ten minutes, or a little less; pull them when the edges are pale gold, not brown.
- Chill before cuttingThe dough is short enough to tear when rolled thin. Rest it in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes, roll between sheets of parchment, and chill the cut shapes again on the tray so the rings hold their edges in the oven.
- "Wet these rings"Water alone is the glue here, brushed lightly on the underside of the ring. Too much and the ring slides; a thin smear of beaten egg works better and gives a slight gloss.
- Fill cold, not hotWarm the currant jelly just enough to stir smooth and spoon it into the wells once the cakes are completely cool. Jelly put on hot biscuits soaks in and softens them.
- PistachiosBlanched means covered with boiling water for a minute and slipped out of their skins, which is what gives the bright green. Unsalted raw pistachios are the ones to buy; roasted salted will fight the jelly.
- YieldWith a 2-inch cutter and a 1-inch centre, expect about 12 to 15 finished cakes. The cut-out centres bake in five minutes and are worth keeping.
Puits d'amour — "well of love" — is a French pastry name usually traced to the professional kitchens of the early eighteenth century, where it described a ring or case of puff paste baked around a hollow and filled with jelly or a sweet cream; the spelling Putis here is most likely a misprint. The version in this book is the domestic descendant: shortcrust rather than puff, a ring stuck to a base rather than a raised case, and red currant jelly, a common English filling. Chatteries, the word the author reaches for, means dainties or titbits. Pistachios were a costly ingredient, which supports the recipe's own description of these as delicacies for company.