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Bread and Butter Crisps
For this, a fresh loaf baked so as to give a square slice, will be needed (Monroe bread is the best). With a sharp knife cut off all the crust; butter one end of the loaf and shave off in the thinnest slices possible. Roll each slice up tightly and fasten with a wooden toothpick. Lay on a flat pan and place in a quick oven until crisp and lightly browned. Remove the toothpick and serve hot or cold. They are specially nice to serve with soup or salad.
A bread roll-up that works on one trick: butter the cut face of the whole loaf, then shave the slice off, so the butter is already spread before the bread is thin enough to tear.
- Quick ovenRead this as roughly 400-425F. The rolls are thin and dry out fast, so watch them from about four minutes; they are done when set, dry and just coloured at the edges, usually 6-10 minutes.
- Monroe breadA close-grained white pan loaf of the period. Any firm sandwich loaf baked in a straight-sided tin gives the same square slice; avoid open, airy artisan crumb, which shreds when shaved thin.
- Fresh, not staleThe instruction to use a fresh loaf is deliberate. Day-old bread cracks when rolled. If your loaf has firmed up, the slices can be warmed briefly to make them pliable before rolling.
- Shaving the slicesAim for about 1/8 inch or less, with a long thin-bladed knife or a serrated bread knife used in a sawing motion rather than pressed down. Chilling the loaf for twenty minutes firms the crumb and makes very thin cutting far easier.
- Toothpicks in the ovenWooden picks will scorch and can smoke at this heat. Use short round picks, keep them fully within the roll, and pull them the moment the crisps come out, while the bread is still slightly flexible.
- Seam side downLay the rolls with the loose edge underneath on an ungreased sheet pan so they hold their shape as the butter melts and sets the layers together.
- Yield and keepingA loaf may give anywhere from a couple of dozen crisps upward, depending on its size and how thin you shave. Once fully cool they will keep for a while in a tin, and can be refreshed for two or three minutes in a moderate oven.
Thin curled bread crisps belong to the late-nineteenth-century fashion for elaborate accompaniments to soup and salad courses, alongside bread sticks, butter balls and cheese straws. They exist because a machine-free kitchen with a good white pan loaf could produce something that looked bought without any pastry work: the whole technique is a sharp knife and a hot oven. Buttering the face of the loaf before slicing is a trick found in period instructions for rolled bread-and-butter sandwiches, and the crisps are essentially those sandwiches sent to the oven instead of the tea table.