The complete Indian housekeeper & cook

5. Vol-au- vents require extra care. After the first four turns, let the paste remain twenty minutes cooling. Roll it out one foot long, brush it over on the top with lemon juice ; fold. Roll to as near the shape of the vol-au-vent as possible, and brush again with lemon juice, and fold again. Roll it to the sh.ipe of the i^ol-au-veiU. Brush again with white of egg, and place on the top a thin cake of plain paste made with a little flour, water, and butter. Then turn the whole upside down, thus making a tough foundation for the vol-au-vent. The whole should be about one and a half inches thick. Cut with a fluted or plain cutter, or trim witli a knife, and mark a lid inside. A vol-au-vcnt will, if well made, rise three times its own height in the oven. The secret is to roll evenly and cook evenly, so that it may rise evenly. A vol-au-vent, therefore, is best made out of the middle of a lai-ge quantity of pastry, as the folds are always even in the centre. 6. Pastry Creams, or Custards. — These are of various kinds, and they are used for filling open tarts, covering flans, and decorating all kinds of pastry and pudding. Frangipane. — Ten units milk, 3 of yolk of egg, i of butter, 1 of sugar, i of pounded almonds, 1 of grated green citron preserve, and cornflour. Mix the milk, cornflour, and sugar, Housekeeper and Cook 323 boil till thick, add the butter and eggs, let the latter set, stir in the almonds and citron, and use for pastry. Chocolate Cream. — Ten units milk, 1 of cocoatina, 2 of sugar, ^ of cornflour, 2 of yolk of egg, some vanilla. Mix and prepare as above, and use as required. Lemon. — Ten units milk, ^ of cornflour, 2 of yolk of egg, 2 of sugar, 1 of lemon juice, some essence of lemon, 1 of butter. Ratafia.- — As above, omitting the lemon juice, and stirring in 2 units crushed ratafia. All these may be made with cream instead of milk. 7. Tourtes, or open tarts, are made in a variety of ways, and filled with, for instance, a layer of pounded almonds and sugar, then apricot jam, then some pastry cream, and decorated. A variety of dishes may be made this way. Fleurs are round open tarts made of short paste, filled with jam and cream, or any preserve or custard. 8. Cheese-cakes, Mirletons, &c. — These are all made in pattypans lined with the trimmings of puff paste, and filled with various mixtures, a few of which are given below. Maids of Honour.^ — One unit butter, 1 of stale sponge-cake crumbs, 1 of sugar, 1 of lemon juice, some lemon essence, 4 of eggs. Melt sugar, butter, and lemon juice over the fire. Stir in the 2 units yolk of egg, and thicken till like honey. Mix in the cake crumbs and the 2 units white of egg whipped to a froth. Fill into paste-lined patty-pans. Or, beat up 4 units eggs with 15 units milk and the juice of 1 lemon. Pour into boiling water to curd. Gather the curd and squeeze lightly, add 3 units yolk of egg, 1 unit sugar, 5 of thick cream, a little nutmeg, 1 unit brandy, and a few currants. Use as above. Mirletons.— Four units eggs, 3 of sugar, IJ of cake crumbs or ratafias, 1 of butter, a little salt, and some orange-flower water. Whip the whole together for quarter of an hour. Put a layer of jam at the bottoTU of each patty-pan, and a spoonful of the mixture on the top.