Soyer's standard cookery

METHOD. — Prepare the crust as directed for apple tart. In the center of the pie-dish place an inverted cup or a ventilating cup and funnel to retain the juice, half fill the dish with fruit, add the sugar, then put in the remainder of the fruit. Cover with paste, brush lightly over with cold water, sprinkle liberally with castor sugar, and bake in a quick oven. Eclairs. INGREDIENTS. — Choux paste, chocolate or coffee icing, cream, custard or jam. METHOD. — Put the choux paste into a forcing-bag, and press it out on to a buttered baking-sheet in the form of small savoy biscuits. Or if a bag and pipe are not available, roll it on a floured board to the same shape. Bake from fifteen to twenty minutes in a moderate oven, let them cool on a sieve, then make an incision on the side of them and scoop out the soft interior. Fill the cavities with stiffly-whipped sweetened cream, confectioners' custard or jam, and coat them with chocolate or coffee icing. Filbert Tartlets. INGREDIENTS. — Paste, six ounces of filberts, two ounces of ground almonds, six ounces of castor sugar, one ounce of cornflour, eight yolks of eggs, one gill of cream or milk. METHOD. — Blanch and peel the nuts and chop them finely. Mix the cornflour smoothly with the milk, and stir it over the fire until it thickens. Cream the yolks of eggs and sugar together until thick and smooth, add the prepared nuts and almonds, then stir in the cornflour and milk. Put the mixture into twelve patty-pans lined with paste, fix two thin strips of paste across each tartlet, brush over with milk, and dredge with castor sugar. Bake in a moderate oven for about twenty minutes. Flan of Apples. INGREDIENTS. — Six or eight apples, two tablespoonfuls of moist sugar, four tablespoonfuls, of sherry, eight cloves, four whites of eggs, castor sugar, one pound of short crust. METHOD. — Peel, core, and cut each apple into eight sections, place them in a stewpan, add the cloves and sherry, cover closely, stand the stewpan in a tin containing boiling water, and cook until tender, but not sufficiently so as to break easily. Meanwhile line a six-inch diameter flan or paste-ring with paste rolled out to about a quarter of an inch in thickness, fill it with rice, placed on an interlining of buttered paper, and bake in a quick oven. When done, remove the rice and paper, fill with the apples, arranged in a pyramid, strain the juice (if any) over them, and sprinkle well with sugar. Whip the whites of eggs to a stiff froth, spread it lightly over the apples, dredge well with castor sugar, and bake in a cool oven until lightly browned. Serve either hot or cold. There are two ways of making a flan without the aid of a ring. The first is by means of a round cake-tin. The tin is placed in the center of the rolled-out paste, which is cut round, leaving a margin of about one inch, to be afterwards raised and molded to the shape of the tin. Before removing the tin, a narrow-folded band of greased paper must be pinned lightly round this raised border. In the second method, the bottom is cut out to the required size, and a narrow strip of paste fastened to the edge of it by means of white of egg. A band of paper must support the border; and in both cases the inside should be filled with rice before baking. Flan of Pineapple.