We Who Are About to Fry, Salute You
Apr. 12th, 2026 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerThis week's Resolution Recipe: Counterfeit Custard Tartlets.
Custard:
1 1/3 cup white wine, divided
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
8 tsp (2 Tbsp + 2 tsp) breadcrumbs
4 Tbsp coarse sugar, divided
small pinch saffron, ground
4 egg yolks
Dough:
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 egg
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3-4 Tbsp cold water
lard or clarified butter for frying
coarse sugar for rolling
Pour 1 cup wine into a medium saucepan with the butter. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Whisk in the breadcrumbs and simmer over low heat for 3 minutes to thicken. Whisk in the sugar and the ground saffron. Beat 1/3 cup wine into the egg yolks and whisk into the saucepan. Simmer, stirring, for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and cool completely.
Cut butter into the flour. Beat egg and water, then mix into the flour until well combined and the dough coheres. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough thinly and cut 2x2" squares. Place 1/2 tsp custard in the center of each square, dampen the edges, fold over and crimp to seal into a rectangle. Heat clarified butter over medium-high heat in a shallow pan. Gently lower a few tartlets in -- do not crowd the pan. Fry for 60-90 seconds per side and drain. Coat one side of each tartlet in sugar and cool.
Pastry recipes are hard to find; Livre Fort does not have any. This one is from Ouverture de Cuisine. It was published in 1604, but the author used his recipes in the 1580s as a high-status cook in Liege; so it is reasonably close geographically and temporally to the 1550s France work.
Tomasik, Timothy J., and Ken Albala. The Most Excellent Book of Cookery = Livre Fort Excellent De Cuysine, 1555. Prospect Books, 2014. ISBN 190301896X.
de Casteau, Lancelot. Ouverture de Cuisine, 1604. James Prescott trans, 2003.
What worked: They were okay - honestly the custard was kind of lost. The pastry worked fine and wasn't tough. I used clarified butter so as to not worry about burning it.
What didn't: The butter got a bit too hot in later batches so the tartlets were a bit darker than aesthetically pleasing, but they didn't taste burned. The sugar didn't adhere, so the suggestion was to coat one side in sugar when just out of the fry. That would give extra sweetness and some crunch.
Will I make it again? I won't say never, but this is my "out of comfort zone" project for several reasons.
To make counterfeit cream, you'll make it this way. Take some white wine and put it over the fire in a terrine with a pound of fresh butter. When it begins to boil, put in some finely crumbled white breadcrumbs. When you see it start to thicken, throw in a good bit of sugar and a little ground saffron. But not too much. Then take some strained egg yolks and a little white wine and add them to the pan. When you see that it's thickened enough, take it off the fire and put it in a dish with some sugar on top.
For counterfeit custard tarts. Allow them to cool before you make them and make them as small as the beef marrow ones [Make them into pieces about as big as a thumb or finger.] Fry them like said beef marrow ones. [Then fry them in lard or butter and make sure that they don't fall apart.] Add add sugar when serving. And keep them from falling apart as mentioned above. (Livre Fort, 1555)
Custard:
1 1/3 cup white wine, divided
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
8 tsp (2 Tbsp + 2 tsp) breadcrumbs
4 Tbsp coarse sugar, divided
small pinch saffron, ground
4 egg yolks
Dough:
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 egg
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3-4 Tbsp cold water
lard or clarified butter for frying
coarse sugar for rolling
Pour 1 cup wine into a medium saucepan with the butter. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Whisk in the breadcrumbs and simmer over low heat for 3 minutes to thicken. Whisk in the sugar and the ground saffron. Beat 1/3 cup wine into the egg yolks and whisk into the saucepan. Simmer, stirring, for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and cool completely.
Cut butter into the flour. Beat egg and water, then mix into the flour until well combined and the dough coheres. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough thinly and cut 2x2" squares. Place 1/2 tsp custard in the center of each square, dampen the edges, fold over and crimp to seal into a rectangle. Heat clarified butter over medium-high heat in a shallow pan. Gently lower a few tartlets in -- do not crowd the pan. Fry for 60-90 seconds per side and drain. Coat one side of each tartlet in sugar and cool.
Pastry recipes are hard to find; Livre Fort does not have any. This one is from Ouverture de Cuisine. It was published in 1604, but the author used his recipes in the 1580s as a high-status cook in Liege; so it is reasonably close geographically and temporally to the 1550s France work.
Tomasik, Timothy J., and Ken Albala. The Most Excellent Book of Cookery = Livre Fort Excellent De Cuysine, 1555. Prospect Books, 2014. ISBN 190301896X.
de Casteau, Lancelot. Ouverture de Cuisine, 1604. James Prescott trans, 2003.
What worked: They were okay - honestly the custard was kind of lost. The pastry worked fine and wasn't tough. I used clarified butter so as to not worry about burning it.
What didn't: The butter got a bit too hot in later batches so the tartlets were a bit darker than aesthetically pleasing, but they didn't taste burned. The sugar didn't adhere, so the suggestion was to coat one side in sugar when just out of the fry. That would give extra sweetness and some crunch.
Will I make it again? I won't say never, but this is my "out of comfort zone" project for several reasons.
