Home Made "Petits Fours" and Tiny Flans

"Les Petit Fours Glacés" is really very small, very sweet cakes, but I have chosen to place them among the sweets anyway. Below you’ll find the recipes for four different sorts and further down, recipes for the different kind of biscuits and creams used for petits fours. A petits four can be made from almost any candied fruit or sweet cream, often mixed with liqueur, cocoa or coffee. They usually have some sort of biscuits in the bottom and they may be covered in a glassing. So feel free to invent your own.

Petits Fours "Mocca" Spread a round biscuit with mocha cream. Glace with glassing with coffee added to taste. Top with a dark chocolate bean.

Petits Fours "Aurore" Spread a round biscuit with butter cream with Grand Marnier liqueur added to taste. Glace with pink glassing and add a flower for decor.

Petits Fours "Pistache" Spread small rectangle shaped biscuit with butter cream with almond or Kirsch liqueur added to taste. Glaze with pistachio coloured glassing with the same liqueur added to taste.

Petits Fours "Singapore" Cover small wedges of candied pineapple with marzipan made with unpeeled almonds, then glaze in glassing in different shades of pink with strawberry or cherry liqueur added to taste.

Biscuit Doughs For "Petits Fours"

Biscuits 1 Almond Biscuits 250 gram scalded almonds 25 gram sugar lumps Double cream The white from one egg Pound the almonds and sugar lumps in a mortar while adding cream and egg white in portions no larger than a teaspoon full. Keep up till you get a smooth but not sticky dough. Flatten to a 3 – 4 mm sheet with a rolling pin and bake in a hot owen for a short while. The biscuit sheet should still be soft when finished. Cut into shapes to fit the petits fours of your choice. Biscuits 2 Les Petits Fours "Cigarettes" 100 gram flour sugar 100 gram flour 100 gram butter 3 egg whites A pinch of salt

Beat the egg whites, add the flour sugar and salt, then sift in the flour and add the butter. Work the dough well and flatten it to a 3 – 4 mm thin sheet and cut into small squares. Bake in a medium hot owen until light yellow. roll the squares into "Cigarettes" while still soft. Leave to set. Biscuits 3 Les Petits Fours "Zephyr" 125 gram flour 125 gram flour sugar 90 gram of butter 1/2 liter of milk 2 egg whites A tablespoon of grated lemon peel Work it all into a smooth dough, flatten it to a 3 – 4 mm thick sheet and cut this into 5 mm wide strips. Bake them until light yellow in a medium hot owen. Roll the strips into flat spiral on a round toothpick while still soft. Remove the toothpick. Leave to set.

Tiny Flans

These are made from three different kinds of dough, Butter Dough, Half Butter Dough and a Soft Dough. Butter Dough is the finest and most "expensive" of the three. 200 gram butter 200 gram flour 3 table spoons of water 7 tablespoons of Russian or Polish vodka A pinch of salt Make a heap of the flour and pour the water, salt and vodka into the middle of it and work it into a loose dough. Roll it out into a thin sheet, spread out the butter on the sheet and fold it once. Roll it out again and fold once more. Leave to cool o for half an hour and repeat the process. Repeat six times for a really good result. Shape into desired shapes before baking in a medium hot owen.

Half Butter Dough Cheaper and quicker to make 75 gram butter 175 gram flour 2- 3 table spoons of milk A pinch of salt A tea spoon of sugar smulder the butter into the flour and ad the milk, salt and sugar. Work into a smooth dough and bake in small different shaped cake tins. Soft Dough Made with the same dough as half butter dough, but use cream instead of milk and add 1 egg. Flan fill And Toppings Fill or top the flans with pieces of glazed apples, cherries or strawberries, or tinned fruits like pineapples, pears or peaches. Bake in a medium hot owen for about half an hour and serve hot or cold with butter cream or vanilla cream. From the Swedish magazine "Damernas Värld" – No 19 – June 19th, 1952