PASTRY CUSTARD, OR CREAM.
INGREDIENTS :—Four ounces of flour, four ounces of sugar, six
yolks of eggs, two ounces of butter, one pint of cream or milk, one
ounce of ratafias, a spoonful of orange-flower-water, and a very little
salt.
Mix the flour, sugar, and salt, with two whole eggs, in a stewpan with a
wooden spoon; then add the cream and the butter, and stir the whole
over the stove-fire until it boils; it must then be well worked together,
so as to make it smooth. Withdraw the spoon, and after putting the
lid on the stewpan, place the cream in the oven, or on a slow stove-
fire partially smothered with ashes, that it may continue to simmer
very gently for about twenty minutes: the cream must then be put
out into a basin, and the bruised ratafias, the yolks of eggs, and the
orange-flower-water must be added; after which put four ounces of
butter into a small stewpan on the fire, and as soon as it begins to
fritter, and has acquired a light-brown colour (which gives to it the
sweet flavour of nuts), add this also to the cream, and let the whole
be well mixed.
Use this cream to garnish various kinds of pastry, according to
directions given in the several articles for which it is intended.