1/2 lb unsalted butter, chilled and
1 cut into bits
3 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cup raspberry preserves (12 oz)
2 tbsp soft butter
2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup cold water
2 tsp lemon juice
Directions
In a large mixing bowl, combine the chilled butter, 3 cups of the
flour and the sugar and, with your fingertips, rub until the mixture
resembles flakes of coarse meal. Beat in the egg and continue to mix
until the pastry is smooth. Shape it into a ball, wrap it in wax
paper, and refrigerate 1 hour, or until the dough is form.
With the back of a spoon, rub the preserves through a fine sieve set
over a 1-quart saucepan, then cook over moderate heat, stirring
constantly, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until they thicken into a thin
puree. Set aside off the heat.
Preheat the oven to 250F. Cut the chilled pastry in half and shape
each half into a rectangle. One half at a time, roll the pastry
between two sheets of lightly floured wax paper into a rectangle
approximately 10 inches wide and 15 inches long. With a pastry
brush, coat each of 2 cookie sheets with 1 tablespoon of butter and
sprinkle them with flour, tipping the sheets from side to side to
coat them evenly. Then invert the sheets and tap them against a hard
surface to dislodge any excess flour. Peel off the top sheets of wax
paper and use the bottom ones to lift the 2 rectangles of pastry onto
the 2 cookie sheets. Peel off the remaining sheets of wax paper. Bake
40 minutes, or until the pastry begins to turn a pale gold. Watch
carefully for any sign of burning and regulate the heat accordingly.
With a metal spatula, spread the raspberry puree evenly over one
sheet of the pastry, covering it completely and smoothly. Slide the
second sheet of pastry gently onto the first.
With a spoon stir the sugar, water and lemon juice together in a large
mixing bowl to form a thin paste. Spread the icing over the top layer
of pastry with the spatula, and set the cake aside to cool to room
temperature. With a small, sharp knife or pastry wheel, slice the
Aleksander Torte into strips 1 inch wide and 2 inches long, cutting
the ends on the diagonal.
Recipe By : Time-Life Foods of the World (Russian Cooking)
Servings: 48 servings
Aleksander Torte / Raspberry-Filled Pastry St Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Dessert; Fruit
The History of Recipes
It is possible to track the history of `recipes` back into the distant past, in fact as far back into history as early Egypt, and possibly even further than that. Interesting though that maybe, generally, these ancient records were just basic pictorial recipes for preparing food.
In fact, the most ancient recipe discovered, according to academics are a few ancient tablets in Sumerian which describe the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made anyone who tried it feel blissful and exhilarated. Later, there are some books which appeared in the 14th Century ; a cookery book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another named `Curye on Inglish`. Amusingly, these two books are not about the indian food that we all know today, but instead descriptions of the types of meals cooked for the upper classes of that period. For the decades that followed, the powerful families of Wesstern Europe strove to serve up the most extravagent meals, and consequentially cooks and their recipe collections were much in demand. Even so, it was during the nineteenth century that haute cuisine and cookery books reached a high level of popularity. Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, devoted much of their lives to assembling, verifying, and writing down the recipes that were being prepared for the better households. The arrival of television brought us TV chefs and the demand for the accompanying recipe books. Which pretty much brings us to the present day and the internet revolution, allowing us all to access massive numbers of recipes just like those on this web site. |
We hope you enjoy this Aleksander Torte _ Raspberry Filled Pastry St recipe.
