I know it sounds like some sweetened breakfast cereal, but it’s nothing of the kind. You know how one thing leads to another? Making Puff Kids was a classic case of such serendipity.
It started with peaches. I had an abundance and decided to look for a colonial recipe to use them. I found a promising recipe for peach preserves in Mary Randolph’s . At the end of the recipe, Mrs. Randolph suggested the peach preserves taste quite nice with any sort of puffs.
Intrigued I began looking for puffs. First I decided that ‘puffs’ refered to puff pastry. I found many variations on puff pastes, a kind of pastry which works the butter into the wet flour by rolling the dough out several times, adding butter each time. In my search for puff pastes, I came across a recipe in Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery for puff kids.
This recipe is interesting on several levels. To start, the name is surprising. I thought perhaps puff kids were cut outs, like gingerbread men, or perhaps the name referred to a savory pastry of baby goat meat. It turns out both guesses are wrong. “Kids’ are a sort of basket (and an earlier meaning of coffin is also basket) It is obvious from this that in this context, ‘kids’ means a pastry or pie crust.
Some of the recipe’s quantities are also interesting. For instance, a quartern of flour has various meanings, depending on the time and material weighed. A quartern can be ¼ of a pound, a ¼ of a peck, a ¼ of a stone, or a ¼ of a pint. (a peck measures volume rather than weight. Four pecks make a bushel. In the 13th century, peck was a measure for oats or flour, about 2 gallons (roughly 14 pounds or one stone), but the weight measurement has varied from 8-14 pounds in various times and places. In Victorina times, a quartern loaf of bread was a ¼ stone, using about 3.5 lbs of flour, with a finished weight 4.33 lbs. As long as we’re talking old measurements and very large loaves of bread, two quartern loaves equalled the older gallon loaf. Imagine an 8-9 pound loaf of bread! During the Reformation, bakers were forbidden to sell quartern loaves. I have not discovered why this prohibition was put in place.
Nowadays a peck is more commonly used to measure apples), Considering the number of eggs in this recipe, I took the quartern of flour to mean a quarter of a peck, or 3.5 pounds of flour. Flour measured by pounds is a more accurate measure than measuring flour by volume. However, 3.5 pounds of flour is about 12 cups of all-purpose flour.
Finally, the recipe directions for a puff pastry is interesting in the method. Most puff paste recipes mix the flour and water, then roll in the butter. This is a more modern method, cutting the butter into the flour, and then additng the liquid. In my experience this method produces a lighter, flakier pastry.
You never know where a bit of research will take you. In this case, a simple quest for a peach recipe lead to a delightful pastry. Here’s how to enjoy them.
Original recipes: Peach Marmalade Take the ripest soft peaches (the yellow ones make the prettiest marmalade,) pare them, and take out the stones; put them in the pan with one pound of dry light coloured brown sugar to two of peaches: when they are juicy, they do not require water; with a silver of wooden spoon, chop them with the sugar; continue to do this, and let them boil gently till they are a transparent pulp, that will be a jelly when cold. Puffs made of this marmalade are very delicious. (Randolph, 156) To Make Puff Kids Take a quartern of flowre & beat in 10 eggs, & keepe out 4 of the youlks. break in 2 pound of butter, & crush these together lightly. put in cold milk & work it up very gently. Use this paste for pasties, dishes, or patty pans. (Booke of Cookery, 158)
Modern Versions Peach Marmalade 4 cups peaches, peeled, stoned and cut into chunks 1 cup brown sugar (more or less depending on taste and how sweet your peaches are.) Cook over a medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent them from sticking and burning. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, and cook to 220 degrees (Fahrenheit).. Puff Kids (Note that the original recipe, calling for 10 eggs and 12 or so cups of flour would make a lot more puff kids than we could possible eat. This recipe is a quarter of the original. Also, the original recipe does not tell us how to make the dough into baskets. My attempts to make free-standing baskets are rather uneven and lumpy. I found that sandbaekelser tins worked very well.) 3 c. flour 2 eggs (leave out 1 yolk), ½ lb butter Enough milk to make about 1 cup when mixed with the eggs Cut the butter into the flour until the mixture is crumbly. Beat the eggs lightly and mix with enough milk to make about 1 cup. Gently mix the liquid into the flour. Form into a ball, and roll out ⅛ inch thick. Cut into 2 inch circles. Form triangular baskets or press the circles into fluted cookie tins to make cups. Bake 12-15 minutes at 400 degrees until lightly browned. Allow to cool, then fill the pastry with the peach marmalade.
BRIC-A-BRAC 