Mix together a pound of sifted flour and a quarter of a pound of
powdered loaf-sugar. Divide into four a pound of fresh butter; mix
one-fourth of it with the flour, and make it into a dough. Then
roll it out, and put in the three remaining divisions of the
butter at three more rollings. Set the paste in a cool place till
the custard is ready. For the custard, beat very light the yolk
only of eight eggs, and then stir them gradually into a pint of
rich cream, adding three ounces of powdered white sugar, a grated
nutmeg, and ratafia, peach-water, or essence of lemon, to your
taste. Put the mixture into a deep dish; set it in an iron baking
pan or a Dutch oven half full of boiling water, and bake it a
quarter of an hour. Then put it to cool.
In the mean time roll out the paste into a thin sheet; cut it into
little round cakes about the size of a dollar, and bake them on
flat tins. When they are done, spread some of the cakes thickly
with the custard, and lay others on the top of them, making them
fit closely in the manner of lids.
You may bake the paste in patty-pans like shells, and put in the
custard after they come out of the oven. If the custard is baked
in the paste, it will be clammy and heavy at the bottom.
They are sometimes called cream cakes or cream tarts.