Pellegrino Artusi, one of the greatest Italian gastronomes, described the langues de chat like this: “They are tea pastries, taken from a recipe from Paris”.
They are cookies with a thin and elongated shape, crunchy and light, ideal to accompany a tea or an ice cream. Probably associated with France because they are very buttery, in reality they are common throughout Europe.
Grandma made them in a round shape and called them “dollars”. With the egg whites she made cookies and with the leftover yolks she made the custard that was served still warm.
Grandma Irene's snack: custard and langue de chat
- Preparation time: 20 minutes
- For 4 people
- Difficulty: Average difficulty recipe
- Ingredients
- For the langue de chat:
- 170 g of soft butter
- 170 g of icing sugar
- 4 egg whites
- 130 g of all-purpose flour
- Seeds of ½ vanilla bean
- For the custard:
- 4 egg yolks
- 90 g of sugar
- 20 g of corn starch
- 300 ml of whole milk
- Grated zest of ½ lemon
- Seeds of ½ vanilla bean
- Instructions
- Add the softened butter, icing sugar and vanilla to the mixing bowl. Cream until light. Add the egg whites and the sifted flour and beat to bring the batter together until smooth.
- Put the mixture in a piping bag and put it in the freezer for ten minutes and then in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- On a baking tray lined with baking paper, form sticks of about 3 inch in length, well-spaced apart.
- Bake for 7-8 minutes. Leave to cool on a rack.
- Meanwhile, prepare the custard. Heat the milk and the vanilla pod and seeds in a pan over a medium heat, stirring frequently, until just coming up to boiling.
- Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix together the egg yolks with the sugar and starch. Slowly pour the hot milk into the paste, stirring constantly until completely combined. Cook gently over low heat, stirring constantly with a whisk, until custard thickens. Remove from the heat and continue to stir with the whisk until it reaches room temperature.
- Serve the cream with the biscuits.
Tips to ensure the success of the dish:
- Creaming the butter with the icing sugar is an important step for these cookies because it has to incorporate air.
- To have all the langue de chat similar, draw lines 3-inch-wide from the bottom to the top of a parchment paper. Pipe the batter in a straight line over the template leaving 3 inch between the piping cookies because the spread a lot in the oven
- If you want to serve the custard cold, pour it into a bowl with baking paper or cling film in contact, so it does not develop a skin. Before serving, mix it and pour it into the glasses.
Nonna
