Puits d'amour
The Puits d'amour is a French pastry with a hollow center. The center is usually stuffed with redcurrant jelly or raspberry jam; a later variation replaced the jam with vanilla pastry cream. The surface of the cake is sprinkled with confectioners' sugar or covered with caramel.
Etymology
Puits d'amour is a French expression carrying erotic connotations; it literally translates to 'well of love'.History
The first mention of the recipe appeared in Vincent De La Chapelles 1735 recipe book Le cuisinier moderne. La Chapelle presented two recipes for a gâteau de puits d’amour consisting of a large puff pastry vol-au-vent topped with a pastry handle and stuffed with cherries or redcurrant jelly, the ensemble was meant to resemble the bucket of a well. The other recipe is for the petits puits d’amour, a bouchée sized variant of the cake. La Maison Stohrer, one of Paris' oldest patisseries, credits its founder Nicolas Stohrer, the exiled Polish king Stanislas pâtissier with creating the dessert.In the eighteenth century, the puits d'amour caused scandal because of its name and presentation which alludes to the female genitalia; nevertheless, it was very successful in the court of Louis XV's intimate dinners.