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Macaroon Pudding
Soften eight ounces of macaroons by pouring a pint of boiling cream over them, and then covering them until cold. Break four eggs, separate the yolks and whites, add to the yolks two table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar, and a glass of rum or brandy, and beat the whites to a froth. Beat the macaroons smooth with a wooden spoon, mix in the egg-yolks, sugar, and brandy, and, lastly, just before baking, stir in lightly the whites of the eggs. Fill to about half some small cups, and bake in a moderate oven for fifteen minutes. Probable cost, 3s., exclusive of brandy.
A light almond-scented baked custard built on soaked biscuits, from a British book whose pint is the imperial 20 fl oz. Two words need translating before you start: "macaroons" and "a glass".
- Macaroons means almond biscuitsIn Cassell's these are the crisp almond-and-egg-white rounds we would now call amaretti or almond macaroons — not coconut macaroons and not French macaron sandwiches. Eight ounces is roughly 225 g; slightly stale ones absorb the cream better.
- The pintAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz (about 568 ml), so a scant 2 1/2 US cups of cream. Pouring it boiling over the biscuits and covering until cold is the whole soaking method; do not rush it with warm cream, as the biscuits need time to collapse evenly.
- A glass of rum or brandyA wineglass in Victorian usage is about 2 fl oz (60 ml). This is a genuinely loose measure — anything from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 fl oz is within the spirit of the original, and less will simply make a milder pudding.
- Moderate oven350F / 175C. Fifteen minutes suits small cups filled halfway; the tops should be puffed and just set with the faintest wobble at the centre.
- Why only half fullThe beaten whites make the mixture rise well above its starting level and then sink as it cools. Filling the cups more than halfway means overflow in the oven and a dense, collapsed pudding.
- Folding, not stirringThe whites go in at the last moment and "lightly" — a few strokes with a spatula until no large streaks remain. Beat them to soft, not stiff, peaks so they fold into the heavy soaked-biscuit base without deflating.
- VesselsUse 4-6 oz ramekins or ovenproof teacups, buttered, on a baking sheet. A water bath is not called for and is not needed at this short a time.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no yield; the quantities are generous and will half-fill a good many small cups. Best served soon after leaving the oven, while still risen; cold, they set to a firm almond custard that is pleasant but quite different.
- The cost note"Probable cost, 3s." is the book's own housekeeping arithmetic in shillings, aimed at a cook accounting to a mistress. It has no modern equivalent worth calculating.
Macaroons — the word goes back through French macaron to Italian maccarone, a term that covered pasta and sweet pastes alike — arrived in English cookery as a keeping biscuit of pounded almonds, sugar and egg white, durable enough to be bought from confectioners and kept in the store cupboard. That durability is why they turn up so often as an ingredient rather than a sweet in their own right: Georgian and Victorian cooks crumbed them into trifles, charlottes and custards, where they supplied almond flavour, bulk and a little sweetness all at once, much as ratafias and sponge fingers did. This pudding belongs to that family of soaked-biscuit puddings, related to the cabinet and diplomat puddings of the same period, but lightened with whisked whites so that it behaves more like a soufflé than a custard. Its costing in shillings, and its call for cream and spirit, suggest a household of some means.