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Macaroon Pyramids
Make a strong cement by dissolving about two ounces of gum arabic and half a pound of loaf sugar, pounded, in a wine-glassful of water. Stir this over the fire until quite dissolved, when use it hot. Have ready some macaroons, and fix a tin mould where it will stand firmly, smear it well with butter, and use the cement to cover the outside of the mould, which has been buttered, with the macaroons. Commence from the bottom upwards, always remembering to see each row of macaroons firm and cold before putting on another. Remove from the mould when firmly set, and fill with whipped cream or with crystallised fruits. Probable cost of macaroons, 1s. 8d. per pound.
A Victorian table centrepiece rather than a dessert in the usual sense: almond macaroons glued into a hollow cone with a sugar-and-gum cement, then unmoulded and filled. The whole thing depends on patience at one step.
- The hinge: let each row setThe cement grabs as it cools, and a row that is still warm will slide when weighted from above. Fix one ring of macaroons, wait until it is genuinely cold and immovable, then start the next. Rushing this risks the pyramid collapsing.
- A wine-glassfulA wine-glass is conventionally reckoned at about 2 fl oz, so a scant quarter cup of water to 8 oz sugar and 2 oz gum arabic. That gives a very thick, tacky syrup; keep it over the lowest heat or a pan of hot water while you work, since it stiffens quickly.
- Loaf sugar and gum arabicLoaf sugar was refined sugar sold in cones and broken up, hence "pounded" — ordinary granulated sugar is the modern equivalent. Gum arabic (acacia gum) is still sold as a food-grade powder by baking and confectionery suppliers; it is edible, and its job here is purely adhesive.
- Which macaroonsThese are small, domed almond macaroons — ground almonds, sugar and egg white, firm and dry — not coconut haystacks and not sandwiched French macarons. Dryness matters: a soft, chewy biscuit will not hold a joint.
- The mouldA conical or dome-shaped tin mould, of the sort used for moulded ices and puddings. Buttering alone is optimistic; line the mould with foil or parchment as well, butter that, and the shell will release cleanly without a macaroon staying behind.
- Fill at the last minuteWhipped cream will soak into the biscuits and soften the cement if left to stand. Build and unmould the shell in advance, keep it dry at room temperature, and fill only as it goes to the table. Crystallised fruit is the safer option if the pyramid must stand for a while.
- YieldNo quantity is given because it depends entirely on the size of the mould.
- The cost noteThe recipe gives the probable cost of macaroons as 1s. 8d. per pound, a price note of the kind used to indicate the expense of the dish.
An inexpensive relative of the French pièce montée, the built-up sugar centrepiece that Carême and his successors made a familiar finish to a formal dinner. The technique is the same one behind croquembouche: small baked units cemented into architecture, unmoulded to stand hollow, and filled. Gum arabic was a staple of the nineteenth-century confectioner, used for pastillage, for sticking sugar ornaments and for giving fruit a gloss, and it survives as a food additive today. That a household dictionary quotes the price of bought macaroons per pound is telling: an ambitious-looking dessert could be assembled from shop biscuits without pastry training.