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Rocks, Almond
Take one pound of sweet almonds, two pounds of loaf sugar, and a pound and a half of sweet almonds cut into slices. Beat the almonds that are not sliced and the sugar together in a mortar, and pass it all through a flour-sieve. Put the whites of seven or eight eggs into a middling-sized pan, and whisk them up to a very strong froth. Stir in sufficient of your almonds and sugar to make it into a moderate stiff paste, adding also your sliced almonds; form it into small heaps the required size with your fingers--mind you do not press the heaps together too tight, but let them be rather loose, especially on the top. Cover some tins with wafer-paper, and lay them on it, about an inch and a half apart. Bake in a cool oven, and leave the oven door open the greater part of the time they are baking; when they are of a nice pale brown they are done. If managed properly, almond rocks have a pretty appearance.
A large-batch almond meringue, close to what a French confectioner would call a rocher. The original makes several pounds; a quarter of the quantities gives a manageable tray or two.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar sold as a hard cone and broken up for use. Granulated or caster sugar is the direct substitute, and caster dissolves into the whites more readily.
- Grinding the almondsThe mortar work is done in seconds in a food processor, but pulse the almonds with the sugar as the recipe says. The sugar absorbs the oil and keeps the nuts from turning to paste. Sieve afterwards and re-grind the coarse remainder.
- Sweet almonds"Sweet" simply distinguishes them from bitter almonds, which are not generally sold as a food ingredient today. Ordinary blanched almonds are what is wanted; the sliced pound and a half is what gives the rocks their spiky look.
- ProportionsScaled down: about 4 oz ground almonds, 8 oz sugar, 6 oz flaked almonds, and 2 egg whites. Add the almond-sugar mixture gradually — the stiffness of the paste matters more than the exact weight.
- A cool ovenRoughly 275-300F. With the door propped ajar the point is drying rather than baking, so allow a long slow bake and judge by colour rather than the clock. Pale brown is the signal; a deep colour means the oven was too hot.
- Wafer paperEdible wafer paper, often sold as "rice paper" for cake decorating, and it is eaten along with the sweet. Baking parchment works and peels away cleanly, though the undersides will be flatter.
- Keeping them looseThe instruction not to press the heaps is the hinge of the recipe. Compacted mounds bake into hard nuggets; a loose, ragged top is what gives the finished sweets their rocky appearance and their light bite.
- Yield and storageThe scaled-down quantities give roughly 20-24 small rocks. Store airtight as soon as they are cold — meringue draws damp from the air within hours and goes leathery.
Almond and sugar confectionery of this kind runs back through the marchpane tradition, where ground almonds and refined sugar stood in for the flour and butter of ordinary baking; the addition of whisked egg white to make a light paste is of a piece with the macaroons, ratafias and "rocks" sold by nineteenth-century British confectioners. The name simply describes the look, and the French rocher is the same idea under the same logic. The care taken over loaf sugar and the mortar is a reminder that both the sugar and the grinding were work in themselves before either came ready-prepared.