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Chocolate Macaroons
Stir to a paste whites of seven eggs, three-fourths a pound of sifted sugar, one-half a pound of almonds pounded very fine, and two ounces of grated Baker's Premium No. 1 Chocolate. Have ready wafer paper cut round, on which lay pieces of the mixture rolled to fit the wafer. Press one-half a blanched almond on each macaroon and bake in a moderate oven.
The second of two chocolate macaroons in this booklet, and quite unlike the first. This one is bound with egg whites alone, baked on edible wafer paper, and makes a very large batch.
- Stirred, not beaten"Stir to a paste" is the instruction and it should be followed literally. The whites are a binder here, not a foam -- whip them and you get a meringue that spreads and cracks instead of a dense macaroon.
- Wafer paper is not baking parchmentThis is the edible sheet made from potato or rice starch, still sold for nougat, torrone and macaroons. It bakes onto the base of the biscuit and is eaten with it. Cut it into rounds first, as the recipe says, and mould each piece to fit its disc rather than dropping spoonfuls.
- Halve it, at leastThree-quarters of a pound of sugar, half a pound of almonds and seven egg whites will give you something like forty to fifty small macaroons. The proportions halve cleanly.
- Pounded, not milledAlmond flour is the obvious shortcut, but almonds pounded in a mortar release some oil and give a denser, chewier result than dry-milled flour does. A food processor pulsed in short bursts splits the difference; run it long and you get almond butter.
- Grated chocolate againTwo ounces of Premium No. 1, grated rather than melted, for the same reason as in the other macaroon recipe -- melted chocolate slackens the paste.
- The almond on topHalf a blanched almond pressed onto each is the traditional finish and also a useful marker, since it flattens slightly as the macaroon spreads and tells you when they have settled.
- The ovenA moderate oven, 325 to 350F, for 15 to 20 minutes. They want to be set and dry on the surface with the middle still soft; taken too far they turn hard and brittle.
- Seven whites, and what to do with the yolksThis recipe leaves seven yolks behind. The book's own suggestion elsewhere is a chocolate whip, but see our note on that page; a custard or a chocolate cream is the safer home for them.
Set this beside Mrs. Bedford's Chocolate Macaroons two pages earlier and the difference is instructive. Hers uses whole eggs, equal weights of chocolate, sugar and almonds, a pinch of cinnamon, and buttered paper; this one uses whites only, unequal weights, no spice, and wafer paper. Neither is wrong, and the booklet prints both without comment -- a reminder that these advertising pamphlets were compilations rather than edited cookbooks, gathering whatever cooking-school teachers, magazine kitchens and anonymous correspondents sent in. Wafer paper itself points to the continental confectionery trade, where Oblaten had long been used under lebkuchen and nougat, and its appearance in an American booklet of this date reflects how much of the professional candy trade was staffed by German and Austrian confectioners.