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Nut Chocolate Bars
Whites 3 eggs, 7 ozs. powdered sugar, 1 1/2 squares Walter Baker & Co.'s Premium No. 1 Chocolate, 1/4 lb. Jordan Almonds.
Beat whites of eggs until stiff and add gradually, while beating constantly, powdered sugar. Fold in chocolate (which has been melted over hot water, then cooled slightly) and three-fourths of the almonds, blanched and chopped. Spread to one-fourth inch in thickness in a buttered dripping pan, sprinkle with remaining chopped nut meats and bake in a very slow oven forty-five minutes. Cut in finger-shaped pieces and remove from pan. Pile log cabin fashion on a fancy plate.
A baked meringue bar with a thin almond-chocolate body. The whole thing hinges on very low heat: this is closer to drying than baking, and any oven that browns the surface will produce a brittle sheet that shatters instead of cutting.
- "Very slow oven"Conventionally reckoned at about 250-275F. Higher heat tends to colour and crack the meringue rather than simply drying it, which is what the long, gentle bake is for.
- Powdered sugarIn this period the term usually means granulated sugar ground fine, not the cornstarch-blended confectioners' sugar sold today. Superfine (caster) sugar is the closer match. Seven ounces is about one cup.
- Premium No. 1 ChocolateWalter Baker's unsweetened baking chocolate, sold in one-ounce squares. Use 1 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate; anything sweetened will throw off both the sugar balance and the set.
- Jordan almondsHere this means the large flat almond of that name in its plain state, not the pastel sugar-shelled confection. A quarter pound of whole raw almonds, blanched and chopped, is what is wanted.
- Dripping panA shallow rimmed pan of the sort set under a roast; sizes varied a good deal, so any large shallow pan will serve. Butter it and line it with parchment; meringue bonds to bare metal even when greased.
- Folding in the chocolateCool the melted chocolate to just barely warm. Hot chocolate deflates the whites on contact and the batter turns loose and weeping.
- CuttingCut while the sheet is still warm and pliable and lift the fingers out then. Left to cool whole in the pan, it goes crisp and will not part cleanly.
- YieldA quarter-inch sheet from this quantity gives several dozen fingers, depending on how generously they are cut. They keep in a tin but soften in humid weather.
Choice Recipes was one of a long series of small booklets issued by Walter Baker & Co. of Dorchester, Massachusetts, the oldest chocolate manufacturer in the United States, and like most such publications it existed to move product: the brand name is written into the ingredient line rather than left to the shopper. Its recipes were credited to well-known cooking-school figures of the day, and the fingerprints of the Boston Cooking School style are all over this one, from the exact ounce weights to the instruction to pile the finished bars "log cabin fashion" on a fancy plate.