Chocolate (Cream butter add remaining)

What survives here is a fragment: a method in one line and an ingredient list that has lost its numbers and at least one item. It is workable only if you treat it as a template for an almond paste cookie rather than a set of instructions.

• The quantities are missingThe list reads "pound almond paste, pound powdered sugar, 3 egg whites" — the numbers before each "pound" have dropped out of the text, and could as easily have been fractions as whole numbers. Two pounds of solids to three whites would give a very stiff paste; half a pound of each is closer to a standard almond cookie dough.
• Butter is in the method but not the listThe instruction to cream butter has no matching ingredient, another sign of a truncated entry. Some almond paste cookies rely on the paste for fat and use no butter, so it is not safe to guess an amount.
• Moderate oven350F. Almond paste browns quickly because of its sugar content, so watch the edges rather than the clock; these are usually done in 10 to 15 minutes depending on thickness.
• Almond paste is not marzipanPeriod almond paste is roughly equal parts ground blanched almonds and sugar, coarser and less sweet than modern marzipan, which carries far more sugar and often glucose syrup. Canned almond paste from the baking aisle is the right substitution; marzipan will make the result cloying.
• Powdered sugar then and nowPowdered sugar of this period was generally not cut with cornstarch. Today's confectioners' sugar contains around 3 percent starch, which absorbs moisture and will stiffen the dough slightly.
• Why the chilling mattersAn almond paste dough is soft and oily at room temperature and will tear rather than roll. An hour in the refrigerator, and rolling between sheets of parchment, is the difference between shaping it and scraping it.
• YieldAssuming half a pound each of paste and sugar, expect roughly three to four dozen small cookies. They keep well in a tin for a week and freeze cleanly.