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Cocoa Almond Cream
Use recipe for Cocoa Cream and add one cup blanched, chopped, and browned almonds just before molding.
A one-line variation that assumes you have the book's Cocoa Cream in front of you. Everything that needs attention is in the almonds and in the word "molding."
- It is a rider, not a standalone recipeYou need the base Cocoa Cream from the same section; this line only tells you what to add and when. Read the base through first, since the timing here hangs entirely on its setting point.
- BlanchingCover shelled almonds with boiling water, let stand about a minute, drain, and the skins slip off between finger and thumb. Dry them thoroughly before browning or they will steam rather than toast.
- BrowningThe recipe specifies no method. Almonds can be browned spread on a sheet in a moderate oven, on the order of 350F for 8-10 minutes, stirring once, until they smell toasted and are pale gold; a dry skillet over medium heat works as well if you keep them moving. They darken further off the heat, so pull them early.
- Cool them completelyWarm nuts folded into a cream will thin it, and if the base is set with gelatin they can slacken the set. Spread them out and let them come to room temperature, which also keeps them crisp.
- "Just before molding" is the hingeIf the book's Cocoa Cream is a gelatin mixture, as molded creams of this period commonly were, add the almonds once it has cooled and begun to thicken but is still pourable. Too early and the nuts sink to what becomes the top of the turned-out mold; too late and you cannot fold them in evenly.
- Chop sizeCoarse chop, roughly the size of a lentil. Almonds cut finer disappear into the cream and lose the contrast in texture that is the whole point of the variation.
- The moldThe recipe names neither mold nor chilling time. Use a tin or ceramic mold, or a loaf pan, sized to the base recipe's yield, rinsed with cold water and not greased. Chill until firm. To unmold, dip the outside briefly in warm water and invert onto a cold plate.
Lowney's Cook Book was published by the Walter M. Lowney Company, a Boston chocolate manufacturer, and like most maker-sponsored cookbooks of the early 1900s it exists to show householders how many different ways one product can be used. Hence the structure here: a base Cocoa Cream, then a short string of variations built on it, each adding a single ingredient. Gelatin creams and "Bavarian" molds were staples of the American dessert course in this period, made practical by the arrival of reliable powdered gelatin, which spared cooks the long business of boiling calves' feet or isinglass. Browned almonds were one common way to put crunch into an otherwise smooth molded sweet, and the combination of chocolate and toasted almond was already well established in confectionery on both sides of the Atlantic before it turned up in the dessert chapter.