Macaroons
3 egg whites 1/4 teaspoon almond extract 1 cup powdered sugar Mix almond paste and sugar until like meal. Add one egg white at a time and mix thoroughly. When well blended, shape on buttered paper in small rounds. Bake on inverted dripping pan in a very slow oven. Remove from paper immediately. 14 cups sugar 2 egg yolks 1 egg 1 teaspoon salt
A three-ingredient almond macaroon of the pre-1920s American type: paste, sugar, whites, no flour and no leavening. The method is sound, but two of the quantities and one of the oven directions need translating.
- The almond paste quantity is missingThe instructions call for almond paste as the base, but no weight is given in the list as printed. A standard macaroon of this proportion uses about 1/2 lb (225 g) almond paste to 1 cup sugar and 3 whites; treat that as a reconstruction rather than the book's own figure.
- "Powdered sugar" in this periodIn American books of this date powdered sugar usually means finely ground granulated sugar, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold today. Superfine (caster) sugar is the closer match and gives the crisp shell these macaroons want.
- Very slow ovenPeriod tables put a very slow oven at roughly 250-275F, though the figure varies from source to source. Macaroons are dried as much as baked; at higher heat the sugar colors before the interior sets and the centers stay wet. Small rounds are likely to need half an hour or so, depending on the oven.
- Inverted dripping panA dripping pan is the deep roasting pan that sat under a joint. Turning it over gives a flat, thick baking surface that shields the bottoms from direct heat. A heavy rimless sheet pan, or two sheet pans stacked, does the same job.
- Work the paste and sugar firstThe hinge of the recipe is the phrase "until like meal." If the paste and sugar are not rubbed to an even sandy crumb before any white goes in, the paste stays in lumps that no amount of later mixing will break up.
- Add the whites one at a timeEach white must be fully absorbed before the next. Added all at once the mixture slackens and the rounds spread flat instead of holding a domed shape.
- Removing from the paperLift them while still warm; cooled macaroons weld to the paper. If they stick, slide a damp cloth under the paper for a minute and the steam will release them. Parchment removes the problem entirely.
- YieldThe book gives no count; small rounds from this quantity would come to roughly two dozen. Store airtight with a piece of apple or bread if you want them to stay chewy; open air makes them crisp quickly.
Almond macaroons reached American cookbooks by way of France and Italy, where the flourless paste-sugar-white confection had been convent and confectioner's work for centuries; the English name is generally traced to the Italian maccarone, a word applied to pastes of ground almond as well as of wheat. Their presence in a Lowney's book is a matter of commerce as much as cookery: the volume was published to promote a chocolate manufacturer. Almond paste was among the goods a grocery of the period could supply, which is why a home recipe can open with the paste already made rather than with a pound of blanched almonds and a mortar.