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Almond Cones
4 ounces ground almonds 1 ounce sugar 1/2 teaspoon powdered cinnamon Whites of 3 eggs Mix the almonds, sugar and cinnamon well together; whip the whites of eggs to a stiff froth, and add to the mixture. Line a flat baking sheet with buttered paper. Put little rough heaps of the mixture on the sheet, a good distance apart. Bake very carefully in a slow oven for fifteen minutes. Watch carefully or they will burn.
A three-ingredient almond macaroon in the older sense — ground nuts bound with whipped egg white, no flour. The whole recipe hinges on a genuinely low oven, since the sugar is minimal and the almond oil scorches quickly.
- Oven temperatureA "slow oven" is usually reckoned somewhere between 250F and 325F; the low end is safer here. Fifteen minutes at that heat sets the outside while leaving the centres soft, and the recipe's own warning is that they scorch easily.
- Weights, not cups4 ounces of ground almonds is roughly 1 to 1 1/4 cups of commercial almond flour or meal; 1 ounce of sugar is about 2 tablespoons. Weighing is worth it, as the ratio of nut to white is what holds the heaps together.
- Ground almondsModern almond flour is finer and drier than what was sold as ground almonds a century ago. The recipe does not say whether they were blanched; almond meal with the skins left in gives more flavour if you want it.
- Folding the whitesWhip to stiff peaks, then fold the dry mixture in rather than stirring. The almonds are heavy and will knock the air out fast, so combine only until no dry pockets remain.
- Buttered paperParchment replaces the buttered paper and needs no greasing. These meringues stick tenaciously to bare metal.
- ShapingTwo teaspoons, or a piping bag with a plain tube, give the "rough heaps" a conical shape. The recipe asks for them to be set a good distance apart.
- YieldAbout 18 to 20 small cones. They are best the day they are made; stored airtight, the crisp shell softens overnight.
Recipes like this belong to a family of flourless almond confections long established in European baking, and which reach English cookbooks as macaroons, ratafias and almond cakes. Cookbooks of the period were organised as much around thrift as around courses, and a household that had used yolks for custard, mayonnaise or a sauce needed somewhere for the leftover whites to go. That it also contains no meat, no stock and no gelatine suits it to a meatless collection.