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Almond Paste Rolls
1/4 cup almond paste worked into 1 cup boiled water, which has been cooled to lukewarm. Add 2 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 cake compressed yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup lukewarm water. Now add three or four cups flour, mix together thoroughly, knead to smooth dough. Keep the dough as soft as it can be handled, to have texture of buns right. Let stand till double in bulk, shape into oval rolls, let rise again till light. Brush tops with milk, bake in hot oven.
A plain enriched yeast dough with almond paste dissolved into the liquid rather than rolled in as a filling, so the almond flavour runs through the crumb. The proportions are sound; only the yeast and the oven need translating.
- Compressed yeastOne cake of compressed (fresh) yeast in this period was about 0.6 oz. Substitute 2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry or instant yeast, still proofed in the 1/4 cup lukewarm water as directed.
- "Hot oven"Read as 400-425F. Rolls this size take roughly 15-20 minutes; pull them when the tops are deep gold and the bottoms sound hollow.
- Almond paste, not marzipanAlmond paste is roughly equal parts ground almonds and sugar, far less sweet than marzipan. Marzipan will make the rolls noticeably sweeter. Crumble the paste and work it into the warm water with a fork or a whisk; it will not dissolve completely, and small flecks in the crumb are expected.
- Liquid temperatureThe instruction to boil the water and cool it to lukewarm may simply reflect older habits of scalding liquids; the recipe does not say. What matters now is only that the liquid be around 105-110F, warm enough to start the yeast and cool enough not to kill it.
- Flour rangeThree to four cups leaves room for differences in flour absorbency. Start at three cups and add only enough to stop the dough sticking to the bowl.
- The hinge: keep it softThe direction to keep the dough as soft as can be handled is the whole recipe. A stiff dough here bakes into a dense, dry roll. Aim for a dough that is tacky to the touch but leaves the bowl clean.
- Rising timesNone are given. Expect 60-90 minutes for the first rise in a warm kitchen and 30-45 for the shaped rolls, though the visual cues -- doubled, then light and puffy when nudged -- are more reliable than the clock.
- Milk washMilk alone gives a soft, matte, pale-gold top rather than the shine of an egg wash. If you want colour, a second brushing partway through baking helps more than a heavier first coat.
- YieldAbout 12 to 16 oval rolls, depending on how much flour the dough takes. Best the day they are baked.
Almond paste reached American home baking through the Northern European Christmas and Easter breads -- German stollen and Scandinavian sweet doughs among them -- where it is usually a ribbon of filling rolled inside the loaf. Working it into the dough liquid instead, as here, uses far less of it: a quarter cup flavours a dozen rolls, where a filling would need several times that.