Almond Tart
1 cup powdered sugar 1/3 cup grated chocolate 1/2 cup Jordan almonds, blanched and finely chopped 1 teaspoon baking powder ¾ cup cracker dust Beat yolks of eggs until thick and lemon-colored; add sugar gradually, then fold in white of eggs beaten until stiff and dry. Add chocolate, almonds, baking powder, and cracker dust. Bake in a round pan. Cool, split, and put whipped cream, sweetened and flavored, between and on top. Garnish with angelica and candied cherries. This makes a most attractive dessert when baked in individual tins. As soon as cool, remove centres, and fill with whipped cream, forced through a pastry bag.
A flourless sponge bound with cracker crumbs and ground almonds, split and layered with whipped cream. A few of its terms mean something different today.
- Jordan almondsIn this book that means large plain sweet almonds of the Malaga type, sold shelled and raw, not the pastel sugar-shelled confection the name now brings to mind. Blanch by covering with boiling water for a minute, slipping off the skins, then drying before chopping.
- Cracker dustPlain unsalted soda or water crackers ground to a fine powder (the ingredient line prints as "34 cup," almost certainly 3/4 cup). Pulse in a food processor and sift out any coarse pieces; matzo meal is the closest ready-made substitute.
- Powdered sugarPeriod usage for finely granulated sugar, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar in a modern box. Ordinary granulated, or superfine, is what the batter wants.
- Grated chocolateUnsweetened or bittersweet block chocolate grated on the fine side of a box grater, measured loosely. Cocoa powder is not a substitute here; the fat in the chocolate matters to the crumb.
- Egg quantityThe written method calls for beaten yolks and stiffly beaten whites, but no number is given in the ingredients. Comparable almond tortes of the period commonly use several eggs to a cup of sugar; treat the amount as unsettled rather than assuming.
- OvenNo temperature is stated. A cake of this kind belongs in a moderate oven, 350F, in a greased and paper-lined 8- or 9-inch round pan, about 30 to 35 minutes until the centre springs back. Individual tins want 15 to 20 minutes.
- FoldingThe whites carry much of the cake; there is no flour. Fold the chocolate, almonds and cracker dust in with a light hand and bake at once, or the batter deflates and bakes dense.
- AngelicaCandied stems of the angelica plant, once a standard green garnish and now sold mainly by specialist confectioners. Candied citron peel or a few pistachios give the same touch of colour.
- Yield and keepingOne 8- or 9-inch cake serves eight, or makes about a dozen individual tarts. Once filled with cream it must be kept refrigerated and eaten the same day.
Cracker- and crumb-bound almond cakes were a standing feature of American cookbooks from the 1880s onward, and are often said to descend from the flourless Central European nut tortes. Ground crackers did the work of flour, giving a firmer, drier crumb that split cleanly for a cream filling. The word tart here refers to the finished layered form rather than to any crust. The closing suggestion to bake in individual tins, hollow the centres and pipe in whipped cream reflects the turn-of-the-century enthusiasm for the pastry bag, which cooking schools of the era taught as a mark of finished work.