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Assorted Chocolates: Almond
Almond Tulips Fondant Almond extract Blanched almonds Coating chocolate Flavor fondant with almond extract, and make into balls, shaping them high and pointed. Dip in melted coating chocolate, and put three halved blanched almonds on the sides.
Burnt Almond Chocolates I Cover almonds with boiling water, let stand two minutes, cover with cold water, drain and remove brown skins. Put in pan, and leave in moderate oven until a golden brown. Cool and dip in melted coating chocolate. Burnt Almond Chocolates II 1/2 cup almonds 1/2 cup fondant Coating chocolate Prepare almonds as in previous recipe. When golden brown, cut in pieces, mix with fondant, shape in balls, let dry on wax paper, and dip in melted coating chocolate.
Three variations on the same pairing, all of which assume you already have a batch of fondant on hand and a bowl of melted coating chocolate ready. A few of the book's terms need translating before you start.
- Coating chocolateIn candy books of this era this usually means a sweet chocolate sold ready for dipping; some later products were confectioner's coatings made with other fats that set hard without tempering. If you use real couverture, temper it, or the shells will bloom grey and stay soft.
- FondantThis means a cooked sugar fondant of the kind candy books of the period give their own recipe for, not the pourable glaze sold under that name today. Any firm kneaded fondant works; let a freshly made batch ripen a few hours before shaping so it is not sticky.
- "Moderate oven"Roughly 325 to 375F; 350F is a safe reading. Almonds will take something like 10 to 12 minutes in a single layer, stirred once, and they continue to darken off the heat, so pull them a shade lighter than you want.
- "Burnt almond" is toasted, not burntThe name is period usage for a deep golden roast. The window between golden and acrid is short, and scorched nuts will taint the whole batch through the chocolate.
- BlanchingTwo minutes in boiling water is enough to loosen the skins; longer softens the nut and it will not crisp properly in the oven. The cold water stops the cooking and cools them enough to slip the skins off under thumb pressure.
- Dry the nuts before roastingThe recipe does not say so, but almonds still wet from blanching will steam rather than toast. Pat them dry and spread them out.
- Setting the almond halvesPress the three halves on within a few seconds of dipping, while the coating is still wet. Once a skin has formed they will not adhere and will drop off later.
- Letting the centres dryThe second version's instruction to dry the balls on wax paper matters — a slightly crusted surface keeps the fondant from dissolving into the warm coating and leaking through the shell.
- YieldHalf a cup of almonds with half a cup of fondant makes roughly 20 to 24 small centres, depending on how large you roll them.
Hand-dipped assorted chocolates were a domestic ambition in the early twentieth century, when candy shops sold boxed assortments and cookbooks promised the home cook could match them with fondant, a marble slab and a bowl of melted coating. The three recipes here show the standard grammar of such a box: a shaped fondant centre, a whole roasted nut, or a nut chopped into fondant, each finished in the same chocolate so a single dipping session could produce several "varieties." "Burnt almond" is an old confectionery term for a deeply roasted almond rather than a scorched one, and it survived well into the twentieth century in ice cream and candy names. The "almond tulip" is a pointed cone with three almond halves set around it as petals, a shape and a decoration that the recipe offers simply for their looks.