Favors
When children are being entertained, unusual sweets will always be appreciated, especially if there is something attractive to be carried home to be shown and later eaten. Decorated candies, described in the preceding chapter, will be found appropriate for this purpose, as well as the favors suggested in this chapter. Grown people are quite as pleased as children with something that represents individual and original effort. Almond Fruits (Marzipans) Work together equal parts by weight of almond paste and confectioners' sugar. Moisten with a mixture of equal parts of rose water and vanilla extract, and knead until well blended. Shape in a roll three fourths of an inch in diameter. Cut off pieces and shape with the hands to represent fruits or vegetables. Then color, using vegetable color paste diluted with water, applying it with a small brush. Tiny carrots, strawberries with green paper hulls, potatoes,-the eyes made with a skewer, and the whole rolled in cinnamon,-tiny pumpkins, walnuts, chestnuts, radishes, mushrooms, and many other shapes may be made with this mixture. The paste may be colored before modeling, and shaped into roses, jonquils, poinsettias, and other flowers, and used for decorating cakes and candies.
A straightforward two-ingredient modeling paste that still works exactly as written; almost everything that needs updating is a matter of proportions, drying and food coloring.
- By weight, not volumeEqual parts by weight matters here: a pound of almond paste to a pound of confectioners' sugar. Cup measures will not give the same ratio, since the two ingredients differ considerably in density.
- Almond paste is not marzipanAlmond paste sold today generally carries a higher proportion of almonds to sugar than marzipan does, and is firm and only lightly sweet, though brands vary. Adding the sugar in this recipe is what turns it into marzipan. Do not substitute a tube of ready-made marzipan and then add another pound of sugar.
- Moisten sparinglyThe rose water and vanilla go in a few drops at a time. Almond paste varies in oil content, and a paste that goes wet will slump and will not hold a modeled shape. Stop as soon as it kneads smooth and holds a fingerprint.
- Rose water strengthModern bottles of rose water vary from delicate to overpowering. Taste a pinch after the first addition rather than measuring blind.
- Coloring"Vegetable color paste" is what we call gel paste food color. Dilute it as directed and brush it on in thin washes -- painting the surface, as the recipe says, gives far better fruit than kneading color through the whole batch. Liquid supermarket colors are too watery and will make the surface tacky.
- Let them drySet the finished fruits on parchment for several hours, uncovered, before painting and again before packing. A skin needs to form or the color will bleed and the pieces will stick together in the box.
- Finishing touchesWhole cloves make convincing stems and blossom ends; a fine grater or a piece of window screen gives citrus peel texture. The cinnamon roll for potatoes is the period trick and still the best one.
- Yield and keepingThe recipe gives no yield; two pounds of finished paste will make several dozen small fruits, the count depending entirely on how large you cut the pieces from the three-quarter-inch roll. Stored airtight at cool room temperature they keep several weeks; refrigeration makes them sweat.
Marzipan reached European kitchens through the medieval Mediterranean trade in almonds and sugar, and its modeling into fruits, animals and elaborate architectural pieces was a courtly confectioner's art long before it was a home one -- the English "subtleties" of the late medieval banquet were often built from sugar-and-almond paste. Lübeck and Toledo both claim it as their own, and the origin stories attached to each are traditional rather than documented. By the time this book was written, almond paste could be bought ready-made in tins, which is precisely why a chapter like this exists: the sculptural end of confectionery had come within reach of a home cook with an afternoon and a small paintbrush. The framing here -- favors made for children's parties, to be admired and carried home -- reflects an era when the hostess was expected to produce evidence of "individual and original effort," and when a hand-painted marzipan carrot on a place setting was that evidence.