Home › The Waldorf Kitchen › Almond Cracklings
Almond Cracklings
Take six parts of blanched almonds to four of ground almonds, together with sifted sugar equal to the quantity of almonds used, the whites of some eggs and add a few drops of essence of vanilla. Mix them together in a basin and use a dessertspoon to lay out pieces the size of a walnut upon a sheet of paper, spread or baking-plates. The cracklings should be placed an inch and a half apart and be slightly spread out with the tip of the finger dipped in water. The circular form may be preserved, and quarter of an inch is sufficient thickness. Bake until of a light-brown color in a moderately hot oven.
This is a macaroon-family cookie built on almonds, sugar and egg white, with no flour and no leavening. The proportions are given by ratio rather than weight, which is workable once you fix a starting quantity.
- Fixing the ratioMost simply read as 6 parts blanched almonds to 4 parts ground almonds, with sugar equal to the combined 10 parts; the recipe does not say whether the parts are weight or volume, and weight is the easier assumption. A practical batch on that reading: 6 oz blanched almonds ground in the food processor, 4 oz almond flour, 10 oz sifted sugar.
- Two kinds of almondThe distinction is most likely texture rather than variety: "blanched" almonds are whole skinned nuts the cook grinds, and are likely to stay coarser than the ready-ground almonds sold as almond meal or flour. Using both should give a slightly less uniform crumb.
- Sifted sugarSimply sugar passed through a sieve; in books of this date the phrase can mean fine caster sugar or powdered sugar, and either will work here. Granulated sugar buzzed briefly in a processor is a serviceable equivalent.
- Egg whites are the only variable"The whites of some eggs" means as many as it takes. Add them one at a time and stop when the mass holds a soft peaked shape on the spoon and will just spread under a wet fingertip. Too many and the rounds run flat; for the batch above, expect roughly two to three large whites.
- Oven temperature"Moderately hot" is not a fixed figure; somewhere around 350-375F suits these, and the lower end is safer, since sugar-and-nut mixtures brown at the edges before the centres set.
- The wet fingerDipping the fingertip in water and pressing each mound out to an even quarter inch is what shapes the crackling and smooths the surface; the damp finger also stops the paste sticking.
- Paper and pansThe list "a sheet of paper, spread or baking-plates" is not entirely clear, but plain paper laid on a flat baking sheet is the obvious reading, and was a common practice for sticky sugar mixtures. Parchment or a silicone mat does the same job and releases cleanly; bare ungreased metal is likely to stick.
- Doneness and yieldLight brown at the rim with a pale centre, about 15-18 minutes; they firm as they cool and should stay slightly chewy inside. A batch of this size makes roughly 30 cracklings and keeps a week in a tin, though they soften in humid weather.
History: Oscar Tschirky, the Swiss-born maitre d'hotel whose name carried the Waldorf's reputation through the 1890s, compiled his cook book of 1896, and much of it reflects professional European kitchen practice as well as American hotel cooking. Almond cracklings belong to the wide family of almond-and-egg-white confections that includes the macaroon, the amaretti of Italy and the English ratafia biscuit, all of which depend on the fact that egg white and sugar will bind ground nuts into a paste that bakes without flour. Biscuits of this kind were served with ices and dessert wines and on the petits-fours tray, which may be why the quantities are given as ratios rather than as a fixed household batch, since a pastry cook scaled to the day's covers.