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Raspberry Biscuits
Put one pound of sifted, crushed loaf sugar into a basin with an equal weight of blanched and pounded sweet almonds, add a small quantity of grated lemon-rind, and sufficient yolk of egg to form a stiff paste. Roll half of this out very thin, cover it with a layer of raspberry jam, place the balance of the paste on the top, and allow it to stand for a day. Cover the top with royal icing, cut up into strips about three inches long by one inch in width, place them on a baking-sheet on a moderate oven, and bake until done. Take them out and serve them when cold.
This is a marzipan sandwich rather than a biscuit in the American sense: two sheets of almond paste with jam between them, iced and baked only long enough to set. The hinge is heat control, since almond paste scorches and royal icing browns well before the interior firms.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar sold in a hard cone and broken up as needed. Crushed and sifted, it is what we would call caster or superfine sugar; ordinary granulated sugar ground briefly in a food processor is equivalent.
- Pounded sweet almondsBlanched almonds pounded to a paste release their oil, which is what binds the dough. Almond flour will work but gives a drier, more crumbly sheet, so expect to need a little more yolk. "Sweet" is specified in contrast to bitter almonds, which were sold in the period and should not be substituted.
- Egg yolk quantityNo number is given because it depends on how oily the almonds are. Start with three or four yolks for the full two pounds of paste and add more only until the mass just holds together; too much and the sheets will spread in the oven.
- Rolling it thinAlmond paste sticks to everything. Roll each half between sheets of parchment, or on a surface dusted with sifted sugar rather than flour, and chill it briefly before moving it.
- The overnight restThe recipe gives no reason for standing a day; the likely purpose is to let the jam moisture equalise through the paste and firm the slab so it can be iced and cut cleanly. Skipping it will probably cost you tidy strips.
- Royal icingEgg white beaten with sifted powdered sugar to a spreadable, not runny, consistency. Spread it thin; a thick layer will crack and colour before the biscuit is baked through.
- Moderate ovenAround 350F. Bake 12 to 18 minutes, until the icing is dry and set and the edges are just firm. These should stay pale; any real browning means the almond paste is overcooked and will taste scorched.
- CuttingCut the strips before baking, as directed, but separate them slightly on the sheet so the cut edges dry rather than steam. Cool completely on the tray before lifting, since they are fragile while warm.
- YieldA pound of sugar with a pound of almonds makes a substantial slab; depending on how thin the sheets are rolled, something on the order of forty three-inch strips. Halving the recipe is sensible for a home kitchen.
Almond paste sandwiched with jam and finished with royal icing belongs to the confectioner's trade rather than the baker's, and recipes of this type run through nineteenth-century English and French pastry manuals. The word "biscuit" here carries its older, looser sense of a small dry baked sweet, not a chemically leavened quick bread; there is no flour and no raising agent in the formula at all. Loaf sugar, bought as a hard cone and broken down at home with sugar nippers, was still in use in kitchens of the period. Petits fours of this kind would have suited a hotel kitchen's banquet and reception work, being made in quantity and cut to size as needed.