No. 124

Almond Paste for Fancy Cakes

Pate d'Amandes a Petits Fours

Take one pound of peeled and well dried almonds; one pound of powdered sugar, and five whites of eggs. Pound the almonds and the sugar, either in a machine or mortar, and when well reduced to a powder, pass it forcibly through a twelve mesh sieve (Fig. 96); return it to the mortar, and mix in with the almonds the five egg-whites little by little, so as to make a paste, which can be now beaten and worked until a good body is obtained, having it as fine as possible.

← No. 123 Parsley Bouquet, in Branches, Fried or Chopp Elementary Methods No. 125 Almond Paste with Cooked Sugar and Filbert P →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is Ranhofer's working base for macaroon-type petits fours — almonds, sugar and egg white only, with no cooked syrup (that is the next entry, No. 125). It behaves like a stiff macaroon batter rather than a rollable marzipan.

YieldOne pound of almonds plus one pound of sugar and five whites gives roughly 2 lb 6 oz of paste, enough for several dozen small piped petits fours depending on size. It halves reasonably well, though five whites do not divide evenly.
"Powdered sugar"In 1894 this means sugar ground fine, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold today. Superfine or caster sugar is the closer match; modern 10X will work but makes a slightly softer, chalkier paste.
Peeled and well driedBlanched almonds must be genuinely dry before grinding — spread them out overnight, or dry them in a 200F oven for 20 minutes and cool completely. Damp almonds turn to butter under the blade instead of powder.
The hinge: keep the almonds cold and pulseA mortar crushes; a food processor smears. Chill the blanched almonds, grind them with the sugar in short pulses, and stop as soon as the mixture looks like coarse flour. Once the almonds release their oil the paste will never take a fine body.
Twelve mesh sieveTwelve openings to the linear inch, so an aperture of roughly 1.7 mm once the wire is allowed for — a medium-coarse drum or tamis sieve. Push the ground mixture through, then regrind whatever refuses to pass and sieve again.
Egg whites, little by littleFive large whites run about 5 fl oz. Add them in four or five additions, working thoroughly between each; the paste should hold a peak on the paddle and just barely fall from a spoon. Hold back the last white if it is already slack, since whites vary in size.
Working for bodyBeat the finished paste for several minutes, by machine on low or by hand against the side of the bowl. This is what gives piped petits fours their smooth crust and prevents them spreading in the oven.
Baking and storageThe recipe stops at the finished paste and gives no baking directions; for piped shapes a moderate oven, in the region of 325 to 350F for 12 to 15 minutes until set and lightly coloured, is the usual modern handling. Because the paste contains raw whites, unbaked paste should be refrigerated in an airtight container and used within a couple of days rather than kept at room temperature as an almond paste would be.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its "Elementary Methods" chapter is a catalogue of the components a large brigade kept on hand rather than finished dishes. This numbered run of almond pastes — one with raw whites, one with cooked sugar, one with filberts — reflects a pastry department that distinguished between a paste for piping and baking and a paste for modelling or covering. That distinction is older than the book: almond and sugar pastes are usually said to have reached European kitchens by way of medieval Arab confectionery, though the route is debated, and by the eighteenth century French pastry cooks were distinguishing pastes bound with raw egg white from those built on boiled syrup. The instruction to pound "either in a machine or mortar" suggests mechanical grinding equipment in use alongside the older tool.