No. 125

Almond Paste with Cooked Sugar and Filbert Paste

Pate d'Amandes et Pate d'Avelines au Sucre Cuit

Almond Paste.—Shell and skin one pound of almonds; pound them with half a pound of powdered sugar and a little water to make into a very fine paste, the same consistency as a macaroon paste. Cook three pounds of sugar to small crack, and as soon as ready pour it in small strings on to the paste, stirring constantly with a spatula and leave stand till cold. When this paste is thoroughly cooled off, return it to the mortar and pound it once more with liquors or vanilla syrup, to have it obtain a body and make it into a fine paste, then put it in a stone jar and leave it in a cool place.

Filbert Paste with Cooked Sugar.—Have one pound of shelled filberts pounded to a pulp with a pound of powdered sugar and a gill of water; lay this paste in a basin. Cook in a copper pan two pounds and a half of sugar to small crack, pour it slowly over the paste mixing it so that it mingles in well, then leave to cool and pound again, stirring in half a gill of liquor, either kirsch, maraschino or any other. Color the paste green or pink according to taste.

← No. 124 Almond Paste for Fancy Cakes Elementary Methods No. 126 Almond Paste with Egg-Yolks →

For the Modern Kitchen

Two versions of the same confection: nuts ground with sugar, then bound with a hot sugar syrup rather than raw egg or glucose. The cooked-sugar method gives a firmer, longer-keeping paste than uncooked marzipan, and the sugar temperature is the whole recipe.

Small crack"Small crack" (petit cassé) is roughly 275-285F on a candy thermometer. Below that the paste stays soft and sticky; carried on to hard crack, 300F and above, the syrup sets brittle and seizes the nut paste into gravel.
A gillHalf a cup, four fluid ounces. Half a gill of kirsch or maraschino is therefore two fluid ounces, about four tablespoons.
Filberts are hazelnutsThe same nut under an older commercial name. Toast and rub off the papery skins in a towel before grinding, or the paste turns bitter and grey-flecked.
Blanching the almonds"Shell and skin" means a short dip in boiling water, then slip the skins off between finger and thumb. Dry the nuts thoroughly before grinding — wet almonds turn to slurry rather than paste.
Mortar or machineA food processor replaces the mortar for the first grinding, pulsing so friction heat does not release the oil and split the paste. The second pounding, after the paste has cooled and stiffened, is heavy work; a stand mixer with a paddle handles it better than a processor.
The copper panSpecified for even heat on the sugar, not for flavour. Any heavy pan will serve. Do not stir the syrup once it boils; wash the crystals down the sides with a wet brush.
Pouring the syrup"In small strings" means a thin steady stream while stirring without pause. Dumped in at once, the syrup sets in lumps that no amount of later pounding will break up.
ColouringThe recipe leaves the tint to taste, green or pink. A few drops of modern gel colour go into the second pounding, not the hot syrup.
Yield and keepingThe almond version makes close to four and a half pounds of paste — a professional quantity, easily quartered. Sealed in a jar in a cool place it keeps for months; the sugar concentration is its preservative, so refrigeration is optional but the paste should be brought back to room temperature before it is worked.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete working manual, and the Elementary Methods section is where he set down the base preparations a pastry department would make in bulk and draw on all week. Almond paste bound with cooked sugar rather than raw egg white was one of the forms he gives, sitting in the same section as the egg-bound versions such as No. 126, Almond Paste with Egg-Yolks: it kept in the stone jar, and it could be pounded smooth again whenever a batch of petits fours or a moulded fruit was wanted. The liqueurs he offers for the filbert paste — kirsch, maraschino — were standard flavourings in nineteenth-century French confectionery, and he instructs that the finished paste be tinted green or pink.