No. 3347

Japanese Cakes

Gateaux Japonais

Pound half a pound of unpeeled almonds with half a pound of sugar; pass it through a sieve, add half a pound of flour and mix the whole together. Dress this flour in a crown shape and in the center place four ounces of kneaded butter (No. 579) and three or four egg-whites; work the whole to obtain a fine smooth paste, then leave it rest for one hour in a very cold place; roll it out to an eighth of an inch in thickness and cut this into three-inch wide bands; egg these over and strew with chopped-up almonds. Range the bands two by two, one on top of the other, pressing them down lightly so they adhere together, then cut them across in small sticks three-quarters of an inch wide; lay them on buttered and floured sheets and bake in a hot oven; after removing ice over with a brush wet with rum icing (No. 102).

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For the Modern Kitchen

An almond shortbread stick from Ranhofer's Delmonico's repertoire, built on the classic French trick of grinding nuts with sugar rather than alone. The dough is stiff and short, and the pieces are small, so the oven does its work in minutes.

Grinding the almondsPounding almonds with the sugar keeps them from turning to paste, and the same logic applies to a food processor: pulse the half pound of almonds with the half pound of sugar together, never the nuts by themselves. Sieving afterwards catches the coarse fragments, which can go into the topping.
Unpeeled almondsSkin-on almonds are meant here, and they give the cakes their brown fleck and slight bitterness. Blanched almonds work but produce a paler, blander stick.
Kneaded butterThe recipe cross-references Ranhofer's No. 579, which is not reproduced here; 'kneaded butter' in nineteenth-century usage may mean butter simply worked until smooth and pliable, or butter worked with a little flour. Either way it should be soft and cool, not melted.
The egg whites"Three or four egg-whites" is genuinely elastic, and it is the only liquid in the dough. Start with three (about 3 fl oz) and add more only if the paste will not come together; a wet dough cannot be cut into clean sticks.
The hour of restThis is the hinge. A dough this rich in ground almond and butter tears rather than rolls unless it is thoroughly chilled, and warm scraps will not hold an eighth-inch sheet. Refrigerate, roll cold, and chill again if it softens.
Oven temperatureThe book gives no Fahrenheit figures; a 'hot oven' corresponds to roughly 400-425F in modern terms. At an eighth of an inch doubled, the sticks need roughly 8 to 12 minutes; pull them when the edges colour, since the ground almond browns fast and turns acrid.
Rum icingNo. 102 is Ranhofer's rum icing, a sugar glaze flavoured with rum and thin enough to go on with a pastry brush; the proportions belong to that entry rather than this one. Apply it as soon as the cakes come out of the oven, as the recipe directs.
YieldHalf a pound each of almonds, sugar and flour gives several dozen sticks three-quarters of an inch wide.

A Little History

The name says nothing about Japan and a good deal about the later nineteenth century. In French patisserie of that period japonais was attached to a family of almond- and hazelnut-based cakes and meringues during the long vogue for japonisme that followed the reopening of Japanese trade with Europe, when the word was applied to fans, prints, lacquer and, inevitably, confectionery. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for some three decades, compiled The Epicurean (1894) as a working record of that kitchen, and its tea-cake chapter draws heavily on the French pastry repertoire he had trained in, alongside English and American items: espagnolettes, jumbles and these almond sticks sit side by side with no suggestion that any of them belong to a national cuisine. The technique itself is older than the name, nuts pounded with sugar to keep them from oiling, then bound with flour, butter and white of egg.