No. 3370

Chocolate Chestnuts

Marrons au Chocolat

Pound together a pound of almonds and half a pound of sugar to a fine powder and pass it through a sieve; put this strained powder back in the mortar and stirring into it twelve to fourteen egg-yolks continue to pound until a fine paste is obtained, then lay it on a marble slab and incorporate six ounces of softened chocolate; leave the paste in the ice-box for one hour. Roll into strings, cut into small pieces and form these into balls three-quarters of an inch in diameter and shape them to resemble chestnuts; lay them on a paper-covered baking sheet and leave in a cool place for twelve hours. Then cook in a very hot oven and gum them over as soon as removed.

← No. 3369 Biscuits with Almonds—Iced Fancy Cakes — Petits Fours No. 3371 Cocoanut Kisses →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's marrons are not chestnuts at all but a chocolate almond paste shaped to look like them — a piece of confectioner's mimicry that depends on a stiff, dry paste and a very short bake. Two things decide the outcome: how you grind the almonds, and how long the shaped nuts are left to skin over.

Grind the almonds with the sugarThe mortar work exists to keep the almonds from turning to butter. In a food processor, pulse the blanched almonds together with the full half pound of sugar in short bursts; the sugar absorbs the oil and keeps the powder dry. Sieve, then return the coarse bits and grind again.
Egg yolks by weightTwelve to fourteen yolks from period eggs is roughly 7 to 8 oz (200-230 g). Modern large yolks run about 18 g each, so start with ten, work the paste, and add more only until it holds together in a firm, non-sticky mass. A wet paste will not keep a chestnut shape.
"Softened chocolate"Worked soft or melted rather than merely warmed. Ranhofer does not say which chocolate he meant; period eating chocolate was usually sweetened and lower in cocoa solids than a modern 60-70 percent bittersweet, so a sweet dark chocolate is probably the nearer match. Work it in on a cool surface, as the recipe's marble slab implies.
"A very hot oven"Ranhofer gives no figure; period usage generally puts a 'very hot' oven in the region of 450-500F. At that heat three-quarter-inch balls need only a few minutes -- long enough to set and slightly crack the surface, not long enough to dry the centres.
The twelve-hour restThe same principle as drying macarons: the surface forms a skin so the petits fours hold their shape in the oven. A cool larder was the period assumption; a cool, dry place is the nearer modern equivalent.
"Gum them over"Gum arabic dissolved in a little hot water and brushed on the moment the pieces leave the oven, giving a hard shine as it dries. Gum arabic is still sold for confectionery; a thin sugar-syrup glaze gives a similar, slightly less durable finish.
ShapingA chestnut is flat on one face with a pale scar and a small point at the top. Roll the ball, press one side against the marble, pinch the tip, and mark the scar with the back of a small knife before drying.
YieldA pound of almonds with sugar, yolks and chocolate makes something over two pounds of paste, which at three-quarters of an inch runs to a couple of hundred pieces. Halving or quartering the recipe is reasonable for a home batch.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of what came out of the Delmonico's kitchens in New York, and its petits fours chapter is essentially a French confectioner's repertoire transplanted whole. Marzipan shaped and coloured to imitate other foods is one of the oldest tricks in European sugar work, running back through the banqueting "subtleties" of the late medieval and Renaissance table; by the nineteenth century it had settled into the neat, small-scale form seen here, where an almond paste is tinted, moulded and glazed to pass for fruit or nuts on a dessert tray. Chestnuts were a natural subject: marrons glacés were among the most prestigious sweets of the period, expensive and seasonal, so a chocolate almond paste that read as a chestnut at a glance let a kitchen extend the theme year-round. The gum arabic finish, common to much confectionery of the era, is what supplies the convincing hard shell shine.</p>