No. 3389

Madrillians

Madriliens

Line some small tartlet-shaped cake molds with sweet paste (No. 136); mask the insides with well-reduced apricot marmalade (No. 3675). Pound four ounces of almonds with four ounces of sugar, two egg-yolks and a few spoonfuls of rich cream; make a soft, fine paste, add to it two ounces of orange peel cut in very small dice, and finally two whipped egg-whites. With this fill the small molds even with the top, strew crystallized sugar over and bake very slowly in a slack oven.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A small almond-and-candied-orange filling baked in a sweet pastry shell, from Charles Ranhofer's Delmonico's repertoire. The whole thing hinges on low heat: the filling is essentially a frangipane lightened with whipped whites, and a hot oven will brown the sugar crust and crack the tops before the center sets.

Slack ovenA "slack" or very slow oven is 275-300F. Bake until the tops are just set and barely blond, roughly 25 to 35 minutes for shells about 1 1/2 to 2 inches across.
Sweet pasteNo. 136 is Ranhofer's cross-reference to his own sweet paste; any short sweet tart dough works. Roll thin, line the molds, and chill them before filling.
MoldsSmall tartlet-shaped cake molds means shallow round tinlets, plain or fluted. A mini muffin tin is the closest common substitute, though the sides will be straighter.
Well-reduced apricot marmaladeThis is apricot jam cooked down until it mounds on a spoon and no longer weeps, then sieved. Reducing matters: a loose jam will soak the pastry and boil out around the filling.
Pounding the almondsBlanched almonds pounded with sugar in a mortar becomes, in practice, a food processor job. Grind 4 oz almonds with 4 oz sugar to a fine meal before adding the yolks and cream, or start from almond flour and beat everything smooth.
Orange peelAlmost certainly candied peel rather than fresh zest, given the context. Cut it into a fine dice and toss it with a pinch of the almond mixture so the pieces distribute instead of sinking.
Whipped whitesTwo whites whipped and folded in last, to lighten the almond mixture. Fill the molds even with the top, as the recipe directs, and no higher.
Crystallized sugarCoarse crystal or pearl sugar strewn over before baking. Granulated will dissolve into the surface; sanding or nib sugar keeps its sparkle at this low temperature.
YieldDepending on the size of the molds, the quantities given will fill something on the order of a dozen and a half to two dozen small tartlets.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's account of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its petits fours chapter is a catalogue of the small pastries a large kitchen kept on hand for banquet trays and dessert services. The names in that chapter are largely arbitrary flourishes of the period rather than descriptions -- Madriliens sits between Strawberry Macaroons and Magicians -- and the spelling wanders between Madrillians and Madriliens, apparently a nod to Madrid, though nothing in the recipe is Spanish beyond the almonds and candied orange that a French chef would have associated with the peninsula. The construction itself is thoroughly French: a lined tartlet, a barrier of reduced apricot, and an almond filling lightened with whipped whites, which is the same logic as a frangipane tartlet with the leavening done by egg rather than flour. The cross-references to numbered base recipes are characteristic of the book, which was built for professional cooks who already had sweet paste and apricot marmalade standing in the pastry room.