No. 3393

Soft Marchpanes

Massepains Moelleux

Crush one pound of almonds with a pound and a half of sugar, having part of it flavored with vanilla (No. 3165) and twelve to fourteen egg-yolks; make this into a fine paste. Run it through a syringe into channeled bands and decorate these at even distances with lozenges of angelica and a preserved half cherry in the center of each; leave to dry in a mild temperature until the following day, then cook in a very hot oven. Gum over when taken from the oven with gum arabic dissolved in water and cut them at once across between the decorations.

← No. 3392 Orange Marchpanes Fancy Cakes — Petits Fours No. 3394 Italian Coffee Meringues—Small →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's massepains moelleux are a piped almond paste, dried overnight and then flashed in a hot oven so the outside sets while the inside stays soft. Two things decide whether they work: the state of the paste and the length of the bake.

The hinge: a very short bakeThe book gives no temperatures, but "very hot" is conventionally read as somewhere around 425-450F, and at that heat the bands need only a few minutes, just until the ridges take colour. Marzipan baked through goes dry and hard, which defeats the moelleux in the title.
Drying overnight is not optionalThe day of resting at "mild temperature" (a warm, dry room, not a proofing box) forms a skin on the piped bands. That skin is what keeps the ridges sharp and gives the glossy crackled top in the oven.
Almonds and sugar togetherBlanched almonds, and the sugar goes into the grinder with them from the start. Ground alone, almonds turn to oily butter; the sugar keeps the mass dry enough to become a paste. A food processor in short pulses replaces the mortar.
Egg yolksTwelve to fourteen yolks is a lot of liquid to bring in; add them gradually, since the paste need only be stiff enough to hold a piped ridge and yolk size varies enough that the last two may not be needed.
Vanilla sugarRanhofer's No. 3165 is his vanilla-flavoured sugar preparation. A bought or home-made vanilla sugar substitutes directly; a teaspoon of extract also works, though it loosens the paste slightly.
The syringeA biscuit forcer, replaced now by a piping bag with a wide flat serrated or ribbon tip. "Channeled bands" are long ridged strips piped the length of the sheet, decorated along their run, then cut into individual cakes after baking.
AngelicaCandied angelica stem, once a standard confectioner's green. It is still sold by specialist suppliers; candied citron or candied green melon rind fills the same role if it cannot be found.
The gum arabic glazeUse food-grade gum arabic, roughly one part gum dissolved in two parts hot water, brushed on while the cakes are still hot so it dries clear. It is a glaze, not a flavour, and gives the shelf gloss expected of a petit four.
YieldA pound of almonds with a pound and a half of sugar makes a large batch — expect somewhere around eight dozen small cakes, depending on how wide the bands are piped.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete professional reference, and its petits fours chapter reflects the French pastry training he brought with him. Massepain — marchpane in older English — is almond paste worked with sugar and baked, a confection generally traced to the medieval Mediterranean and long claimed by several cities, Toledo, Venice and Lübeck among them, on evidence that is more traditional than documented. By Ranhofer's day the marchpane had shrunk from the grand moulded centrepiece of Elizabethan banquets to exactly this: a small piped sweet with a scrap of candied angelica and half a cherry, one item among dozens on a Delmonico's petits fours tray. The overnight drying and the gum arabic glaze are both signs of a kitchen making them by the hundred, to sit out and stay presentable.