No. 3620

Imitation of Natural Green Almonds

Imitation d'Amandes Vertes Naturelles

Prepare a cooked almond paste the same as explained in the Elementary Methods (No. 125); flavor it with orange flower water and tinge it to a light green color. Mold this paste into mediumsized olive shapes, split them lengthwise through the center and in the crack lay a fine white almond; mold and work the paste to have it assume the form of a natural green almond, then lay them as fast as done on a wire sieve and place in the heater to dry. When finished leave to get cold and glaze over with sugar cooked to "crack" (No. 171).

← No. 3619 Materials for Making Easy Pieces Confectionery No. 3621 Brown Nougat for Center Pieces →

For the Modern Kitchen

A trompe-l'oeil marzipan sweet: cooked almond paste shaped around a whole almond so the finished piece looks like a green almond still in its hull. The work is all in the shaping and the final sugar glaze.

The cross-referenceNo. 125 is Ranhofer's cooked almond paste, i.e. almonds worked with boiled sugar syrup rather than a raw pounded paste. Any firm marzipan behaves much the same way; a paste that is too soft will not hold the pointed olive shape.
Orange flower waterUse the distilled culinary kind, not the perfumer's or cosmetic version. It is strong: start with half a teaspoon per pound of paste and taste, since the flavour intensifies as the pieces dry.
ColouringNineteenth-century confectioners used vegetable greens whose safety was uneven. Use modern gel food colour, added a drop at a time — a real green almond hull is a pale, slightly grey-yellow green, not emerald.
"Split them lengthwise"The split is what admits the almond. Cut most of the way through with a thin blade, seat a whole blanched almond in the groove, then close and work the paste until only a fine seam remains and the piece takes the shape of a green almond.
The heaterRanhofer's heater is the warming closet above or beside the range. A modern oven at its lowest setting, around 120-150F with the door ajar, dries the surface in an hour or two. The aim is a dry skin, not baking; browned marzipan defeats the illusion.
Sugar at "crack"No. 171 is Ranhofer's sugar-boiling reference; the crack degree corresponds to roughly 300-310F on a thermometer. Add a little glucose or a pinch of cream of tartar to the syrup to discourage graining, and stop the cooking by dipping the pan base in water for a few seconds before dipping the almonds.
Dipping safely and neatlySugar at that temperature burns badly and clings; use a dipping fork or a needle and work over the pan. Once the syrup thickens past dipping consistency, reheat gently rather than adding water.
Yield and keepingThe recipe gives no yield; a pound of paste will make a few dozen olive-sized pieces depending on how large they are moulded. Glazed marzipan keeps a week or so in a dry, cool place; humidity turns the sugar shell tacky, so avoid the refrigerator.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its confectionery chapters preserve the French pâtisserie repertoire he trained in. Moulded almond-paste imitations of fruit are far older than the book — the practice is generally traced to the marzipan work of medieval and Renaissance Italy and Spain, surviving today in Sicilian frutta martorana — and by the nineteenth century a good confectioner was expected to turn out convincing peaches, cherries and nuts for the dessert table. The green almond is a particularly knowing choice: it is a fruit eaten young and briefly in Mediterranean spring, so a sugar version put the out-of-season delicacy on a New York table year round, and the joke lands only because there is a real almond hidden inside the fake hull.