No. 3642

Burnt Almonds

Pralines

Put a pound and a half of sugar and half of a vanilla bean in a pan, dissolve it with a little water and stand it on the fire to cook to thirty-four degrees (syrup gauge), then add one pound of fine almonds; mix all together with a wooden spoon and continue to cook until the sugar reaches "crack" (No. 171), stirring the almonds steadily till the sugar granulates. Take the pan from the fire and pour both sugar and almonds into a coarse sieve to separate the almonds from the granulated sugar, return the almonds to the pan, stand it on the fire and stir constantly until the sugar covering the almonds melts away, adding from time to time a small handful of the granulated sugar. As soon as all the sugar is added and that surrounding the almonds is well dissolved, pour it immediately on to a slab, separating them from each other, and leave to cool. Put a heaping tablespoonful of dissolved gum arabic in a basin, dilute it with a little water and let it come to a boil; then add the burnt almonds and toss until entirely covered; pour at once on to a sieve and place in the heater to dry.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is the classic sanded-sugar almond — sugar boiled with the nuts until it crystallizes, then partly re-melted onto them in stages. The whole thing turns on the stirring: the sugar has to be agitated as it crystallizes so it grains onto the nuts instead of setting into one block.

"Thirty-four degrees (syrup gauge)"Ranhofer's gauge is the Baume hydrometer, not Fahrenheit. Thirty-four degrees Baume is a heavy syrup of roughly 62-64 percent sugar, which on a candy thermometer corresponds to a boil somewhere around 217-220F. You are only dissolving and concentrating the sugar at this point, not setting a stage.
"Crack"In Ranhofer's table of sugar degrees (No. 171) crack sits above the ball stages; depending on whether small crack (petit casse) or large crack is meant, it falls somewhere between about 270F and 310F. In practice the sugar will begin to grain and go opaque as soon as you keep stirring it at that heat, so watch the pan rather than the thermometer and expect the change to happen quickly.
The hinge: keep stirringThe point of the constant stirring is deliberate crystallization, what French confectioners call sablage. Stop stirring and you get a clear glassy coating that will fuse the almonds into a slab; keep stirring and the sugar drops into dry sand that you can sieve off and re-use in handfuls.
Melting the coat back onThe second stage, over heat with additions of the reserved sanded sugar, is what builds the brown crackled shell, and is presumably the source of the "burnt" in the name. Work over moderate heat and keep the nuts moving; the sugar caramelizes fast and scorches faster.
Almonds and vanillaThe recipe specifies only "fine almonds"; unblanched whole almonds are the usual choice for this style. The half vanilla bean goes in whole and will stay behind with the almonds in the coarse sieve, so fish it out before the second cooking or it will burn.
Gum arabicFood-grade gum arabic (acacia gum) is still sold as a powder for confectionery and is the traditional glaze for dragees. Dissolve it in hot water to a thin syrup; it dries to a hard non-sticky shine. The glaze is optional if you plan to eat them within a day or two.
"The heater"A warming closet or plate-warming cupboard. An oven at its lowest setting, or a turned-off oven with the light on, will dry the gum glaze in about half an hour. Spread them on a rack so air reaches all sides.
Slab and yieldA marble slab is ideal; a heavy sheet pan or a silicone mat works. Note that the sieved-off sugar is all returned to the pan by the end, so a pound of almonds and a pound and a half of sugar yields something approaching the full two and a half pounds, less what boils away.

A Little History

"Burnt almonds" is the English name for what German bakers sell as gebrannte Mandeln and the French call pralines — sugar cooked onto whole nuts until it crystallizes and caramelizes. The word praline is generally traced to the household of the 17th-century French marshal and diplomat Cesar de Choiseul, comte du Plessis-Praslin, whose cook is traditionally credited with the sweet; the term has since drifted a long way, meaning a chocolate shell filled with nut paste in Belgium and a soft pecan-and-cream patty in New Orleans. Ranhofer, writing from Delmonico's in New York in 1894, uses it in its older and narrower sense, and his instructions read like professional confectionery practice rather than home cooking: densities taken with a hydrometer, sugar stages given by number and cross-referenced, gum arabic on hand for glazing, a warming closet for drying. Sanded nuts of this kind were fairgroundand street food across northern Europe and at the same time a component of the after-dinner dessert service in a first-class restaurant, which is roughly where this entry sits in the book, among the cast-in-starch fondants and the chocolate caramels.