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Almond Sandwich No. 2
Whip one-half gill of sweet cream to a stiff froth; add one-half pound of almonds, blanched and pounded to a paste, with a little rose or orange flower water; add two tablespoonfuls of sugar and spread over thin slices of white bread; roll into tiny cylinders or cut in narrow strips.
A tea sandwich, not a lunch one: sweetened almond paste lightened with whipped cream, on bread thin enough to roll. Two things decide whether it works — the fineness of the almond paste and the thinness of the bread.
- Half a gillA gill is 4 fl oz, so half a gill is 1/4 cup of cream. Whipped, it roughly doubles to about half a cup of froth.
- Sweet cream"Sweet" here means fresh rather than soured, not sugared. Use heavy or whipping cream (roughly 30% fat or more); thinner cream will not hold a stiff froth.
- Half a pound of almondsEight ounces of blanched almonds ground to a paste against a quarter cup of cream gives a very stiff, marzipan-like mass. Expect to loosen it with another spoonful or two of cream to reach spreading consistency, and fold the cream in gently rather than beating it flat.
- Pounded to a pasteA food processor does the work of the mortar in a fraction of the time; run it until the almonds go past meal and begin to clump oily. Almond flour plus a little cream is a shortcut, but the texture is drier and grainier.
- Rose or orange flower waterBottled flower waters vary a great deal in strength, so add cautiously: start with about 1/4 teaspoon for the full batch and taste. Too much reads as soap.
- Thin slices of white breadUse a close-crumbed sandwich loaf, crusts off, and flatten each slice with a rolling pin before spreading. Unrolled bread cracks along the seam; rolled bread holds. Chill the cylinders seam-down under a damp cloth for half an hour before serving.
- YieldThe quantity is generous — enough filling for a whole loaf of thin-sliced bread, whether rolled or cut in strips. Halve it for a small tea.
- KeepingWith fresh cream in the filling these will not sit out; make them the day they are eaten and keep them covered and cold until the tray goes out.
Sweetened almond paste flavoured with rose or orange flower water is one of the oldest surviving strands in European cookery, carried into medieval and Tudor kitchens from Arab confectionery and still recognisable in marzipan. Sandwiches of this kind — crustless, rolled or cut into fingers, meant to be eaten in two bites — belong to the afternoon-tea table rather than the luncheon one, and the fact that this is "No. 2" tells you the compiler expected a cook to want more than one way to do the same thing.