Macaroons
A historical recipe from The Italian Cook Book The Art of Eating Well, by Maria Gentile (1919).
A historical recipe
The Italian Cook Book The Art of Eating Well; Practical Recipes of the Italian Cuisine, Pastries, Sweets, Frozen Delicacies, and Syrups, by Maria Gentile (1919). Project Gutenberg eBook #24407.
From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards. Its words name: a substance or vessel no longer considered safe. Check current food-safety guidance before following this.
Italy
Known as an Italian recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.
- Additives or old utensils. The text names something no longer considered safe in food or for cooking in, such as lead, alum, borax, bitter almonds or copper pans. Don't use it.
Ingredients 1 ingredient
- a stick and
Cook safely
Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.
- Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
- Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.
Method
Chef Wood
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- Granulated sugar, nine ounces.
- Sweet almonds, three and a half ounces.
- Bitter almonds, half of the above quantity.
- Whites of egg, two.
- Skin and dry the almonds, then chop them very fine.
- Mix the sugar and the whites of egg and stir for about half an hour, then add the almonds to form a rather hard paste.
- Of this make little balls, as large as a small walnut.
- If the paste is too soft add a little butter, if too hard add a little white of egg, this time beaten.
- Were it desired to give the macaroons a brownish color, mix with the paste a little burnt sugar.
- As you form the little ball, that you will flatten to the thickness of one third of an inch, put them over wafers or on pieces of paper or in a baking tin greased with butter and sprinkled with half flour and half powdered sugar.
- Dispose them at a certain distance from one another as they will enlarge and swell, remaining empty inside.
- Bake in an oven moderately hot.
- Powdered sugar, ten and a half ounces.
- Sweet almonds, three ounces.
- Bitter almonds, one ounce.
- Two whites of egg.
- Skin the almonds and dry them in the sun or on the fire, then chop and grind very fine with one white of egg poured in various times.
- When this is done, put half of the sugar, stirring and kneading with your hand.
- Then pour everything in a large bowl and, always mixing, add half of the other white of egg, then the other half of the sugar and finally the other half of the white.
- In this way an homogenous mixture will be obtained of the right firmness.
- Shake into a kind of a stick and cut it in rounds all equal, one third of an inch thick.
- Take them up one by one with moistened fingers and make little balls as large as a walnut.
- Flatten them to the thickness of a third of an inch and for the rest proceed as said above, but dust with powdered sugar before putting in a hot oven.
- With this dose about thirty macarons can be obtained.
Plating
Cookware for this recipe
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Mixing bowl
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Chef's knife
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Cutting board
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Wooden spoon