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Aboukir Almonds

A whole roasted almond is wrapped in marzipan, shaped back into an almond, and dipped in hot syrup.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg.

Ingredients

the centres

the marzipan

the glaze

Method

  1. A WHOLE ROASTED ALMOND IS WRAPPED IN MARZIPAN, SHAPED BACK INTO AN ALMOND, AND DIPPED IN HOT SYRUP. Three layers and the shape is the joke: what you hand someone looks like a large almond, and inside the marzipan is a real one. Each whole blanched almond is roasted first for flavour and crunch, enclosed in about a teaspoon of coloured marzipan, rolled and pinched between the palms back into the pointed oval of an almond, and then dipped in a hot sugar syrup that dries to a thin brittle shell. Made as plain marzipan balls it is a pleasant sweet with none of the point.
  2. THE CENTRE ALMOND IS ROASTED AND COOLED FIRST. Fifteen minutes at 170°C. It is the only crunch in the sweet and a raw almond inside marzipan is soft and indistinguishable from it. Cooled completely, or it softens the marzipan from inside.
  3. THE MARZIPAN IS COLOURED IN TWO BATCHES, GREEN AND PINK. Half and half, kneaded until even. The two colours together are how the sweet is presented, and the pale green in particular is what makes it recognisable.
  4. THE KIRSCH IS THE FLAVOUR AND IS TWO TABLESPOONS. Without it this is almond paste with sugar in it. Two tablespoons is enough to be clearly present without making the marzipan too wet to shape.
  5. THE SYRUP IS TAKEN TO THE HARD-BALL STAGE, AROUND 125°C. Sugar, water and a spoonful of glucose. The glucose stops it crystallising into an opaque gritty crust. At that temperature the dip dries within a minute to a thin brittle glass; a softer syrup stays tacky and the sweets stick together permanently.
  6. THEY ARE DIPPED ON A FORK AND SET ON OILED PAPER, NOT TOUCHING. One at a time, lowered in and lifted out, allowed to drip for a second, and set down with space around it. Any two touching while wet become one.
  7. THE SYRUP IS KEPT WARM OVER A LOW FLAME WHILE DIPPING. Forty sweets takes time and the syrup thickens as it cools, which gives the later ones a heavy lumpy coat. Kept just warm, every one gets the same thin shell.
  8. The whole almonds roasted at 170°C for 15 MINUTES and COOLED COMPLETELY.
  9. The ground almonds, icing sugar, egg white and KIRSCH worked to a firm marzipan.
  10. Divided in two and coloured GREEN and PINK, kneaded until even.
  11. A teaspoon of marzipan flattened in the palm, ONE ROASTED ALMOND enclosed, and the whole ROLLED AND PINCHED back into a POINTED OVAL.
  12. All 40 shaped and left to firm 1 HOUR.
  13. The sugar, water and glucose heated to 125°C -- the HARD-BALL stage.
  14. The heat lowered to keep the syrup JUST WARM.
  15. Each sweet lowered in on a fork, lifted out, allowed to drip, and set on OILED paper NOT TOUCHING its neighbours.
  16. TESTED after an hour: the shell should be thin and brittle and crack under a thumbnail. Tacky means the syrup did not reach temperature.
  17. Keeps 2 weeks in a tin between layers of paper.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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