Amygdalota

Almond sweets shaped and dried rather than baked, where the only cooking is a brief set in a low oven.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg.

Ingredients

• 500 g ground almonds
• 300 g caster sugar
• 120 ml water
• 2 tablespoons rosewater
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 300 g icing sugar, for rolling
• whole cloves or blanched almonds, to decorate

Method

1. THESE ARE DRIED, NOT BAKED. Twelve minutes at 150C is enough to set the outside and no more; the inside is meant to stay soft and slightly damp, and they finish by sitting out for a day. Baked until coloured they are macaroons -- pleasant, and not this.
2. THE SUGAR GOES IN AS A SYRUP, NOT AS A POWDER. Dry sugar beaten into ground almonds gives a gritty paste that never comes smooth; a syrup at 115C binds the almonds into something that can be moulded and holds a shape.
3. Almonds and sugar should be at the same temperature when they meet, so the ground almonds are warmed briefly in the oven while the syrup boils.
4. Sugar and water in a small heavy pan, brought to the boil without stirring, and taken to 115C.
5. Ground almonds warmed in a 100C oven 5 minutes, then into a bowl.
6. The hot syrup poured over them and worked in quickly with a spatula -- it stiffens as it cools.
7. Rosewater, almond extract and ONE egg white worked in. The second white added only if the paste will not hold together; it varies with how oily the almonds are.
8. Covered and rested 1 hour. It firms considerably and becomes far easier to shape.
9. Rolled into balls, pears or small domes with hands dusted in icing sugar. A clove pressed into the top of each pear as a stalk, or a blanched almond into each dome.
10. Set on a lined tray and baked at 150C for 12 minutes ONLY. They should not colour at all.
11. Cooled completely on the tray, then rolled thickly in icing sugar.
12. LEFT UNCOVERED OVERNIGHT before they go in a tin, so the surface dries and the sugar sets into a shell. Boxed warm they sweat and the coating dissolves.
13. They keep three weeks and stay soft inside.

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.

Filed under Greece · All recipes