Obs.—It is almost impossible to state with accuracy the precise time required for these cakes, so much depends on the oven: they should be very delicately coloured, and yet dried through.
ALMOND MACAROONS.
Blanch a pound of fresh Jordan almonds, wipe them dry, and set them into a very cool oven to render them perfectly so; pound them to an exceedingly smooth paste, with a little white of egg, then whisk to a firm solid froth the white of seven eggs, or of eight, should they be small; mix with them a pound and a half of the finest sugar; add these by degrees to the almonds, whisk the whole up well together, and drop the mixture upon wafer-paper, which may be procured at the confectioner’s: bake the cakes in a moderate oven a very pale brown. It is an improvement to their flavour to substitute an ounce of bitter almonds for one of the sweet. They are sometimes made with an equal weight of each; and another variety of them is obtained by gently browning the almonds in a slow oven before they are pounded.
Jordan almonds blanched, 1 lb.; sugar, 1-1/2 lb.; whites of 7 or 8 eggs: 15 to 20 minutes.
VERY FINE COCOA-NUT MACAROONS.
Rasp a fresh cocoa-nut, spread it on a dish or tin, and let it dry gradually for a couple of days, if it can be done conveniently; add to it double its weight of fine sifted sugar, and the whites of eight eggs beaten to a solid froth (see page [543]), to the pound. Roll the mixture into small balls, place them on a buttered tin, and bake them in a very gentle oven about twenty minutes. Move them from the tin while they are warm, and store them in a very dry canister as soon as they are cold.
Cocoa-nut, 1/2 lb.; sugar, 1 lb.; whites of eggs, 8: very gentle oven, 20 minutes.
IMPERIALS. (NOT VERY RICH.)
Work into a pound of flour six ounces of butter, and mix well with them half a pound of sifted sugar, six ounces of currants, two ounces of candied orange-peel, the grated rind of a lemon, and four well-beaten eggs. Flour a tin lightly, and with a couple of forks place the paste upon it in small rough heaps quite two inches apart. Bake them in a very gentle oven, from a quarter of an hour to twenty minutes, or until they are equally coloured to a pale brown.
Flour 1 lb.; butter, 6 oz.; sugar, 8 oz.; currants, 6 oz.; candied peel, 2 oz.; rind of 1 lemon; eggs, 4: 15 to 20 minutes.