Almond Cheesecakes.
Take a quarter of a pound of Jordan almonds and twelve or fourteen apricot or peach kernels; blanch them all in cold water, and beat them very fine with rose-water and a little sack. Add a quarter of a pound of fine powder sugar, by degrees, and beat them very light: then put a quarter of a pound of the best butter just melted, with two or three spoonfuls of sweet thick cream; beat them well again. Then, add four eggs, leaving out the whites, beaten as light as possible. When you have just done beating, put a little grated nutmeg. Bake them in a nice short crust; and, when they are just going into the oven, grate over them a little fine sugar.
Almond Cream.
Beat half a pound of fine almonds, blanched in cold water, very fine, with orange-flower water. Take a quart of cream boiled, cooled, and sweetened; put the almonds into it by degrees, and when they are well mixed strain it through canvass, squeezing it very well. Then stir it over the fire until it thickens; if you like it richly perfumed, add one grain of ambergris, and if you wish to give it the ratafia flavour, beat some apricot kernels with it.
Unboiled Almond Cream.
Take half a pound of almonds; blanch them, and cut out all their spots: then beat them very fine, in a clean stone or wooden mortar, with a little rose-water, and mix them with one quart of sweet cream. Strain them as long as you can get any out. Take as much fine sugar as will sweeten it, a nutmeg cut into quarters, some large mace, three spoonfuls of orange-flower water, as much rose-water, with musk or ambergris dissolved in it; put all these things into a glass churn; shake them continually up and down till the mass is as thick as butter; before it is broken, pour it all into a clean dish; take out the nutmeg and the mace; when it is settled smooth, scatter some comfits or scrape some hard sugar upon it.
Almond Paste, for Shapes, &c.
Blanch half a pound of almonds in cold water; let them lie twenty-four hours in cold water, then beat them in a mortar, till they are very fine, adding the whites of eggs as you beat them. Put them in a stewpan over a stove fire, with half a pound of double-refined sugar, pounded and sifted through a lawn sieve; stir it while over the fire, till it becomes a little stiff; then take it out, and put it between two plates, till it is cold. Put it in a pan, and keep it for use. It will keep a great while in a cool place. When you use it, pound it a little in a mortar, or mould it in your hands; then roll it out thin in whatever shape you choose, or make it up into walnuts or other moulds; press it down close that it may receive the impression of the nut, &c., and with a pin take it out of the mould and turn it out upon copper sheets, and so proceed till you have a sufficient quantity. The mould should be lightly touched with oil. Bake them of a light brown; fill them with sweetmeats, &c. and such as should be closed, as nuts, &c. cement together with isinglass boiled down to a proper consistence.