To be made as drop biscuits, omitting the caraways, and quarter of a pound of flour: put it into the biscuit-funnel, and lay it out about the length and size of your finger, on common shop paper; strew sugar over, and bake them in a hot oven; when cold, wet the backs of the paper with a paste-brush and water: when they have lain some time, take them carefully off, and place them back to back.
Italian Macaroons.—(No. 70.)
Take one pound of Valentia or Jordan almonds, blanched, pound them quite fine with the whites of four eggs; add two pounds and a half of sifted loaf sugar, and rub them well together with the pestle; put in by degrees about ten or eleven more whites, working them well as you put them in; but the best criterion to go by in trying their lightness is to bake one or two, and if you find them heavy, put one or two more whites; put the mixture into a biscuit-funnel, and lay them out on wafer-paper, in pieces about the size of a small walnut, having ready about two ounces of blanched and dry almonds cut into slips, put three or four pieces on each, and bake them on wires, or a baking-plate, in a slow oven.
Obs.—Almonds should be blanched and dried gradually two or three days before they are used, by which means they will work much better, and where large quantities are used, it is advised to grind them in a mill provided for that purpose.
Ratafia Cakes.—(No. 71.)
To half a pound of blanched bitter, and half a pound of sweet, almonds, put the whites of four eggs; beat them quite fine in a mortar, and stir in two pounds and a quarter of loaf sugar, pounded and sifted; rub them well together with the whites (by degrees) of nine eggs (try their lightness as in the last receipt); lay them out from the biscuit-funnel on cartridge-paper, in drops about the size of a shilling, and bake them in a middling-heated oven, of a light brown colour, and take them from the papers as soon as cold.
N.B. A smaller pipe must be used in the funnel than for other articles.
Almond Sponge Cake.—(No. 72.)
Pound in a mortar one pound of blanched almonds quite fine, with the whites of three eggs; then put in one pound of sifted loaf sugar, some grated lemon-peel, and the yelks of fifteen eggs—work them well together: beat up to a solid froth the whites of twelve eggs, and stir them into the other ingredients with a quarter of a pound of sifted dry flour: prepare a mould as at [No. 67]; put in the mixture, and bake it an hour in a slow oven: take it carefully from the mould, and set it on a sieve.