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A sweet almond paste confection made with honey, sugar, flour, cream, and spices, baked into bars and iced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Braun, Emil · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

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Ingredients

Directions

Make the base dough

  1. Combine one and one-half pounds almond paste, ten eggs, one and one-fourth pounds sugar, one pound flour, one-fourth pound shredded almonds, one-half pound citron, vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom; spread onto wafer sheets.

  2. Boil six pounds honey, let cool.

  3. Mix the cooled honey with enough flour to make a soft dough; add two ounces potash.

  4. Stir one pound sugar with ten eggs, vanilla, cardamom, ginger, lemon, cinnamon, each one-fourth pound of chopped almonds, citron, orange.

  5. Mix all well with the dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Cut the mixture into pieces 3 by 1 3/4 inches, topping each with a slice of citron.

  2. Bake a small sample first; if not light enough, add a little ammonia.

  3. Roll out dough to one-fourth inch thick, cut into bars about 3 by 1 3/4 inches; bake on flour-dusted pans.

Ice and finish

  1. Ice with thin vanilla egg icing, with a little water and cornstarch added.

  2. Lay a slice of citron in center and bake a second time to give gloss.

Make the second dough

  1. Boil four pounds sugar with one quart milk to thread; when partly cool add enough flour to make a soft dough.

  2. Mix and add to above one pound almond paste, three eggs, one ounce ammonia, different spices, two lemon rinds.

  3. Roll out not too thin, roll over with marking roller, cut into oblong pieces; when baked ice with chocolate.

  4. Dissolve two ounces gelatin in half pint cream; press or grind very fine one-fourth pound potash and add to make a medium stiff dough; set away in cellar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

873Calories
29 gProtein
21 gFat
144 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Honey1 tbsp (21g)64
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Braun, Emil. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Honey + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + honeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Almond paste
Adds rich almond flavour and a tender, moist crumb to the dough.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Honey
Boiled and cooled, it adds moisture and sweetness and keeps the bars soft.
Flour
Gives the dough its body so it can be shaped into bars.
Potash
Acts as a leavening agent that helps the dough rise and lighten in the oven.
Ammonia
Acts as a leavening agent, added only if the test bake is not light enough.

The step that matters

Testing the bake before adding ammonia. Ammonia carbonate-type leaveners work by releasing gas as the dough bakes, so a small test sample shows whether the dough needs lift before the whole batch is committed.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar, flour, honey, cream, egg, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, flour, honey, cream, egg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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