biscuit quest
The Task
To find a recipe for a small, soft, almond-flavoured biscuit, covered with almond flakes, as found in local Italian cafes and bakeries.
Preliminary Considerations
In discussion with Cerberus, who first raised the subject, we agreed that almond meal must feature strongly; that a shortbread/melting moment style was incorrect (flour or meal with rubbed-in butter); that a macaroon style was incorrect (meal or nuts bound with egg-white); that perhaps a small amount of flour was used to encourage the biscuit to remain well-formed; that perhaps egg-yolks were used to give the soft texture.
First Attempt
I came home and looked through my recipe books. Biscuits, nuts, Italian food, food encyclopaedias... Drew a complete blank! I was surprised - my collection is pretty comprehensive. I noted in passing that I had a few recipes for Amaretti, but I rejected those. I buy packets of Amaretti in the supermarket, so I knew them to be a crisp almond macaroon - not what I wanted.
Then I hit the net. *wah* Google failed me. Many more Amaretti recipes - it seemed to be the most common result for all my searches.
Change of Tactics
By this time, I was also somewhat puzzled. These biscuits aren't a specialty product from one single bakery that holds a secret recipe. There are several sources around Adelaide. Why wasn't I finding anything? One possibility was that they had a name I didn't know, and that a search under that name would be fruitful. How could I find out the name? The cardboard label at the front of the tray at the local Italian bakery just says "Almond Flake". So I asked Tom. He has a deep interest in Italian cookery, and a splendid grasp of detail that I was confident wouldn't shunt me back over ground I'd already covered. He didn't fail to deliver something of value! Not a recipe or a name, but a site that gave me a directory of pictures to help with identification, and another with recipes well-annotated with helpful detail.
I can't say specifically which piece of information was the turning point, but I started to realise that I was probably looking for an Amaretti recipe. My notion of Amaretti was incomplete. Though they can be crisp, they can also be soft, and though I associate them with a bitter almond flavour, they don't have to be.
Time to go back over ground already covered... Armed with a new understanding, I looked over the Amaretti recipes I'd previously discarded as irrelevant. Some were still irrelevant - many of them are the crisp biscuit I wasn't interested in. By another odd turn, I linked Amaretti to macaroons, which is what Larousse calls them, and found therein a "soft macaroon" recipe that looked promising. In typical Larousse fashion, it's a bit vague on some points, but between that and the general impression I had from other recipes, I decided to give it a go.
Baking, At Last
About time!
Here's the Larousse recipe (and a couple of comments):
Pound in a mortar 250g almonds with 250g lump sugar. - at one time in my life, I would have done that Pound into this mixture enough double cream and egg white to make a paste which is soft but not runny. - enough? Spoon the mixture onto sheets of rice paper. - ok if you have edible rice paper, but my previous experience with other biscuits of this type leaves me unconvinced that baking paper is any good Bake at 180C for 20 minutes or until macaroons are a rich golden colour.
Here's what I actually did:
Almond Flake Soft Macaroons 250 to 300g almond meal 250 to 300g caster sugar 2 egg whites, lightly beaten 2 to 4 tablespoons cream 100g flaked almonds Preheat oven to 180C. Liberally grease 2 baking trays. Combine 250g almond meal and 250g caster sugar in a bowl. Add egg whites and 2 tablespoons cream. Stir 'til combined (should be a soft doughy texture - if too firm, add a little extra cream; if too runny, add a little extra almond+sugar). One at a time, spoon a generous desertspoon- sized portion into a bowl of flaked almonds, and shape it into a dome while pressing the almonds into the bottom and sides. Flip it over onto the baking tray, so the top without almonds becomes the bottom. Leave room for spreading. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool on tray a minute or two before lifting off onto cooling rack. Makes about 18.
Results
They spread. They're less well-formed than I was looking for. They're fairly soft and chewy, but not as soft as I wanted. I'll try again another day - there are a couple of hundred other recipes out there that might be what I was looking for. Nevertheless; they're d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s! We'll have them again.
Cerberus pronounced them exactly what she was looking for! *L* Well, sometimes you just can't help doing the right thing by accident!