SC - Need help redacting candy recipe
Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
Wed Dec 8 06:28:04 PST 1999
And it came to pass on 6 Dec 99,, that cclark at vicon.net wrote:
> Don't worry about the oiliness of the almonds. Oil is very bad for egg
> white foams, but this is too thick to make a foam. I think the egg white
> is only beaten to get it partly homogenized for purposes of mixing.
>
> Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon
I'm not sure that this is true. Last night I made yet another batch, and
did two things differently with the almonds. I doubled the quantities, in
order to get a stronger almond flavor. I also added them -- gradually --
when I was halfway through adding the sugar. I figured that way I
wouldn't put too much solid matter into the egg white. The white had
been beaten to soft peaks, and even after adding 5 or 6 ounces of
sugar, it still had a certain fluffiness to it. (In my previous experiments,
it had a certain lightness of texture even after adding all the sugar.)
Last night, when I added the almonds, the batter became much denser.
I'm not sure which factor was at work: that I added the almonds in the
middle, or that I doubled the quantity. I suspect the latter. Too much
oil for the egg white to handle. I had been feeling a little guilty about
adding more than the exactly specified quantity of almonds, but I
persuaded myself that it was no different than increasing a spice "to
taste".
I went ahead and baked the extra-almond batch. They rose less,
spread out more, became hollow inside, and crumbled to pieces when I
attempted to remove them from the baking sheet.
Wasn't it Edison who said optimistically that a hundred failed
experiments meant that he knew a hundred ways *not* to make a light
bulb? I feel that I am becoming an expert on how not to make
melindres. :-)
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
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