SC - Puck's marzipan

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

As it happens, I´ve got a (modern) Swedish recipe for "mandelspån", which
lists among the ingredients 2 sheets of oblats, 14 x 20 centimeters. The
recipe says: "Oblats are sold at some drugstores. If you don´t find them,
you can just roll the marzipan out into small rounds or ovals on baking
parchment. Bake them and let them cool on an even surface. They will not be
as decorative but they will taste the same."

Communion wafers are called oblats (oblater, oblátur) in the Scandinavian
languages but I´m not sure if that is what is meant here.

This recipe, by the way, calls for 200 grams of ground almonds, 1 1/2 c
confectioners´ sugar and 1 1/2-2 egg whites. You make a stiff dough, roll it
out on the oblat sheet, then "mark with a knife cookies that are around 2
1/2 x 7 cm. Cut through the oblat with a sharp knife or scissors as marked."

They are then placed draped over a buttered mold called "spånjärn" (like a
long, narrow metal sheet curved upwards in a half-circle, if you get my
meaning, sorry, can´t remember the English term), so the finished cookies
hafe a half-moon shape. The molds are of different sizes; I´ve got another
recipe that says the cookies should be 10 centimeters long (each end is
supposed to just reach the baking sheet on either side of the mold). If you
don´t have a mold, you can use an old rolling pin or something like that.

They are baked in a hot oven until golden and dry on the outside but still
moist in the center, cooled and spread with a sugar/water icing and
decorated with a mixture of candied citron, orange and almonds.

Nanna

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