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(Posted early because I'll be on the road all day Tuesday.)

I’ve written previously about some of my food-related research for the Alpennian books. It might be fun (some distant day in the future) to bring together all the food references in the books (when there are more of them) with recipes and whatnot. In the meantime, I decided last fall that I should come up with at least a couple of Alpennian dishes that I could serve on the occasion of readings and whatnot, just for fun. I haven’t had a chance previously, but when I was brainstorming for offerings to entice people to my Kaffee Klatch at Sasquan this Friday, I realized this was the perfect opportunity.

Not all food items are equally suited to transporting to a convention (or throwing together in someone else’s kitchen—which is what I had in mind originally), but the sorts of light snacks one serves visitors are ideal, and I had a reference to Jeanne serving Antuniet “almond cake” which seemed promising enough. The book reference mentions slices, so I had in mind something more classically cake-like, but my 18th c. French cookbooks turned up something more suited to my needs.

From The Art of French Cookery

Almond Cake – Gâteau d’Almandes

Beat a pound of almonds, add a quarter of a pound of sugar, a little confected orange flowers, and half a glass of cream; have puft paste sufficient for a cake; give it a half turn more; roll it to the thickness of a crown; cut it round of the proper size; put the paste on it, and cover it with another round of puft paste; nick it across; finish the edge of the cover, put it into a quick oven; when baked; sift sugar over and serve.

Another Almond Cake - Gâteau Pithiviera

Prepare the almonds as in the foregoing recipe add a pound of sifted sugar, a little lemon peel minced, half a pound of butter; put in by degrees six eggs, have puft paste as in the above article; proceed and finish in the same manner. It may be made into small ones.

* * *

One of the reasons I chose this version is because it can be made primarily using commercial shortcuts, i.e., almond paste and frozen puff pastry sheets. So here’s my quick-and-dirty version.

Take ca. 25 g candied Seville orange peel and mince finely
Mix with ca. 250 g commercial almond paste (not marzipan, but almond paste)
Take one package of commercial puff pastry sheets (2 sheets, each folded in thirds) and thaw per directions.
Cut each sheet into thirds on the folds, and then each third into a dozen small rectangles (2x6)
On a lightly floured board, roll each piece out either into a square or an elongated rectangle so that it’s about half the thickness of the original.
Place a flattened knob of the almond paste mixture on the pastry and fold over either into a triangle or square shape. (I originally thought of cutting them into rounds, but this would have been more work and wasteful.)
Bake at 400F for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

This has the advantage over a loaf cake of coming in bite-size pieces, although the disadvantage of being somewhat fragile. (We’ll see how well they’ve survived!) As you can see, I simplified the filling slightly and drew from both versions (orange peel rather than orange flowers or lemon peel, in part because I have a large quantity of home-made candied orange peel lying around). Someday I’ll try a version where I’ve done the fancy finishes around the edge and nicking the top.

I'll post pix from the Kaffee Klatch when they're served!