Almond paste is a common ingredient in many Italian cakes and pastries, and is also shaped into delightful sculptures by pastry chefs, especially in Sicily. Pasta reale is difficult to make, and to be honest I suggest you buy it if you can. If you cannot, here's how to make it. The recipe yields about 3 pounds, which will be quite enough for most recipes.
Prep Time: 2 hours,
Ingredients:
- 2/3 pound (300 g) peeled almonds
- 2 1/4 pounds (1 k) sugar
- 4 ounces (weight, 100 g) glucose -- get this from a pastry supply place
- A mortar and pestle
Preparation:
Put the almonds in a moderately warm oven and let them dry for a few minutes, watching them carefully lest they brown.Grind the almonds, a few at a time, in a mortar with 1/2 cup of sugar so as to obtain a coarse flour (if you use a blender the almonds will give off oil, which you don't want). Strain the flour into a bowl and return the coarser bits to the mortar to regrind them. Continue until you have ground all the almonds with the sugar. Pour the almond flour into a large bowl and mix 3 ounces of the glucose into it.
Combine the remaining glucose and sugar in a pot and simmer the resulting mixture, stirring gently, until threads form when you pour a spoonful back into the pot. At this point thoroughly mix the syrup into the almonds. Pour the mixture out onto a marble work surface or a large platter and let it cool. The mixture will appear granular. If you have a hand-operated pasta machine moisten the rollers and crank the mixture through it several times to smooth it out. Otherwise, roll it out with a rolling pin so as to obtain as smooth a paste as possible.
Use the paste to make almond cookies, roll it out into sheets and wrap cakes -- especially cassata -- in it, shape it into sculptures, and so on. It also takes well to being painted with edible dies, and can be colored if you wish.
