Candy & Confectionery Recipes > Spiced Almond Cubes

How to make spiced almond cubes:
A highly enriched type of marzipan or almond paste. Almonds were once one of the most expensive and highly prized culinary ingredients.



Ingredients

1 orange
9 tablespoons ground almonds
9 tablespoons caster/superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground aniseed
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons brandy
1 egg white
36 blanched almonds
(see measure conversions for more information)

Method

- Finely grate rind from the orange.
- Place ground almonds, sugar, aniseed and rind in a bowl and stir to mix.
- Add yolks to bowl.
- Mix well.
- Add brandy and knead into almond mixture until all is mixed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk egg white until stiff, and then fold into orange mixture until combined.
- Line a shallow square tin with cling film.
- Press the almond mixture evenly into the tin and level the surface with a palette knife.
- Cover and leave at a cool room temperature for 3 hours.
- Turn onto a board, peel off and discard the cling film.
- Cut into squares and top each one with a whole almond.
- Serve in paper petit four cases.
- Store the cubes in an airtight container.


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Land For Food Production

Sat May 15, 2010 9:18 pm // 8 comments // granny_nuts


I wonder just how much land it would take to feed a family of, say, 4? I know that if my family didn't buy fruit and veg we wouldn't have enough to eat but is self sufficiency down to amount of land or method of growing? Last year I overcrowded my small veg plot with counter-productive results like mildew and snail infestation that went unnoticed until we came to pick the tomatoes (all holes!). I wonder if anyone has ever been totally self providing or whether the local market and barter played...