Excellent Marchpane Paste is a traditional Elizabethan recipe for little pastries made from a blend of pounded almonds, sugar and rose water flavoured with cinnamon and ginger that are stamped with patterns before serving. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Elizabethan version of: Excellent Marchpane Paste.
12. To make an excellent Marchpane paſte, to print off in molds for banqueting diſhes.
Take to euerie Iordan almond blanched, three ſpoonfuls of the whiteſt refined ſugar you can get, ſearce your ſugar, and now and then as you ſee cauſe put in 2. or three drops of damaske Roſewater, beate the ſame in a ſmooth ſtone morter, with a gread labor, vntill you haue brought it into a dry ſtiffe paſte, one quarterne of ſugar is ſufficient to worke at once.
Make your paſte into little bals, euerie ball containing ſo much by eſtimatiō as will couer your mold or printe, then rowle the ſame w a rowling pin, vppon a ſheete of cleane paper without ſtrewing anie powdered ſugar either vpon your paſte or paper. There is a countrie Gentlewoman whome I could name, which venteth great ſtore of ſugar cakes made of this compoſition. But the onely fault which I finde in this paſte is that it taſteth too little of the almonds, and therefore you may proue the making thereof with ſuch almonds, which haue had ſome part of their oyle taken from them by expreſion, before you incorporate thē with the ſugar, and ſo happely you may mixe a greater quantitie of them with the ſugar, becauſe they are not ſo oily as the other. You may mixe cinnamon or ginger in your paſte, & that will both grace the taſte, and alter the colour; but the ſpice muſt paſſe through a fair ſearce : you may ſteepe your almonds in colde water all night, & ſo blanch them colde water all night, & ſo blanch them colde, and being blanched, drie them in a ſieue ouer the fire. Here the garble of almonds will make a cheap paſte.
Modern Redaction
Ingredients:
250g blanched almondss
500g powdered white sugar
60ml (about) rose water
1 tsp ground cinnamon and/or ground ginger
Method:
Place the almonds in a blender or coffee grinder and grind quite firmly. Turn into a mortar and pound until they form a smooth paste (if they begin to oil then add a little rosewater to prevent this). Once you have a smooth paste start working in the the spices and sugar. Pound the sugar and almonds together until they become to stiff to handle then add a little rose water as needed, and continue working in the sugar.
Continue in this manner until all the sugar has been incorporated and you have a stiff, but still workable paste. Take portions of the mixture and work into balls about 3cm in diameter. Place these on a marble slab and roll out to about 1cm thick.
In Elizabethan times, these were then either rolled into moulds so that they would gain the imprint of the mould or they had stamps imprinted on the upper surface. If printed they make pretty little Christmas decorations.
