Amandin

Amandin - A Superb Orange and Almond Flavored Cake

Doesn't that look pretty!? Not only that, but this happens to be one of the few posts that I can actually tell you how it tastes too! Since I know you're wondering, I'll tell you! "Awesome".

Never heard of an amandin before? No worries! Neither had I. I was venturing for recipes with orange in Pierre Hermé's "Le Larousse des Desserts" this morning and this one happened to appear, fortunately. Seeing that it had a small selection of ingredients, virtually no butter and a reasonable amount of sugar, I was set on baking this.

So, what does it taste like? Would this be right for you? I'm actually rather bad at giving descriptions; however, since I have actually tried it before posting, I'll do my best to help you out!! The amandin is a moist, lightly sweet orange and almond dependent cake that is not too dense and not too light. For me, the density was just right. The texture is very smooth and the cake is held together rather well, so you don't need to worry about finding that elusive steak knife or taking a bath in cake crumbs by the time you finish. This is definitely something that I'd like to make again.

What are the ingredients and how is it made? Well, let me tell you!! (Taken and adapted from Pierre Hermé's "Le Larousse des Desserts")

Amandin

4 eggs

Pinch of salt

200 g caster sugar

200g ground almonds

20 cl orange juice

1 large orange for zest 

Some butter

Some ground almonds

Some orange marmalade

Preparing the Ingredients:

It turns out that many ingredients that are used in French cookbooks (bakingbooks?) aren't readily available in my area. I suppose that if the were available, they'd probably have an exorbitant price tag associated with them for being a "specialty" item. Anyway, since some ingredients aren't available and since I like baking from scratch and not relying on prepared items, I decided to make my own! 

Caster Sugar (Baker's Sugar, De Sucre en Poudre)

Caster sugar is neither the traditional granulated sugar that is commonly seen in the United States and it's not powdered sugar, which is also commonly seen. Caster sugar is sugar that has fine crystals and lies in between those two extremes. From what I understand, it's frequently called upon in French recipes due to the fact that dissolves more smoothly than granulated and it makes cakes and other goods lighter due to lower water retaining abilities. Caster sugar can be purchased from many stores as baker's sugar.

To make:

Obtain some granulated sugar and grind with a mortar and pestle. Here is an excellent video describing how to use a mortar and pestle.

Alternatively, it seems that many people also use a food processor to generate caster sugar. This option isn't available to me, but it seems like it would be efficient.

Almond Flour (Poudre d'Amande)

Almond flour seems to be a rarity. If I could buy this in bulk, I probably would since it comes up in quite a few recipes and is rather laborious to produce. One day.

Since almonds (and most nuts) are rather oily by nature, it's important to trap this oil to prevent the ground almond from clumping together. Unless you like course flour...

To make:

Obtain some almonds and flour and grind with a mortar and pestle. I was using about .5 to 1TBS of flour per 50-75g of almonds. After the almonds have been ground, sift mixture to obtain powdery flour. Attempt to grind remaining almond with more flour. If unsuccessful, set aside. (Note: The amount of flour in you baked goods may vary depending on how efficient you are. I'm not sure if this will alter results.)

Alternatively, the food processor seems to be a popular method once again. I've seen elsewhere on the web that people typically use 1TBS for 100g of almonds.

Upper Left: Caster Sugar; Upper Right: Almond Flour;
Lower Center: Orange Zest

Preparing the Amandin:

1. Prepare the orange zest. My favorite zesting method consists of mincing refined orange peel. A variant can be found in the orange extract post.
2. Separate egg yolks from the whites. Add salt to whites and whisk.
3. Preheat oven to 200C or 390F
4. Thoroughly mix in sugar to the egg yolks before adding almond flour. Afterwards, add orange juice in parts, making sure it is well mixed before adding more. Mix in zest.
5. Once thoroughly mixed, add egg whites and mix in a single direction with a wooden spoon. This is important for preventing the cake from becoming dense.
6. Cut out 24cm (~9.5in) diameter circle of parchment paper, butter it and place in mold. Butter the sides of the mold as well
7. Pour batter into mold and bake for 30 minutes at 200C. After 30 mins, set oven temperature to 180C (355F) and bake for an additional 20 minutes

   

   Fresh from the Oven! What a beauty.

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8. Cool amandin and remove from mold. Lightly paint surface with orange marmalade and sprinkle ground almonds on top. 

Of course, we always have the beast...
(I didn't butter the sides, but I believe that would prevent
them from darkening too much. I'm actually fine with eating dark edges.)

The delicious Amandin, dark edges removed