Home-made Calisson

If you have never been yet to Southern France it is likely that you are not familiar with Calisson. These are actually candies or sweet treats that are made of candied fruit like melon, orange and apricot glazed with royal icing on the top and baked slowly in the oven. It is synonymous as the city of Aix en Provence for this has been invented in this place. It was created by the royal chef exclusively and for the first time served during the wedding of King Rene (when southern france was once a separate country under Italy) to the Queen Jeane after the royal dinner and it was an immediate success among the guests. Legend says that eating calisson also protected the kingdom and the villagers agains the great plague and that is the reason why on some areas they celebrate a feast for calisson.


But if you have been to Southern France already, these are the lozenge shaped yellow and white overly priced candies for the tourists. I always get mixed reaction to people who tasted this food for the first time, some like it a lot while others think that they are overly rated. In our family we always have a box of calisson in the kitchen for we never know if someone drops by for a chit chat and good cup of hot tea or coffee, calisson is always very impressive.

I have three important tips to share when making your home-made calisson:

1. Don't ever plan to make one when your son/daughter is sick.

2. Do not start preparing them when your son/daughter is sleeping. Wrong again, they could wake up and you will end up in a mess.

3. Do not persist in making them if you lack one ingredient you assume is not really important in making the candy.

Now that my three tips are complete what rest for me to do is to send a box of this freshly baked Calisson over at Meeta and Aparna for the Monthly Mingle. Check out the link for my details.

Home-made Calisson
for about 50-60 pieces

Ingredients:
250 grams of sugar
300 grams of almond powder/meal
100 of melon confit or orange confit
100 g of apricot jam

Royal icing:
1 egg white of a large sized egg
150 g of icing sugar

three or more sheets of edible paper (azyme) you can find them in some special stores for patisseries and candies

Procedure:
Start by mixing the first four ingredients in a bowl. You can pass in a mixer the fruits before mixing with sugar and almond to be sure that it will be smooth and delicate. Put the mixture in a pan and continue mixing in a low fire to help the liquid evaporate for 7 minutes. When the mixture becomes dry, they are sticking to your wooden spatula turn of the heat. Spread it over evenly to your edible paper sheets using a rolling pin about 2mm thickness. Let it cool and dry for another hour. Prepare your royal icing by whisking the egg and adding the icing sugar. Spread over the glace and cut them the shape you want; heart , square, round, diamond, etc. Let it dry for another hour. Pre-heat the oven at 150° celsius and bake it for five minutes. Do not serve them immediately they get better as day pass. Perfect to serve them with hot coffees or teas.

If you want to have a perfectly shaped calisson do this with the edible paper, for they are really difficult to cut if you do them without.