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.

16 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

I love Calissons! Your look delicious! Well done!

Cheers,

Rosa

Nina Timm said...

Thx for visiting on my side.....I cannot sy that I have ever heard of Calissons before, but I am never to old to learn, right?

maybelle's mom said...

ah, your tips are so hilarious; totally something I would do.

Gloria Baker said...

I love these dear Dhanggit are absolutely yummy!!! love them! gloria



PD sorry I was comments in the post before! besooossss!

Lady P said...

never had them, but you make me want to have a tin ever resting in my kitchen for those special moments when i need to whip them out

Leslie said...

Nope never been to Southern France..but you are more than welcome to fly me there!!!!

TasteHongKong said...

I bet these sweeties will surprise my friends with excitements if i pack and give them as gifts.

Sidney said...

Yummy ! Yummy !

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Your tips are great. The first two don't apply for me as my daughter is older now, but the third one is very very true. :)

I've never heard of these before. They must taste nice, a slight crunch of sugar and chewy on the inside.
Thanks for bringing them to High Tea.

Little Corner of Mine said...

Wow, you are great, made your own Calissons! I had it once and really liked it.

veron said...

Now I know what they are. It looks perfect with tea!

Oggi said...

I've never had these. They look good.

lululu said...

hv never been to southern france,but it's one of the places that i would definitely visit before i die. i might probably spend couple months maybe years there just to experience the country life!
love the candy, also love the rustic look!
btw, your pictures are beautiful!

pigpigscorner said...

I've never heard of this before, looks and sounds great though!

my kitchen said...

Delicious,looks great

Claudia said...

These sound a bit like a sweet we have in the US called, I think, Applettes and Cottelets? Made from apricots and apples. They're dusted with confectioners sugar on top rather than icing. I'd like to try yours, they look delicious.