Serves: Makes ~50 Calissons
Cost: ~€9
Preparation time: ~2.5 – 3.5 hours depending on cutting technique used
Calories: ~82 calories per Calisson
Greetings fellow netizens. I hope you’ve been having a wonderful week. It’s friday today which can only mean one thing – weekend incoming! It’s actually been a while since I posted any photos and we’re planning on cooking up some chicken drumsticks, making up a tub of potato salad and some wonderful garlic bread, chucking it all in the car and going off for a picnic somewhere this Sunday if the weather is good enough. This will be a great photo opportunity if we go to the same place as we did last year. Unfortunately a thunder storm cut short our picnic last time, and the highway was reduced to a treacherous crawl with almost no visibility due to a sudden torrential downpour of rain, but fingers crossed for blazing sun and some cute forest photos this time around!
Saturday, I’m going to be cooking up the conserve which I was planning to make last weekend – don’t worry, this time I’ll remember to buy the vinegar – but aside from that I’m aiming for a quiet weekend; a chance to catch up on household tasks, sleep and generally relax. I don’t know if any of you noticed but I actually “fixed” my site last weekend. I discovered that the layout wasn’t displaying properly on smaller screens, such as tablet browsers, or if you shrunk the browser window. After a bit of trial and error I found a way to fix it so it now (should) display properly.
Down to business for today’s post: I think there’s a high chance a great many people might never have heard of them. I wouldn’t have, had it not been for a trip to the south of France when I was younger. They’re a regional specialty and many of the Calissons that you see sold commercially today are still made down in Aix-en-Provence. Calissons are, effectively, a type of candy, or sweet, depending on how you call them in your part of the world. Fun to make, and even more fun to eat, the primary ingredients are ground almonds and blended, candied fruit, mixed together with sugar and something like orange flower water to form a paste. The paste is rolled onto wafer paper, cut, and topped with royal icing and makes amazing, beautiful gifts for people. It’s a bit more pricey than the recipes I normally post here, but the yield is high and they can easily be split into multiple portions.
Calissons are believed to date back to roughly the 12th century, which is pretty darn old if you ask me, though at the time it was the Italians who were apparently making these things. Some believe that they were introduced to France in the 15th century for the second wedding of King René of Anjou (unrelated, but damn that guy looks unhappy!). Others believe that they weren’t introduced in their modern form to France until the 16th century. Whenever they arrived on French soil though, they obviously liked them a lot because they’ve been made there ever since and are now considered a very traditional French candy.
There are a great many ways to make calissons – some books now even propose all sorts of interesting new flavours – chocolate, coffee, even savoury calissons involving bell pepper, courgette and so forth. The traditional recipe isn’t the fastest to make, however numerous shortcuts exist. For example, some people make them using fruit jams or jellies instead of candied fruit. Perhaps the biggest time saver though is using a knife to cut them into diamond shapes, instead of using a special almond-shaped cutter (the traditional shape). Using this cutter is a laborious process. You have to position it on the wafer paper, cut around the inside using a knife, then push it through the paste, before removing the cutter, carefully pushing out the calisson and repeating the process, remembering to wash the cutter every 4 or 5 calissons, else the cutter will become too covered in paste residue to be usable!
This won’t be my last visit to calissons – I had a lot of fun with them and I still have plenty of wafer paper left. I plan on experimenting with different flavour combinations and fruits to really find something delicious and unique, and I hope I can inspire you to do the same! Enjoy the recipe today everyone and have a fantastic weekend!
Traditional Calissons
[learn_more caption=”Video Recipe”]
Ingredients
For the paste
- 300g Ground Almonds
- 200g Icing Sugar
- 200g Candied Melon
(I couldn’t find this so I replaced this with candied Orange Peel) - 40g Candied Orange Peel
(I replaced this with Candied Pineapple as I used Orange already) - 30g Candied Lemon Peel
- 3 tbsps Orange Flower Water
For the icing
- 150g Icing Sugar
- 1 Egg White
You’ll also need
- 1 or 2 sheets of A4 sized Wafer Paper
- A Food Processor
Instructions
- Start off by pre-heating your oven to 120 degrees Celsius. Mix the ground almonds and icing sugar together well in a large bowl and then spread out onto a baking tray. Place into the oven for about 30 minutes. This will dry out the ground almonds and sugar which may still have moisture in them.
- While the almonds and sugar are drying out, chop the candied fruit finely and place into your Food Processor. Set to chop on high speed. It will make a lot of noise and it will seem like you’ll never succeed, but eventually the fruit will be almost completely broken down and will form a large, sticky ball.
- Add in all the Orange Flower Water and continue to blend until you have a loose paste, looking roughly like the picture below. Make sure that the paste is quite smooth and that no lumps of candied fruit remain.
- Once the almonds and sugar are ready, remove from the oven and set aside for 10 minutes to allow to cool slightly, before adding into the fruit paste, still inside the food processor. Blend again until the almonds, sugar and fruit paste are completely combined to create a firm, slightly sticky dough, not dissimilar to marzipan in appearance. Place the ball of dough into a clean bowl and cover with a cloth. Place into a cool, well-ventilated area and allow to dry out for about an hour.
- After the dough has dried, cover a clean work surface with a large sheet of waxed paper and then lay a sheet of Wafer Paper on top – smooth side up. Push the dough into a rough, thick brick shape with your hands and lay on top of the wafer paper. Gently roll out to a thickness of about 8mm, trying to cover as much of the wafer paper as you can, but also being sure not to get it wet or tear it.
- Carefully flip the arrangement over, so the dough is facing down towards the waxed paper and the wafer paper is facing up. If you have a special calisson almond shaped cutter, or any other small cutter, lay it on top of the wafer paper and gently hold it in place while you cut the paper, from the inside of the cutter, to match its shape. Once done, gently push the cutter through the dough and pull out. Carefully push the calisson out from the cutter and arrange on a plate or tray, wafer paper side down and continue. You’ll probably want to wash the cutter every 4 or 5 calissons, as the edges will soon gum up with dough, making for less neat edges. If you do not have an appropriate cutter, cut the dough into long strips, about 3cm wide, and then cut along the diagonal to form diamond shapes.
- For the icing, place the icing sugar in a bowl and add in the egg white. Whisk gently until the sugar and white are combined, before whisking vigorously until the icing resembles a thick cream.
- Cover the tops of the calissons with the icing, trying to go right up to the edges, but run your finger around the edges to prevent any drips. Once all the calissons are iced, allow the icing to set for about 1 hour once again.
- Enjoy as a sweet treat instead of chocolate or gift to friends for a taste of France! These do not need to be stored in the refrigerator – merely a basket is sufficient if eaten within a few days. If storing for a bit longer, store in an airtight container and allow to dry in the open air for about an hour before eating.
My dad will be so pleased when I tell him I have this recipe! In Italy they have something almost identical called Ricciarelli – and they only tend to make them at Christmas and Easter if my memory serves me well. They are horribly expensive to buy and so good to eat at the end of a meal with a little coffee and liqueur. Maybe my mum will make them for my dad…And you´re right, poor old René does look very miserable. You´d think with all that lovely rosé wine he had at his disposal he´d have been a bit smilier 🙂
Hi Chica – I’d never heard of the Italian version… just that they supposedly originated there… nice to know the original name, thanks! They are very pricey to buy… I can sort of understand it because they’re time-consuming to make, though I much prefer my home-made version 🙂 Do let me know if you try them… I hope they turn out well 🙂
You know what, charles, I think I ate something very similar to this in Spain! I guess many countries have their version of an almond and candied fruit-based candy! They look beautiful and I like the taste and texture of groudn almonds, so I quite likely will enjoy this! The thign is, though many sweets are made of the same basic ingredients and method, they do end up tasting quite different sometimes, I don’t know why, the proportion maybe? Some I enjoy, but some I don’t. But food that looks this pretty can usually convince me (:
Those are so beautiful. I have never heard of them. I love them! What a gorgeous gift and these must be such a delicious sweet treat. I will print this recipe and file it in my ‘special recipes’ file. I love how you photographed them. They look like pretty flower petals. I do hope you get to enjoy a wonderful weekend picnic in the forest xx
Thanks Charlie – they were so much fun to make, and really popular with my friends too! 🙂 It’s been raining today… hope it’s a touch sunnier tomorrow 🙂
Charles, your calissons look fabulous and just perfect (and I used to go often to Aix, so I know how real calissons look 😉 ). They look delicate just like they should. Unfortunately, I don’t like candied fruits and sugar icing, so I have never enjoyed them as much as all my French family and friends, but I can still recognise a good calisson! In general I have a problem with many sweets because they are too sweet. I’m sure you have made many people happy with these beauties! Fantastic photos! Congratulations!
Hi Sissi! It’s too bad you’re not a fan of these! I wouldn’t like them all the time but every now and again they’re really fun to make and to have in the home. I don’t even find these too sweet… using candied orange as the primary ingredient instead of melon they had a wonderful tangy flavour which wasn’t too sweet.
As I mentioned – I’m going to try other varieties. I hope one day I can post a type of calisson which might entice you 🙂
Hi, Charles. Really? Not very sweet calissons? I have always thought calissons are a bit like meringues: no way to cut down the sweetness. I think I should visit Paris next time you prepare them 😉
Seriously, even if they were a bit too sweet for me, my husband would love them, so I might make them one day because I make many cakes and biscuits especially for him.
J’adore les calissons..They look fabulous.
I also have the same problem, I can never get hold of candied melons…but wait until I find out how I make candied melons (some DIY here, where we get to the melon-season). Good idea to replace with candied orange peels…
Thanks Nada – it’s annoying, when I buy the “macedoine” of candied fruits here, all I want is to have mainly lemon and orange, but it seems the primary ingredient is small chunks of candied watermelon. When I go to counter which sells peel and olives though they have no melon at all… infuriating!
These look wonderful, Charles; and you’re right I’ve never heard of them. I will have to make them, thank you!
I hope the weather holds out for your picnic!
I hadn’t noticed any issues with your site on my iPhone 3Gs. I can’t stand most aps on the iPad 1, do I hardly look at stuff on it. Wordpress crashes a lot on it, and don’t get started on Facebook!
Hi Eva – I do hope you can give them a try – I think if I had one thing which I hope people can try I would love for it to be this! Its been raining today… I hope it will be fine tomorrow 🙂
As for the site problems… yeah, the site shows up fine on cellphones (usually) because I have a mobile theme so the site displays better on the smaller screen. On tablets it shows the same theme as regular computers and the background at the top of the screen was bugging a bit. Sounds silly but I’m pleased to have finally found it 😀
Wish you a great picnic and looking forward for the pictures of the picnic food! )
Which part of this recipe took the longest time to get done?
Thanks Marianna 🙂 The longest part was the cutting. Well, the waiting took longer, but longest part was definitely the cutting out… I think next time I’ll probably cut them out in diamond shapes, with a knife, lol 😀
Hi Charles,
Such pretty little things and I loved the photos of them next to the purple pansy!
PS-loved the link also to gain a little knowledge about French history too!
Thanks so much GD – I had so much fun making these, and they were really one of those things which you feel so satisfied having made 🙂
Charles:
These look fantastic!
I will definitely try them.
Charlie
Thanks Charlie – let me know if you try them, I’d love to know how they turn out 🙂
I’m so glad you introduced me to these gems!!! So beautiful…and I hope to get a chance to sample them soon. Fingers crossed for good picnic weather tomorrow 🙂
Thanks Liz 🙂 It’s been raining today – with luck it will be fine tomorrow, though it might not, according to the weather forecast… sigh 🙁 Oh well, I suppose we can just sit in the car 😀
That traditional shape looks like flower petals, Charles. Put something round in the center and you could put these on top of a cake. I hope you’ll put up a post to tell us about your favorite variations after you make them.
Hi Sharyn, thanks so much… they did look so pretty. My icing wasn’t the most perfect, but not bad for my first attempt 🙂 I’ll definitely share future attempts if they’re tasty 🙂
I don’t think I’ve ever had something similar to this. Omg, this looks so yummy. Thanks for the step by step photo’s, helps to get a good visual of what the dough is suppose to look like. I want to make this sometime, I bet the coffee flavors are fantastic. I always learn something new when I visit your site! Have a great weekend!
Thanks Lisa – I really do hope you decide to give this a try… they’re so tasty and really fun and satisfying to make! So glad you enjoyed the post today 🙂
Charles these are absolutely beautiful. I have never seen anything quite like them. You are amazing. Enjoy your weekend, I hope it will be just perfect.
Thanks Suzi – they’re my new favourite thing to make 🙂
omg my heart skiped a beat and memories came flooding up. I know Calissons! I just didnt have it in ages,the last time in fact in Aix-en-Provence in 1999. I had totaly forgotten about those amazing treats. I fell in love with them because I am an orange flower flavoure fanatic. The one I had tasted in the Var had a strong aroma of orange flower, more then the orange peel taste.
Its dated back to the 12th century? wow I didnt know that. I learned a bunch of things in this post. I feel like researching even more now! =P
Wish u a great weekend!
Hi Helene – I’m so glad I could bring back a few memories for you! It’s been quite some years since I had them myself and it was a real blast from the past! I didn’t realise until now that it was Orange flower water which is a flavouring in traditional Tunisian and Moroccan pastries! I feel like I want to make these now too 😀
Charles, these look so beautiful. Something I would expect to find at a pastry shop in Montreal or Paris… So delicate looking and lovely contrasted against your singular pansy – perfect touch. Very nice presentation Charles. I hope you have a fun, relaxing and restful weekend. I’m hoping for the same! (I’m on the train back from Montreal where I just picked up some mille-feuille and éclairs as a treat for tonight…).
Thanks Kelly – you’re too kind 🙂 They were so fun to make… I can’t wait to try them again sometime!
Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend – you’re cakes sound great, what a treat! 🙂 Do Canadian eclairs have whipped cream inside (I prefer these ones to be honest) or are they more like French ones with the chocolate flavoured custardy stuff inside?
they offer a choice of both but I prefer the cream too 🙂
What a charming little dessert. I don’t know that I’d ever make it myself but I’d certainly like to sample a couple. 🙂
Hi A_Boleyn – they last for quite a while so if you made some, and cut them using a knife I think they wouldn’t take too long to make and would make a lovely thing to have in the house or give to friends!
I’ve never heard of Calissons before today. They remind me of gelatin in a way but they’re probably better. Thanks for introducing these to me Charles 🙂
Hi Kay – I hope you don’t mean this kind of gelatin because that wouldn’t be so appetizing, lol 😀
Hope you get a chance to try them… I think you’d like them 🙂
These look so cute! Thanks for introducing me to them as I’ve never heard of them before. Your step by step photos and video recipe really helps. Have a great weekend 🙂
Thanks BA – I hope I didn’t make them look too difficult to make… they’re well work it if you ever have a bit of time spare 🙂
Gorgeous photos and great presentation, simple yet elegant. Learnt about a new treat today.
Hope you have good weather for your picnic, looking forward to photos.
Thanks Norma – Rain is forecast for tomorrow… we’ll still have fun if we have to eat in the car, lol 😀 I’ll try and get some good photos 😀
These sound and LOOK so yummy! I have such a sweet tooth and I know these would satisfy it. Delicious little bites for sure! Hold the weather holds out for your picnic and your have a great weekend!
Thanks MJ – rain forecast for tomorrow, grr. I’m not one to let a bit of rain spoil my fun though! 😀
Wow! This is new to me. I like your combination of candied fruits … never did like the taste of candied melon.
They look so pretty. You’re right, they’ll make excellent gifts.
Thanks Ping – they’re so yummy, and they were a big hit with my friends too!
Charles, I had these on my honeymoon in Provence and just loved them. These are definitely on my list of things to try! Love the photographs — the purple backdrop is beautiful!!! Have a great weekend!
Hi Barb – so nice to know that you’ve had these before – aren’t they yummy? All the better when you make them yourself! 🙂 The purple backdrop is actually a macaron mat… I finally caved and decided to pick one up to have a play with those 🙂
These look just delightful Charles! I especially love the little violet in the pictures. 🙂 I have no doubt I would find these quite satisfying – especially making that dough. You know I love making dough. I’ve never made a candy before either and you know – we haven’t done France yet. Hmmmmmmm. 🙂
Thanks Kristy – they’re actually enormously satisfying to make… as I mentioned above… if I could choose one thing which other people would make from my blog, it would definitely be this. I’m sure your kids would have loads of fun making them too… they’re wonderfully fun and taste really fresh as well.
You should totally do French food soon… ratatouille…mmmmm 😀
So glad to see the candies turned out well! They look amazing! And I love how adaptable they are, including making them savory. D they still count as candy if they’re savory? 🙂 these are definitely something I’ve never seen before, but I’m so glad you shared! Hope you’re having a great weekend!
Savoury candy… haha, sure, why not? 😀 Swedish and Finnish people eat salted liquorice, which they consider candy (yuck!).
What a beautiful dessert. I love the purple background. It’s really unfortunate that I had never heard of or even tasted Calissons before. I haven’t tasted any dessert with candied melon either. Your presentation looks really elegant!
Thanks so much Nami – they were so much fun to make! If you have a few hours spare one weekend and want something which is entertaining for your kids too I’d really recommend these… so tangy and tasty!
Charles, you never cease to amaze me with your delicious creations. I hope you had a restful and enjoyable weekend.
Thanks so much Karen – did you have a chance to try these when you were in Europe last year?
what a wonderful treat!
I actually happen to have way too much candied orange peel and this recipe could not have come at a better time.
Thank you Charles
Thanks Sawsan – I had to order in the wafer paper especially, but it’s well worth it! 🙂
I feel ‘homesick’ for Paris now! I ate them nearly every day while I was there for 5 weeks last Christmas. All great things stand the test of time and these lovely basic old recipes are no exception. Thanks for your post. The purple plate is a very Pierre Hermes kind of colour. 🙂
Hi Corrie – I’ve seen some very interesting variations on regular calissons… I might share some alternatives one day too. The purple plate, haha – it’s a gorgeous colour I find, but it’s actually a…. ta-da, a macaron mat 😀 Haha 😀