Almond soups. Christmas recipe

How to make Christmas almond soups.

I recently had a marzipan bar brought to me from Toledo to prepare this recipe, almond soups , a dessert that I discovered a few years ago when I landed in Madrid.

This recipe is that of Grandma Pilar, although a little more “solid” so that it can be eaten throughout the week, for example as breakfast or simply to accompany hot chocolate at snack time. As every year around this time this weekend I have prepared the first (and they will not be the only ones) of the year.

Almond soup is a dessert that is usually eaten at Christmas Eve dinner, on Christmas day or on New Year’s Eve, of course on December 24 and 31 they will not be missing in my house.

It is traditional to serve it at the end of the dinner as a dessert and before the nougat, always in a clay pot. It is very typical of Madrid and Toledo, with a Moorish history and of the convents in the area.

The base recipe for this soup is a mixture of hot milk and almonds ground in a mortar, although now they sell the marzipan bar for this dessert and it is super easy to prepare.

It can be taken warm or hot, in semi-liquid or even in the form of pudding, the format in which I present it to you today and the one that we like the most at home. I hope you cheer up, you will see how it will be part of your Nadal recipes, I am sure.

Flavor milk

1. The first step is to prepare the ingredients with which we are going to flavor the milk.
2. We wash the lemon very well. We peel the skin of the lemon in a fine way, without much white that then we bitter the dessert and reserve.
3. We heat the milk over medium heat almost to the boiling point. We lower the temperature and remove from the heat, add the lemon peel and the cinnamon sticks.
4. We leave everything at a very low temperature for 5 minutes (it is called infusing the milk), remove from the heat and let it rest for another 5 minutes.

Preparation of almond soup

1. Strain the infused milk and add the previously crumbled almond paste.
2. With a few rods we beat until it mixes well with the milk.
3. We introduce the sugar (normally the same weight of sugar is used as that of almonds. To me it seems excessive and I add less than half, about 200 g of sugar, but if you are very sweet you can add more).
4. We beat vigorously until everything is well integrated. The mixture should be slightly thick and without lumps.
5. We chose a large source for soups, I have used a glass one although it is usually prepared in a clay pot.
6. We cut the bread into very thin slices and place covering the source.
7. We add the cream on the source with the bread cut into very thin slices and stir carefully until the bread begins to soften.

Baking and presentation of almond soups

1. We can present them like this directly, hot and semi-liquid in bowls or continue with the recipe and prepare them curdled in the oven almost like an almond pudding.
2. We preheat the oven to 200º C for 10 minutes.
3. We put the container with the soups in the middle tray with temperature up and down for about 15 minutes at about 180º C, until they curdle a little.
4. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with cinnamon powder. Let cool in the fridge if you prefer the cold dessert.
5. Carefully unmold in a platter and cut into squares to taste. We present them with pine nuts and almonds filleted and lightly toasted on top.

You can also add finely cut croutons. I assure you that they are delicious.

Advice and suggestions

What is almond paste?

• Almond paste is a pastry product made from ground almonds and icing sugar (it must contain 50% almond), to which an emulsifier is added.
• We should not confuse it with marzipan, even if they are similar. For this recipe the amount that is needed is 120 g of pasta for each quarter of a liter of milk.

Where to buy almond paste?

• If you want it industrial they have it in almost all the large surfaces, of various brands.
• If you want artisanal in pastry shops and confectioneries in the center of Madrid such as La Mallorquina, Casa Mira or El Riojano.
• If you have the opportunity to visit Toledo, in Santo Tomé pastry shops, the Casado confectionery or in the Obrador San Jorge, its quality is impressive. Oh, and don’t stop buying marzipan, one of the best in Spain.