Marzipan Candy - Calissons d'Aix | Something Unique

Discover or rediscover the exquisite Calissons d’Aix en Provence or Marzipan Candy right here!

Treat the ones you care about to France’s most famous confection made here on the French Riviera or make it at home!

These are delicious French treats dedicated to the lovers of these lozenge-shaped sugar-coated Marzipan Candy.

Sounds good? So this recipe is for you!

Calissons are a specialty of Aix en Provence and most of the world’s supply comes from the city.

Most visitors of Aix en Provence come away with a penchant for our distinctive sweet.

This Marzipan Candy is a delicacy and is world renowned.

Their flavour varies from house to house, as each “Calissonier” carefully guards his own secret recipe.

One will use a touch more melon, another a twist more orange.

They are typically about two inches in length (5,08 centimeters).

They are traditional French candies and are a subtle combination made from ground almond paste (with blanched almonds), sugar and with smooth, pale yellow, homogeneous paste of candied fruit, especially melons and oranges.

These days other colours can be found but the original colours as are described above.

Actually with just a hint of melon (with cantaloupe it is even better!) and /or orange accent.

They are topped with a thin crispy layer of sugar royal glaze and a thin rice or unleavened paper / wafer or "feuille d'hostie" (like the thin paper / wafer the catholic host is made of) at the bottom.

The heart is always soft.

Marzipan Candy has a texture not unlike that of marzipan, but with a fruitier, distinctly flavour.

The Marzipan Candy will keep, refrigerated, for three months.

Calissons are sold throughout Aix en Provence.

Prices are sghitly the same from shop to shop, around € 2.50 for 100 grams (less than a quarter-pound, or about four piecess) and € 3.50 for the chocolate variation (not the real thing!).

In my family, we are all big lovers of Marzipan in general, Calissons in particular, and my parents have always a box of fresh Calissons when I go to their place.

When I start to eat one I can’t stop. I love this delicious Marzipan Candy since my childhood.

I was doing some research for this page and I came across a wonderful love story involving the last ruler of the independent Provence, King René I and a 22 year old noble lady.

I never heard about this beautiful story and I am going to share it with you as it goes with the history of the Calissons - Marzipan Candy.

Enjoy!

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Love Story and History

Here is How the Love Story Goes

René I d'Anjou was the last ruler and the last Prince of the House of Anjou.

He loved culture, was a genius as a builder and was also known as an artist.

His statue is on Cours Mirabeau in Aix en Provence.

The King of Naples remarried in 1454, a year after his wife Queen Isabelle had died.

It is said that his bride, beautiful 22 year old Jeanne de Laval, daughter of Isabelle of Brittany and Guy de Laval, was not too happy about marrying a 45 year old man.

The Marzipan Candy was meant to cheer her up.

Reportedly the marriage, albeit childless, turned out to be a very happy one, it lasted 26 years.

After King René's death in Aix en Provence in 1480, the Provence became part of the Kingdom of France.

Jeanne de Laval was given the Comté de Beaufort in the Champagne, which she ruled benevolently for another 18 years.

Marzipan Candy must have made her happy.

There are many other stories involving the popular Marzipan Candy - Calissons, some are below.

But let's remember first the romantic Jeanne de Laval story. I love it.

A little Bit of a Story

The Calisson not only has three ingredients, but three layers - icing, paste and rice paper.

The city was founded in the year 123 by Caius Sextius Calvimus (three names) and originally called Aquae Sextiae Saluvium (three names).

The designation was later changed to Aix-en-Provence (again, three names) or, simply, Aix (three letters).

Calissons are served three times a year - on Sept. 1, Christmas and Easter - at Notre Dame de la Seds to commemorate the end of the great plague of 1630.

With its bottom layer of rice or unleavened paper, the Calisson replaces the host and is believed to guard against sudden death and contagion.

The priest offers the sweetfrom his chalice, repeating three times "venite ad calicem" (come to the chalice).

The congregation replies, thrice, with the Provencal "venes toui i calissoun" (we are coming).

Another Story ...

This Marzipan Candy was given out at the Notre-Dame-de-la-Sed church in Aix en Provence every September 1st, celebrating a vow made to ward off the plague in 1630.

The Archbishop of Aix chanted the Latin "Venite ad Calicem" during the hand out, and the locals translated this to "Venes toui i calissoun", or "Venez tous au Calisson" (Come, everybody, to Calisson).

And the name stuck.

It is generally believed the religious ritual gave the candy its name, but, as with most things, there are two sides to the story.

The eminent Provencal literary figure, Frederic Mistral, insisted the calisson was named after the Canissoun, a reeded platter on which candy shops display their confections.

The almond treat has been muse to others in the arts over the years.

The troubadour Claude Bruyes sang its praises back in the 16th century and Madame de Sevigne devoted one of her letters to the Calisson, thanking her daughter for sending a shipment to her in Paris.

These days

Aix's Calisson makers made present-day history last year by baking the world's largest Calisson, a feat documented by the "Guinness Book of World Records".

Almost 500 pounds heavy, (250 kilos) 12 feet (3,66 meters) long and 5 feet tall (1,5 meter), the mammoth Calisson was wheeled past a proud citizenry down the Cours Mirabeau, under its plane trees and past it’s three fountains, and then devoured by all those desiring a taste of Provence in a bite.

SATISFYING A SWEET TOOTH!

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Calissons and Aix en Provence

The city is known for many things: the shielding plane trees lining its broad Cours Mirabeau, the healing waters sprinkling in its fountains, the elegance of its centuries-old buildings and the excellence of its ancient university.

However, one of the city's biggest attractions is the celebrated Calisson d'Aix - Marzipan Candy .

The almond candies appear in the windows of the town's plentiful pastry and candy shops, sitting prettily on paper doilies, wrapped in rib boned cellophane sacks, or packaged in white boxes that echo the Calisson's distinctive shape.

Redolent of the sweet almonds and mellow Cavaillon melons that flourish in this part of France, the Calisson d'Aix has been compared, with typical French eloquence, to the paintings of Cezanne and the music of Mozart, often part of the repertory of the city's renowned music festival.

Some of the most delectable almonds come from the French Riviera (though these days Provence no longer grows them abundantly, so almonds are imported from the Mediterranean basin).

With the assistance of the Industrial Revolution, Aix became a candy centre in the 1800's, and its numerous “confiseries” (candy shops) produced almond nougats, almond pralines and almonds dipped in white icing, called dragées.

Dragées are a traditional gift for baptisms and are often displayed in shops next to pairs of white baby booties.

Any candy maker can produce almond bars, dragées and marzipan in France or elsewhere in the world.

For Calisson it is different as it is a "marque deposée"(trademark) since, a designation similar to an "AOC", which assures that only those in Aix can make a true Calisson.

AOC stands for "Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée", which translates, word for word, into "name whose origin is controlled".

And every year, the city's dozen or so “Calissoniers” (Calisson makers) do just that, producing more than 500 tons of our singular sweet to sell from their family-run shops or to ship overseas.

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My best addresses to buy your Calissons in Aix

Here are my favourite shops that I advise :

• A La Reine Jeanne (32 Cours Mirabeau). Open 8 am to 12:30 pm, 2 pm to 7 pm. Closed Sundays and holidays. It is one of the oldest shops. White and gold with marble floors and etched glass windows. It is named after the second wife of King René: Jeanne de Laval. Joseph Brissac and his sisters, great-great-grandchildren of the founders run it today.
  
  A La Reine Jeanne sells Calissons - Marzipan Candies under a crystal chandelier and makes them in its dark, cramped basement. The method has remained unchanged for five generations. A half-dozen rather rudimentary machines and three young apprentices do the work. A young man in rubber boots runs the almonds between two metal rollers that look like the ringers of an old washing machine to rid them of their brown husks, and then shovels them into another machine to crush them. He next mixes the almonds with candied fruits of Cavaillon melon and oranges in a huge metal pot with rotating blades. Then he scoops the mix into a deep metal pan. The golden paste gets another crushing and the addition of enough sugar to make the health-minded blanch as pale as the sweet almond paste.

  Two young women in pink dresses and white caps and aprons then take over; their duty is to fashion the fruit-and-nut mixture into Calissons. They push the paste with the palms of their hands into a form like a stencil with 36 tear-shaped holes backed with white rice paper. The candies used to be cut by hand, in crisscrossed, which resulted in their diamond shape. Age has softened the angles and the Marzipan Candy is now rounded, more like a pointed oval a couple of inches long. After slathering the paste with royal icing, a mix of egg whites and sugar, the women lift trays of the boat-shaped sweetmeats into a huge oven, and bake for 20 minutes. One variety is dipped in chocolate.

• Confiserie Bremond Fils (36 Cours Mirabeau). Open 8:30 am to 1 pm, 2:30 pm to 6:30 pm. Closed Sundays and holidays.
  "I never use California almonds. They have no taste" quote from Jean-Pierre Borrelly, "Calissonier" at the Confiserie Bremond Fils, a fixture on the Cours Mirabeau since 1830.

  Mr. Borrelly quotes Marcel Pagnol: "You need one-third almonds, one-third fruit confits, one-third sugar, and a quarter de savoir faire."

• Confiserie Bechard (12 Cours Mirabeau). Open 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, 2 pm to 7 pm. Closed Sundays and holidays.

• Confiserie du Roy René (10, Rue Clémenceau). Open 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, 2 pm to 7 pm. Closed Sundays and holidays.
  They rediscover the Calisson creating a cream! Developed from this Candy Shop, this cream contains almonds, finely crushed with fruits (melon, orange peel). Elected "Flavour of the Year 2003", this cream is amazing simply to enjoy alone, but also lends itself to multiple uses. It can be served as a basis for the creation of pastries or desserts. Pastry chefs and amateurs can create new desserts with the subtle and refined taste of Calisson. It shows the creativity of gourmet Confiserie du Roy René.

Ingredients

But I managed to make them and it was my first attempt. I eat at lot of them but never make them....

Mine came out OK regarding the shape and they were delicious (I don’t have a Calisson moulding machine)!

Taking the time to make them from scratch is worth the effort.

There are many different versions as this is such a famous recipe that many different chefs have adapted to make it their own.

There is also a version without the candied melon in it...

My recipe is with liqueur and without using an oven, a simple and easy version but still delicious!

If you dont care for the liqueur I'd say you could very well just leave it out as it is only for flavouring purposes.

Please post your tips, trips and recipes for Marzipan Candy - Calisson d'Aix in this guide.

I hope this recipe will turn out beautifully for you! Can't wait to hear from you!

Tips:

• The right ingredients are essential to make the true Calisson d'Aix en Provence - Marzipan Candy.
• Please only use quality and natural ingredients and that is the same for ant recipe you make.
• Carefully select the fruits you buy. If you make yourselves the preserved fruits or the fruit syrups you need to prepare your Calissons.
• Almonds must have been freshly blanched to keep their perfume and then be finely ground.
• Recipes and know how are passed down from one generation to another.

The main idea is being to mix the different ingredients to make a paste that will be first drought and then diamond-shaped cut.

Work is done and you then just have to enjoy...

Here are the ingredients and below the recipe!

Note: This recipe uses raw eggs. Children, elderly people, pregnant women, and anyone with a suppressed immune system should avoid this sweet.

Serves 12

• 2 ounces (60 grams) crystallized melon, diced.
• 1 ounce (30 grams) candied orange peel, diced.
  
• 3 tablespoons almond liqueur.
• 3 tablespoons orange flower water.
• 2 egg yolks.
• 4 ounces (120 grams) fine granulated sugar.
• 3 (90 grams)ounces ground almonds.
• 10 ounces (300 grams) heavy cream.
• Confectioners’ sugar.

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How to

• Soak the melon and orange peel in the almond liqueur and orange flour water overnight, and then drain.
• Discard the soaking liquid.
• Line a tray of oval-shaped candy molds with plastic wrap and set aside.
• Cream the egg yolks, 4 oz (120 grams) sugar, and ground almonds.
• In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form.
• Gently fold the whipped cream and plumped fruits into the egg mixture.
• Fill candy molds with the nougat batter and freeze until the candies are firm.
• Roll them in the confectioners’ sugar, if desired, before serving.
  

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Videos

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Enjoy your Marzipan Sweets or Calissons d'Aix!