Ingredients

Servings 6

• 1 lb almonds
• 1 lb bitter almonds
• 1 lb sugar cubes
• 3 ½ oz vanilla sugar
• 1 lemon
• 3 oz starch
• 3 ½ oz pine nuts
• 1 ¾ oz candied cherries
• 3 egg whites

Preparation

45 minutes preparation + 45 minutes cooking

Immerse the almonds in boiling water, turn up the heat, and then remove them. Peel them, and put briefly in a warm oven to let them dry. Pound the almonds in a wooden mortar together with the sugar, and then transfer the mixture to a pastry board, add the starch, the grated lemon rind, the vanilla sugar and mix everything with two lightly beaten egg whites. Knead briefly, roll up to form a roll 10 inches long, tapering it from one end to the other. The dough should be shaped like a serpent with a slender head and sharp tail, curved in such a way that it fits on the serving plate. Line a baking tray with the wafers, and put on top the roll of dough twisted in on itself. Since the dough tends to expand during cooking, leave sufficient room between the head and the tail. Brush the serpent with the remaining whipped egg white. Insert along the length of the serpent the pine nuts, as if they were scales, and intersperse with the cherries: for the eyes insert two coffee beans. Then with a knife cut open the mouth and insert a cherry into it. Put the tray into a moderately hot oven (325°F) for about three quarters of an hour.