This torte made of homemade marzipan has a wonderful rosy flavor, and is incredibly addicting.
Country: Italy Century: 15th
Lay four wafers in bottom of a 9x9 pan, and sprinkle them with rosewater. Put marzipan over top of wafers.*** Spinkle sugar over top of the marzipan until you can see sugar covering the surface. Sprinkle rosewater over top of the sugar until the sugar disappears (a basting brush works well for this). Bake in oven at 350°F for approximately 30 minutes, or ntil the surface begins to turn golden.
***The recipe says to smooth the marzipan onto the wafers with a spoon. This works, but you have to be careful to not break the wafers. If you wish, you can roll the marzipan out with a polling pin (you may have to cut it off the board - I use flexible rolling mats to make this easier), and then lay the marzipan sheet onto the wafers.
Original Recipe Sources
Source [ The Neapolitan Recipe Collection , Terence Scully (trans.)]: CXV. Torta de marzepane. Piglia amandole he falle stare a moglio una notte, poi spellale che sian ben bianche, he pistale molto bene, et poi pone equale zucaro he equale amandole; per far questa torta megliore che sia una libra de una - cioe, de amandole - he una de zucaro fino, ho piu ho manco secondo la quantitache vori fare, he adiungeralli una onza de aqua rosata; dapoi incorpora ogni cosa insieme; poi piglarai bone nevole fate cum zucaro he aqua rosada - he primo bagnate cum aqua rosata - poi distendele sopra el fondo de una tiella he pone de sopra la dita compositione, he spianala molto bene cum uno cughiaro he fala bassa supragiongendoli zucaro he aqua rosa; poi falla cocere adasio. He cusi te Torta de Marzapane.
Marizpan Torte. Get almonds, soak them a night, skin them so they are quite white, grind them thoroughly and add to them the same amount of sugar; to make this Torte better, use a pound of the one - that is, of almonds - and a pound of fine sugar, either more or less depending on the amount you want to make, and add to them an ounce of rosewater; mix it all together; get good wafers, made with sugar and rosewater, first soaked in rosewater, lay them on the bottom of a baking dish and put the mixture over them, spreading it carefully with a spoon, and make it low, adding sugar and rosewater on top; then cook it slowly. That is what a Marzipan Torte is like.