Calissons d’Aix

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Calissons d’Aix-en-Provence are one of France’s most refined confections—small, diamond-shaped sweets of ground almonds and candied melon (melon confit) covered with a thin layer of royal icing, produced in Aix-en-Provence since at least the fifteenth century. Legend attributes their creation to King René of Provence’s pastry chef for the king’s second wedding in 1473, though documentary evidence suggests an even earlier origin in the city’s apothecary tradition, where almond pastes were considered medicinal. The confection’s interior is a paste (pâte) of 40% ground blanched almonds, 40% candied melon (from Apt, the Provençal candied fruit capital), and 20% candied orange peel, all ground together to a fine, smooth paste and bound with a concentrated sugar syrup cooked to 118°C (soft ball). The mixture is spread 1cm thick on a sheet of pain d’azyme (communion wafer paper), which forms the flat base. After cooling and firming, the sheet is cut into the traditional navette (shuttle) shapes with a diamond cutter, and each calisson is coated on top with a thin glace royale (royal icing) of egg whites and icing sugar, then dried in a low oven at 100°C for 5 minutes until the icing is set and matte-white. The finished calisson should present three distinct layers: the crisp wafer base, the soft, intensely almond-melon paste, and the smooth, slightly crunchy icing top. Each September, the Archbishop of Aix blesses the year’s calissons at the Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur in a ceremony dating to 1630.

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