Bola d'Amor

Ingredients

• 2 pounds white sugar
• 20 egg yolks
• 1 pound sweet almonds
• citron
• myrtle
• gold and silver leaf

Instructions

1. Clarify two pounds of white sugar. To test for proper consistency, drop a spoonful into cold water and form it into a ball; it should sound when struck against glass.
2. Take the yolks of twenty eggs, mix them gently, and pass through a sieve. Prepare a funnel with a hole about the size of vermicelli.
3. Hold the funnel over the sugar while it boils over a charcoal fire. Pour the eggs through the funnel while stirring the sugar constantly, keeping the funnel at a distance that allows the egg to drop steadily into it.
4. After a few minutes in the boiling sugar, the egg will be firm enough to remove with a silver fork and must be placed on a drainer. Continue adding egg to the sugar until you have enough.
5. Meanwhile, prepare one pound of sweet almonds, finely pounded and boiled in sugar, then clarified with orange flower-water only.
6. In a baking dish, create alternating layers: begin with a layer of the almond paste, then a layer of citron slices, then a thick layer of the prepared egg. Continue building in this pattern until the mixture is piled high enough to look handsome, formed into a cone shape, with the egg forming the final outermost layer.
7. Place in a gentle oven until the mixture becomes slightly set and the top layer is lightly crisped—only a few minutes are needed.
8. Serve in the baking dish and ornament with myrtle and gold and silver leaf.