Apple Hedgehog, or Iced Apples

Ingredients

• 12 whole good cooking apples
• 0.5 lb sugar, fine
• 1 pint water
• 2 whole egg whites
• 3 tablespoons pounded sugar
• sweet almonds
• lemon rind

Instructions

1. Peel and core a dozen apples without dividing them.
2. Stew the apples in a tin-lined saucepan with half a pound of sugar and a pint of water until tender.
3. Carefully lift the cooked apples onto a dish.
4. Core and slice the remaining apples and put them into the same syrup with the minced lemon-peel.
5. Boil gently, stirring frequently to prevent burning, until reduced to a pulp.
6. Cover the bottom of a serving dish with some of the apple marmalade.
7. Layer a whole apple on top, filling its cavity with marmalade.
8. Continue alternating layers of apples and marmalade, forming the whole in a raised oval shape.
9. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth.
10. Mix the whipped egg whites with the pounded sugar.
11. Cover the apples very smoothly all over with the icing.
12. Blanch and cut the almonds into four or five strips each.
13. Stick the almond strips upright at equal distances over the icing like the spines of a hedgehog.
14. Place the dish in a slow oven for a few minutes before serving.