Massepain de Saint Léonard
Prep Time 2 hours 20 minutes 
Cook Time 15 minutes 
Total Time 2 hours 35 minutes 
Servings 20 biscuitsIngredients
- 200 gr almonds freshly ground or almond powder
- 170 gr caster sugar
- 3 egg only the whites
- icing sugar
Equipment
Instructions
1. Prepare the almonds
- If using whole almonds, lightly grind them in a food processor until they are finely crushed but not oily or pasty. Grinding almonds fresh gives a more authentic flavour and texture, but pre-ground almond flour can also be used for convenience.
2. Mix dry ingredients
- In a large bowl, combine the ground almonds and sugar thoroughly so to create a flaky paste
3. Make a meringue
- Ensure egg whites are at room temperature by taking them out of the fridge 15 minutes before use. Separate the whites carefully, making sure no yolk contaminates them. Whisk the egg whites using an electric mixer until they form firm peaks. Gradually add the sugar in small amounts while continuing to whisk, creating a glossy, stable meringue.
4. Combine ingredients
- Gradually pour the beaten egg whites into the almond and sugar mixture. Fold gently until a smooth, thick dough forms, able to hold its shape.
5. Chill the dough
- Cover or wrap the dough and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight to firm up and improve flavour.
6. Preheat the oven
- After the dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F) static heat.
7. Shape the biscuits
- Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a smooth or fluted nozzle and pipe batons around 5-6cm long onto a baking tray lined with parchment, spacing about 2cm apart and dust with icing sugar for a classic finish.
8. Bake the biscuits
- Bake for about 15 minutes until the biscuits develop a delicate golden crust without over-browning. Since these little treats are mostly sugar and almonds, they can go from perfect to burnt in a flash, so keep a close eye, as just a minute can make all the difference.
9. Cool the biscuits and serve
- Let the biscuits cool completely on the cooling rack to set their texture, crisp outside, tender inside, and finally enjoy them with your cup of coffee or tea!
Notes
- Grinding your own whole blanched almonds produces a fresher, nuttier flavour and a better crumbly texture compared to pre-ground almond powder, but requires a good food processor and careful pulsing to avoid turning almonds into butter.
- The texture of the dough should be smooth and pliable but not runny. If it feels too dry or crumbly to shape, add the egg whites gradually, a little at a time, folding gently until the right consistency is reached.
- Chilling the dough helps it firm up and makes piping or shaping much easier. Don’t skip this step, it also improves the flavour melding.
- When piping, try to keep batons consistent in size around 5-7cm for even baking and authentic appearance.
- Baking times can vary by oven, so watch closely after 12 minutes. The difference between perfectly baked and burnt is a minute or two, as these biscuits brown quickly due to their sugar content.
- Let biscuits cool fully on the tray before moving them to avoid breaking. Cooling sets their crisp shell and tender inside beautifully.
- Store massepains in an airtight container at room temperature. They keep well for several days, making them a lovely gift or treat that lasts.
About this recipe
We’d heard so much about Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat that we obviously had to go and see it for ourselves. It’s a small medieval town in the Limousin, best known for being on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, and for a very special little biscuit called massepain. After visiting HistoRail, a lovely volunteer-led museum of rail transport, we needed a snack and ended up where we always end up: in a bakery.
We make a point of checking the bakeries in every town we visit because every region has its own specialities. We came out with a big bag of massepain biscuits that were incredible. They were also quite expensive, which is exactly why I’m sharing this massepain recipe with you. Make them yourself and eat as many as you want!
Where massepain comes from
The story of this massepain biscuit starts with the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. From the 11th century onwards, Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat was an important stopping point on the Via Lemovicencis, one of the four main French routes leading south to Santiago de Compostela, because the town holds the tomb of Saint Léonard.
Pilgrims stopped there on the way down, and on the way back up from Spain they brought something with them: the mazapán, a Spanish paste made from ground almonds, egg white, and sugar. The pilgrims valued it for its high energy content and the fact that it kept well for one to two months on the road. It arrived in the Limousin in their bags and it stayed.
The recipe then fell out of fashion for a long time, until a pastry chef called Camille Petitjean updated it in 1899 and brought the massepain back to life. According to the version told by La Maison du Massepain, Petitjean tasted the almond biscuits being eaten by a pilgrim passing through and decided to take the recipe on from there.
He was the first person in Saint-Léonard to hold the secret of the massepain recipe, and his daughters would sell them individually on the market. There’s also a lovely detail worth knowing: the baking paper used to cook the massepains became infused with almond fragrance, and Petitjean would sell it cheaply to children who used it as a kind of lollipop. By 1909 the massepain de Saint-Léonard was officially classified as a Limousin speciality.
The five pâtissiers
As we walked through the town centre of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, we found five bakeries and each pâtissier makes their own version of this massepain biscuit. They all are slightly different, and they all guard their secret recipe, because legend has it that only one holds the original recipe! One has bought the bakery and the formula from Monsieur Petit Jean, but which of the five remains a mystery to this day.
Together they produce around 20 tonnes of massepain every year, which gives you a sense of how important this single product is to the town’s economy and identity. It’s a very small town producing a very large amount of biscuits, and the locals are very proud of it.
The massepain macarons connection
When we both bit into a massepain biscuit for the first time, we looked at each other and said the same thing: this tastes like macarons! And it’s true, the massepain belongs to the same family. Both use ground almonds, sugar, and egg white as their base, so the connection makes complete sense.
But the massepain recipe produces something denser and moister than a Parisian macaron, with no sandwich structure or ganache. It’s actually closer to what French almond biscuits looked like before the macaron evolved into the refined thing it is today. So in a way, eating a massepain is eating a little bit of pastry history. And honestly, it’s so good that it makes you wonder why the macaron got all the attention.
The Confrérie des Compagnons du Massepain
A Confrérie du Massepain was created in 1991 in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat to promote and protect the biscuit. France has dozens of these regional brotherhoods attached to specific local foods, from the confrérie that defends the tarte Tatin to the one that protects the canelé de Bordeaux. Their existence tells you that these are products people care enough about to organise around, which is in my opinion a better endorsement than any award.
How to bake massepain de Saint Leonard de Noblat
The massepain recipe needs a piping bag to pipe the mixture into small, consistent pieces before baking, and the size is important because if you make them too large, they will take longer to set and can crack. And if you make them too small, they dry out before the inside reaches that characteristic soft, chewy texture. I bake mine on my all time favourite perforated baking mat from DeBuyer, as they release quickly and just bake perfectly on the bottom.
How to eat Massepain
We had ours with coffee and we highly recommend that combination. The slight bitterness of a good espresso against that pure, sweet almond flavour is really really good.
If you want to make them as a gift, they keep well in an airtight container for several days. Traditionally the massepain keeps for one to two months, which goes back to its origins as pilgrimage food that had to survive a long journey home. You won’t be keeping them that long though. They never last more than a day or two in our house!
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If you try this recipe, I’d love to hear how it turns out! Leave a ★★★★★ rating and your thoughts in the comments, it helps fellow French foodies discover this recipe too. Snap a photo and tag @obviously.french on Instagram. Come talk about it in our Facebook group. And don’t forget to save this recipe to Pinterest so you’ll always have it handy for your next French-inspired meal!
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