Almost everyone is familiar with the wedding favor staple, Jordan Almonds. Though festive and cute, they're nearly hard enough to employ the services of a nutcracker. We have found the most amazing alternative; French dragées, a delicious tender almond covered with a very thin and subtly vanilla flavored candy shell.

Made the same way for over two centuries in Verdun, France, the origins trace back to a 13th century apothecary whose proprieter is credited with the idea of coating his pills in sugar. They proved so popular that a nearby grocer took the same approach with prized Avola almonds from Sicily. Louis XIV loved them so, that he decreed that these dragees be distributed to school children every New Year's Day. They have since been enjoyed by everyone from Napoleon to General de Gaulle.


Dragées are sold in quarter-pound bags.