As a child a nice little treat was an Almond Macaroon, which had a lining on the underside of rice paper. I haven’t seen them for years, but the name popped into my head the other day. So a search on the internet ensued, and Lo! the delightful Delia came up trumps. Delia Online had a recipe that I just had to try.
Very few ingredients, and very simple to make these macaroons taste wonderful, and are chewy on the inside, with a slight crunch on the outside. Though Delia implies that leaving them overnight will make them chewy, I guess all over.
Update: I have to make some more, they went down so well 16 just wasn’t enough. So another batch tomorrow. These may become my all time favourite.The chewy texture and almond flavour is just wonderful.
- 90g ground almonds
- 10g icing sugar, sifted
- 1 level teaspoon ground rice
- 110g golden granulated sugar
- 1 large egg white
- a few drops pure almond extract
- 16 blanched almonds
- some golden caster sugar
- rice paper
- Preheat the oven to 150C/Gas Mark 2
- In a bowl mix the ground almonds together with the sifted icing sugar, ground rice and granulated sugar.
- Now stir in the unbeaten egg white and a few drops of almond extract and continue stirring until very thoroughly mixed. The mixture will be sticky but what you now need to do is to divide it in the bowl into four and then divide each quarter into four and roll each piece into a ball, using your hands.
- Place the biscuits on the baking sheet, lined with rice paper, allowing room between each one for the biscuits to expand during the cooking. Now dampen your fingers and press the biscuits down a little into rounds.
- After that top each one with a blanched almond and finally sprinkle on the caster sugar.
- Now bake the biscuits near the centre of the oven for about 25–30 minutes, or until they are tinged a light golden brown.
- Leave them to cool, then strip off the rice paper surrounding each biscuit.
- Store them in an airtight tin as soon as they have cooled if you like to eat them crisp or, if you prefer them a bit chewy, leave them overnight before storing in a tin.
[…] Another very easy almond cookie, which is very similar is Almond Macaroons. […]