Almond macaroons are dairy free, soya free and completely off Slimming World. But occaisionally you have to have a treat. As long as it's just occaisionally, right?
I've mentioned before that I love cooking from my Mum's Hamlyn cookery book - our edition, published in 1976 is much spattered, sticky in places and thoroughly annotated. Macaroons (as opposed to macarons which I have no interest in) are a throwback to my childhood - huge, chewy and almondy they were a favourite whenever we got cakes from the bakery by the park. I've never tried making them before - but thought I'd give it a go.
Almond macaroons - makes 8
4oz caster sugar
5oz ground almonds
4 drops almond extract
2 large eggs, whites separated (put 1 tsp of the white aside)
Rice paper
8 whole almonds
Preheat the oven to 130 degrees
Line 2 large baking sheets with rice paper
Whisk your egg whites until they reach soft peaks
Fold in the ground almonds, almond extract and caster sugar
Gently drop tablespoons of the mixture onto the rice paper - space them out as they will spread
Pop an almond in the middle of each macaroon before brushing with the reserved egg white
Bake for 20 minutes until just soft - leave the macaroons on the trays to cool as they'll continue to cook for a bit and so firm up
Serve with cups of tea - and enjoy the fact that they're dairy free cake!
