Simple Almond Macaroons
This is a simple, 3 ingredient Italian inspired recipe that creates a delicious, chewy, rustic, almond cookie. It should not be confused with the refined French macaron which uses almond flour not ground almonds. This cookie is more similar to the classic coconut macaroon which is made with shredded coconut.
Ingredients
( makes 16 biscuits)
2 egg whites
225g caster sugar
175g ground almonds
For the decoration-
50g milk chocolate
30g plain chocolate
Method
1 Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2 Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
3 In a large, spotlessly clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff with a handheld electric whisk.
4 Gently fold in the ground almonds and sugar with a spatula or metal spoon.
5 Wet your hands then take 1 heaped teaspoon of the mixture and roll it firmly into a ball.
6 Place each ball onto the baking sheets and space them well apart.
7 Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until lightly golden. Turn the oven off, leave the oven door slightly ajar with the biscuits in the oven for 5 more minutes.
8 Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the trays.
9 Whilst cooling, break the chocolates into a bowl, then place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and allow it to melt. Do not let the bowl touch the water or the chocolate will cook rather than melt!
10 When completely melted and smooth, either in a piping bag or freehand with a spoon, drizzle the chocolate over the macaroons.
11 Allow the chocolate to set then enjoy.
Notes
It is very important to roll these biscuits with damp/ wet hands. This will help give them a shiny crisp coat and you do need to roll and compress them firmly. Wet hands also prevents the mixture sticking to your hands.
I have tried to skip this stage, drop the spoonfuls onto the baking sheets but the biscuits collapsed into a puddle during baking.