So simple to make with only 4 ingredients, these tasty almond macaroons are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. They are packed full of sweet almond flavour and are so so quick to whip up. Perfect with a cup of tea for a lovely treat.
Also with only a few days to go until Valentine's day these make a quick and easy edible gift to give that special person in your life!
If you are a fan of macaroons, also check out my coconut macaroon recipe.
You can even give both types of macaroons together as a gift as I did last Christmas.
WHAT ARE MACAROONS?
According to wikipedia macaroons are a type of biscuit originally from Italy. They are traditionally made with ground almond but can also be made other ingredients such as desiccated coconut or other nuts. This base is then combined with sugar, flavouring (vanilla etc) and egg whites, and can be coated with jam or chocolate.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MACAROONS AND MACARONS?
Macaroons are often confused with the classic French macaron. Macarons are a hard shelled French meringue sandwich cookie with a chewy centre, found in french patisseries. They consist of two light, delicate cookies sandwiched together with a filling, such as Italian or French buttercream. Macarons are made from egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, ground almond and come in many different colours. This is quite different from our macaroon which are denser, non-sandwich cookie, originally from Italy but popularised in the UK.
CAN ALMOND MACAROONS BE MADE IN ADVANCE?
They can be made in advance and even taste better the next day. Almond macaroons can be kept for up to a week in an airtight container at room temperature.
CAN ALMOND MACAROONS BE FROZEN?
Yes, if you would like to store the almond macaroons for longer than 7 days, you can wrap them in cling film and pop them into the freezer. Alternatively you can layer them between pieces of baking paper. Macaroons can be stored in the freezer for up to three months. When you are ready to eat them just take them out of the freezer and allow them to de-froze at room temperature for 2-3 hours. Enjoy with a cup of tea!
CAN THE RECIPE BE DOUBLED?
Yes, this almond macaroon recipe is completely scalable. Use twice the ingredients to double the batch, triple the ingredients to triple the batch and so on. I have not tried halving the recipe and I am not why you would want less macaroons, but if you needed to just half the ingredients, whip up the egg whites and add half the whisked egg white the recipe suggests.
KEY INGREDIENTS
These almond macaroons are the simplest treat and only have 4 ingredients.
Ground almonds - the base of the macaroon. You can also make coconut macaroons instead if you prefer, check out the recipe here.
Caster sugar - to provide the sweetness to the macaroons and to sprinkle on top
Egg white - to combine the macaroon mixture and leaven the almond macaroons as they bake without adding any flavour.
Blanched almonds - these go on top of the cookies for decoration and they provide a nice crunch. Blanched almonds can be quite hard to find but it is so simple to blanch your own almonds. See below!
HOW TO BLANCH YOUR OWN ALMONDS?
Blanched almonds are surprisingly hard to find and even if you do manage to grab some who wants to be stuck with a bag of nuts that they use only for baking and just get forgotten at the back of the kitchen cupboard. Instead you can blanch your own almonds as you need them. All you need is a bag of raw unsalted nuts and some boiling hot water.
Bring a saucepan of water to a rolling boil, then add your raw nuts to the boiling water. Leave them to boil for 60 seconds. When I say 60 secs I really mean 60 seconds because if you leave them too long they will become too soft.
Chunk the nuts into a sieve or colander and rinse with cold water a couple of times to cool them down very quickly.
Peel the skins off them transfer the nuts to some kitchen roll. Dab them with some kitchen roll then leave to dry while you get on with making your macaroons.
CHANGING THE RECIPE
This recipe makes 8 medium sized (30 g) macaroons but can easily be doubled or tripled so that you can get plenty more. Alternatively, you can make slightly smaller (20 g) macaroons so that you can get 12 macaroons out of this recipe.
HOW TO MAKE ALMOND MACAROONS?
Add the ground almond and caster sugar into a large bowl and whisk together to combine.
Whisk the egg white until it is just slightly frothy.
Add the frothy egg white a tablespoon at a time and mix it in well. Repeat until you end up with a combined, firm macaroon dough that is not runny. You may not need the whole of the egg white.
Spoon out a heaped tablespoon of macaroon mixture and roll into a ball. Place the ball on the baking paper lined baking tray then flatten a little bit and push in a blanched almond. Repeat for all the cookies, then sprinkle with caster sugar. Leave for 10 mins to rest before baking.
Bake for 15-20 mins at 190 °C/170 °C Fan/gas mark 5 until they are a little firm on top but still soft to the touch. Leave to cool for 10 mins and they will harden further as they cool.
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Almond macaroon recipe
Serves 8
Prep time: 10 mins, Baking time: 20 mins
Total time: 50 mins (including resting time)
Ingredients
112 g Ground Almonds
100 g Caster sugar
Egg white (Large egg)
8 Whole blanched almonds
Method
Preheat the oven to 190 °C/170 °C Fan/gas mark 5 and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Mix the ground almonds and caster sugar together in a large bowl.
Separate the egg white from the yolk and in a different bowl whisk the egg white until it is just frothy.
Add the whisked egg white into the almond and sugar mixture a tablespoon at a time until you get a firm dough that is not runny. You may not need all the egg white to achieve this.
Spoon out a heaped tablespoon of the mixture, roll into a ball and then place it on the lined baking sheet.
Flatten the cookies a little bit and push the blanched almond into it.
Sprinkle a little bit of caster sugar on each macaroon.
Leave the rest for 10 mins.
Pop the macaroons into the oven for between 15 and 20 mins, until they have firmed up on the outside but are still soft to touch.
Leave to cool for 10 mins, then will harden more as they cool.
Enjoy with a cup of tea.
Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
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