04 July 2009
Another Macaroon Recipe - this time from Betty Crocker
My mum has leant me a wonderful cookbook which is packed full of traditional, homely recipes from America. It’s the classic Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book which was given to her by her German aunt on her engagement in 1965. It has a lovely dedication which says “with this book you will really learn to bake marvellous cakes…”
On my current quest for the perfect macaroon recipe, I found a section on macaroons within this Betty Crocker book. It takes some time as it does include 2 stages, including one that needs maturing for a few days, although you can get away with reducing that maturation period down to a couple of hours if you use an intense natural almond extract.
I have tweaked the recipes to convert it into metric units as well as including ground almonds rather than explaining how to make your own ground almonds.
Stage 1: make your almond paste
In a food processor, blend together 450g (2 cups) ground almonds with 185g (1.5 cups) sifted icing sugar. Blend in 2 egg whites, unbeaten and 2tsp Steenbergs natural almond extract. Pulse process until nicely blended together. Mould into a ball and leave tightly covered in fridge for at least 4 days.
Stage 2: create your almond macaroons
450g caster sugar (2 cups)
¼ tsp sea salt
4tbsp plain flour
85g icing sugar (two-thirds of a cup)
5 egg whites, unbeaten but whisked together
1 Preheat the oven to 160oC.
2 Line a baking tin with silicone or rice paper, but the best is rice paper so you then don’t have to worry too much about them getting stuck to the bottom.
3 Now kneed the almond paste until soft.
4 Dampen your hands and form the mixture into small balls. Space a good 2-3cm apart on the baking tray. Press a large almond sliver onto the centre of each macaroon (Betty Crocker doesn’t put an almond sliver on the top but I think they need this flourish)
5 Bake until lightly coloured, about 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and dust, if wished, with icing sugar.
6 Store in an airtight container.
