Ingredients for 20 macaroons

125g    ground almonds
225g    caster sugar
25g      brown rice flour
1tsp    Steenbergs almond extract
2          egg whites, stiffly whisked
Split blanched almonds
Rice paper, or non-stick baking parchment

Preheat the oven to 180^oC

Use a metal spoon carefully to fold the ground almonds, caster sugar and rice flour into the stiffly whisked egg whites.  Then fold in the Steenbergs natural almond extract.

Line some baking trays with rice paper and spoon small scoops of the mixture onto the rice paper, leaving plenty of space for each to spread out.

Put a split almond on top of each macaroon and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Cut the excess rice paper from the base of each macaroon and leave to cool on a wire rack.

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 160^oC.

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.

Sophie and I have an ongoing discussion with each other about the best macaroons.  I like the ones in our local farm shop The Smithy at Baldersby, which have been locally baked.  Sophie says these are nowhere near as good as the ones you get down South, which are more of a biscuit and don’t include pastry.

I Googled a recipe and came up with this from one of our great friends, Clarissa Hyman.  This comes from her book “The Jewish Kitchen” and it is much closer to what Sophie thinks of as a macaroon.  They are called a marunchinos (Sephardic almond macaroons).  Clarissa says that in Iraq they change the almond extract for rose water, which also sounds delicious, although a bit less like a macaroon.  They are reminiscent of amaretti biscuits but a bit harder, but in any case we wolfed down the lot in abut half an hour.

So to celebrate the fact that we’ve just launched a new extract – Steenbergs natural almond extract and an organic orange blossom water.

Ingredients

175g     Organic ground almonds

125g     Fairtrade caster sugar

Pinch of sea salt

1tsp      Steenbergs natural almond extract

1          Egg white

Almond slivers, to decorate (optional)

Icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Method

1                     Preheat the oven to 160^oC.

2                     Line a baking tin with silicone or rice paper.

3                     Process the almonds, sugar and salt in a food processor until finely ground.

4                     Add the Steenbergs natural almond extract and egg white and pulse-process until the mixture forms a damp paste.

5                     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.

6                     Bake until lightly coloured, about 20 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack and dust, if wished, with icing sugar.

7                     Store in an airtight container.