Almond Macaroons
Almond Macaroons
Biskuttini tal-Lewż
These small sweets made of pure ground almonds were one of the musts during christening parties. Nowadays they are also served after a meal with coffee. The ideal macaroon should be crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside and full of delicious almond flavour and a hint of lemon!
Ingredients
225g ground almonds
200g caster sugar
grated rind of 1 lemon
vanilla essence
flaked almonds or candied cherries cut in halves
some rice paper
Method
- Line a baking tray with rice paper.
- Pre-heat the oven 1500C, Gas Mark 2.
- In a bowl, mix the ground almonds together with the sugar.
- Stir in the unbeaten egg whites, a few drops of almond and vanilla essence, and lemon rind. Continue stirring until very thoroughly mixed.
- Place the mixture in a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle and pipe out rounds of the mixture on the rice paper, allowing room between each one for the biscuits to expand during cooking.
- Then top each one either with a flaked almond or else half a candied cherry.
- Now bake the biscuits for about 25-30 minutes or until they are tinged a light golden brown.
- Leave them to cool then strip off the rice paper surrounding each biscuit, or else remove them from the paper.
- Store them in an airtight tin as soon as they have cooled if you like to eat them crisp or, if you prefer them a bit chewy, leave them overnight before storing in the tin.