For my 24th birthday earlier this month, M&D bought me Edd Kimber’s book Patisserie Made Simple. The book is really beautiful, and I couldn’t wait to try my hand at making macarons, millefeuille, sable cookies, croissants etc!
The first thing I baked from the book was Macaron A L’Ancienne. The introduction to the recipe says that they’re an old fashioned form of macarons, which closely resemble amaretti biscuits. I love that they’re really crunchy on the outside and slightly chewy in the centre.
I halved the recipe and the whole batch disappeared very quickly, as they were munched alongside the copious cups of tea and coffee consumed in our house.
Full recipe (makes 45)
Ingredients:
2 large egg whites
130g caster sugar
130g ground almonds
1/4 tsp almond extract (I used a full teaspoon full even when I halved the recipe!)
2 tbsp icing sugar
Method:
Preheat the oven to 140 C (fan) and line a large baking sheet with baking parchment
Whisk the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks
Put the caster sugar, ground almonds and almond extract in a separate bowl and stir together
Add the egg whites and fold together to form a thick batter using a spatula
Put the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle
Pipe the dough into discs on your baking sheet (my discs weren’t very neat at all!)
Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of the biscuits with water
Sieve the icing sugar over the biscuits
Bake for approx 15 minutes or until the macarons have lightly browned
Have you ever tried Macaron A L’Ancienne?
Twitter: @cldallin
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C xo
Nails and bakes 