French Macaroons

As voted by the RSPCA Australia staff, these little French Macaroons taste good.

I’m a bit embarrassed about what they look like though – I can assure you they don’t look anything like David Herbert’s from the Australian Magazine (8 – 9 May 2010 p. 38) whose recipe I followed– but clearly not well enough!

A simple, quick recipe but you need to let them stand so they go shiny for 1 hour before cooking.

I decided to make them because I had egg whites left over from my scrummy sausage rolls, which needed just the yolks (which was more of a visual success than this cooking adventure).

I used RSPCA Approved Eggs of course! I used to have a ready supply of eggs from Browny and Harry our backyard hens, but they have gone into retirement and spend their days free ranging around the backyard being watched over diligently by our German Shepherd Asha.

Where I think I went wrong was with the piping.  David says pipe 4cm circles – I did but I made them more mounded than clearly I should have.  Any suggestions of how I can get these smooth even morsels that are suitable for joining together with white chocolate and raspberry ganache will be much appreciated.  Given my performance on these so far I skipped the filling this time.

Plain French Macaroons

Ingredients
175g icing sugar
125g ground almonds
3 large egg whites from free range, barn laid or RSPCA Approved eggs
65g caster sugar

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Sieve icing sugar into a mixing bowl and mix through ground almonds. With an electric beater, whisk egg whites and a pinch of salt until they hold their shape in soft peaks.Gradually beat in caster sugar until very stiff and shiny. Add any colouring or flavour at this stage.Carefully fold dry ingredients, in two batches, into beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, spoon into a piping bag. Pipe 4cm circles (about 2.5cm apart) on prepared trays. Tap trays a couple of times on benchtop. Leave to stand for about 1 hour before putting the oven (this helps to give them a nice shine) then bake for 15 – 18 mins.  Let cool completely on trays.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Ganache

Ingredients
150g white chocolate, chopped
75ml cream
50g raspberries coarsely chopped

Melt chocolate with cream in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Chill, then beat well with a wooden spoon. Swirl through chopped raspberries before using.

Makes 18 – 20

David also offers a chocolate macaroon option, butter cream filling and chocolate ganache filling.

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