Ingredients

• 125g/4½oz icing sugar
• 125g/4½oz ground almonds
• 90g/3½oz free-range egg whites
• 2 tbsp water
• 110g/4oz caster sugar
• food colouring (optional)
• desiccated coconut
• for sprinkling (optional)
• 150ml/5fl oz double or whipped cream
• whipped

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 170/C/325F/Gas 3 and line a large baking tray with baking paper.
• Put the icing sugar
• ground almonds and 40g/1½oz egg whites together in a large bowl and mix to a paste.
• Put the water and caster sugar in a small pan and heat gently to melt the sugar
• then turn up the heat and boil until the mixture starts to go syrupy and thickens - I don’t use a thermometer but if you prefer to use one
• it should read 115C/239F at this stage.
• Whisk the remaining 50g/2oz egg whites in a small bowl until medium-stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl
• then pour in the sugar syrup
• whisking until the mixture becomes stiff and shiny. For coloured macaroons
• add a few drops of food colouring. Tip this meringue mixture into the almond paste mixture and stir gently until the becomes stiff and shiny again.
• Spoon into the piping bag. Pipe a little mixture under each corner of the baking paper to stop it sliding around. With the bag held vertically
• pipe 4cm/1½in flat circles onto the lined tray
• about 2cm/¾in apart
• twisting the bag after each one. The mixture should be quite loose to give a smooth finish. The piping will leave a small ‘tip’ on each circle so
• when they’re all piped
• give the tray 2–3 slams on a flat surface to flatten them. At this stage
• sprinkle with desiccated coconut if you want.
• Leave to stand for 30 minutes to form a skin then bake in the oven for 12–15 minutes with the door slightly ajar until firm. Remove from the oven
• lift the paper off the baking tray and leave the macaroons to cool on the paper.
• When cool
• sandwich the macaroons together with whipped cream. They can be kept for a couple of days
• if they hang around that long!