Macaroons - Book of Cakes. Unlive 20/02/2013

These crisp little almond biscuits are a speciality of the Lorraine region in France. They're easy to make and are particularly nice served with fruit fools or ice cream.

Method

In a bowl, mix the ground almonds together with the sifted icing sugar, ground rice and granulated sugar. Now stir in the unbeaten egg whites and a few drops of almond extract and continue stirring until very thoroughly mixed. Place the mixture in a forcing bag fitted with a 3?4 inch (2 cm) plain nozzle and pipe out rounds of the mixture on the the rice paper, allowing room between each one for the biscuits to expand during cooking. Then sprinkle each one with caster sugar and top it with a piece of blanched almond.

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 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 a tin.

Photograph: Miles New.